Richmond enquirer. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1815-1867, 1854-11-14
LETTERS FROM LIEUT.. NJ. +. MAURY.

biiioi hHi AK NhNt NV eN
concerned, will regard this us their invitation t" Mt
tend the meeting.
LETTERS from LIEUT.. NJ. +. MACRY.
No. v.
FREDERICKSBURG, VA, Oct. =, 1854.
Ny DEAR Sos Your mother and l were gratitsd
that Mr.. and Mrs. lasbrouck insisted on Keeping yon
II week longer, and "took the responsibility" when
you urged in plea the wish expressed in my last that
you would join me in Washington and SO hc ready for
school. That those two excellent people should wish
YOU to prolung so long q visit, is the best evidence
that we could have that you have made yourself IN
agreeable inmate Of the family, and therefore have
been behaving yourself like Il lady,
The officers at the Observatory, who are always
very kind aud considerable, did no, judge tsuie for tho
family or myself, to return 10 remain. Il bnck
last FRIDAY, leaving behind me Il mass OF correspond
euce, which, 30 fur from bringing. up, l did not have
time to read half over. Your teacher has not report
ed himself.
So instead of talking ont the details of our plan for
building up the prosperity Of the "Old Dnminion,' l
shall write them now that We both have leisure; for IL
| wait til we all assemble again ut the Observatory,
You will be SO busy with your books and with duties,
that we shall have no time for n while.
In my last | was stopped short a., an attempt To
show why the mere expense Of the rolling stock en-
gagged in transportation by open competition upon n
free track railway would be much cheaper than they
have ever been upon railways where there Is mono
poly. -.
Twas speaking of the low rates which monopoly
even, had succeeded in establishing OH tho Reading
Railway. Let LID institute the most searching investi-
CATION we may, from such data as | happen To have,
into this subject.
You rccoilect the Reading Railway We went
over it from Philadelphia 10 Reading on our way TO
Munich Chunk and Montrosp, some summers ago
when we were running away from malarin ut the OBJ
Bcrvatory.
Thin road is the great f~reighting road Of the coun-
try, and il, with its grades, is peculiarly favored for the
business. 1t conveys from near the mines to tide
winter several millions OF tons vi coal u year, ana
freight upon it has reached lower figures than it has
been able to attain under the close monopolles OF
roads generally, which look to passengers as their chief
source of profit. Nevertheless. some of the New
York roads have at this time reached figures almost as
low.
have read in some Of the mastery papers that
were submitted to the stockholders by j. I. Cabell,
Esq. when he was President Of the James River and
kanuwha Company, that the cost OF transportation
over this road, even eight or ten years ago, excluding
all profits, and including only the expenses OF rolling
stock, had been brought us low as four mills per ton
per mile, and that the next year the company expect
cd to reduce the cost to u still smaller inquire.
Mr.. Cabcll, when he was the President of that com
pamy, produced some mastery papers III relation TO
the extension ot this james river work. They ought
to have been stricken oil for "thc million" and Il
copy put into the hands Of every reading lnan, wo-
man and child in the State. Had they been 50 treat
ed, l have very little doubt that the James River
and kanawha canal would long ago have been car
ried 10 the Ohio, and that at this time II would nave
been doiI, Il roaring business.
The Reading road is 96 miles long; it is level or de-
scending all the way to Philadelphia except tor a mile
or 80, where it has an ascending grade OF III or ~ feet
to the mile, and where III extra locomotive II Kept TO
help to haul the burden trains over.
These cars, for the most part, 80 back empty, as
there are no return freights. Still, with all this, the
actual cost OF hauling coal over II was, Us before SAID,
exclusive of any expenses Oh account OF road bed, J
mills per ton per mile.
The State Engineers returns for 1854 give us the
cost per ton per mile OF freight over every Railway
and Canal in New York. ! will let you compare
some of them with the Mills.
Reading Railroad ut ! VIZ.
The Buffalo Rochester Id
The Utica and Schenectady l3
The Northern SS
The New York md Erie 1916
Average OF "A New York roads lis
The greatest cost is ~ miles on tho Buffalo and
and Niagara Falls road. But ii is Il short road ana
Greenbush Is iniles.) There the cost per ton per
mile in 1858, was > cents.
But tho highest cost OH any road over 100 miles
long, ia II. Z mills on the Rochester and Syracuse, 1876
miles long, anu for an amount equal only to 1888, Of
through tonnage. So you observe that the longer the
road and the greater the tonnage the less the cost OF
freight, aud of course conversely.
In this item of cost on the New York roads, ne in
cluded repairs of engines, tenders and cars, tools and
machinery, ETC., in shops, with fuel, hire OF clerks,
wurkmcn and watchmen i'll aud about shops. Also Oh
flee expenses, agents and clerks, labor OF loading and
unloading, pOrters, watchmei aud switch tenders OH
road, wood and water attendance, conductors, bag
suge and b%rakcmcn, engineer and french, fuel, oil
and waste, loss and damage, to goods, damages for
persons, cattle, &C., killed and injured, general super
mteudence and contingencies.
Now you observe, that according to our plan many
of these items of expense will either be not charge.
able to the cost Of transportation, or they will be got
rid of entirely, or greatly reduced. For instance,
there will be no general superintendence of transport
taiion with its train Of office expenses, hire Of agents
and clerks; Tor the owner OF every train will attend
each to his own transportation himself. There will
be no porters, und the w%atchmcn aud switch tenders
ON the road will be chnrseable to 'road bed" nnd
therefore to the State. Then the machine shops will
he all in private hands. There will be competition
among them as there is at the boat yards on the Mis-.
sissippi with storage, sc.
Suppose the navigation of the Mississippi were Ill
the hands of a company with u monopoly as close Ms
that of railway companies usually is; and that this
company should undertake to build and repair all Its
Lunts,-as the railways do their cars and cngines-tC
supply the landings with wood, and build the dcpots
and employ the agents to take care of them. DO you
suppose that frcights on the Mississippi would hav,
reached such II low figure rs open competition III 1t:
navigation has brought them 10! Never.
Open competition, backed by the energies OF the
MAN, lives here in Virginia, where those close mono
poles managed by corporations, ~lauguish and die
Instance the gold mines: Where companies have AZ
tempted to work them, there has, / believe, been Ill
ways and without exception, failure; whereas, whei
thr SAME mines have fallen into the hands OF nm indi
vidual, they have generally been worked with profit
Loves; cost and charges OF freight per ton per mile
exclusive Of tolls on canasl by water, stated i'll mill
aud dccimals OF q mill: