Lewistown gazette. [volume] (Lewistown, Pa.) 1843-1944, 1857-06-04
New Series---Vol. ii, No. 80.

wh'ch mat company is TO be released from
tne tonnage tax, the tax on her bonds. div.
ldends and property. This is simpIv the
State tax, and leaves the right of The r;,-
les, counties, boroughs and townships IN
tax, as it was. Why fix a minimum, of
seuen and a halt millions of dollars in =
bull, by the provisions of which it can be
SHOWN, no party can afford 10 give more
than four and half millions! For the
SIMPLE reason that you could not pass a
bill IN the House of Representatives at a
low minimum. 1t would undoubtedlv
have been sounder policy TO have offered
the m without limit at auction, or fixed
bona tfde minimum af four and halt mil
hons Of dollars. But no such bill could
pass the Horse. In the event of the
Pennsylvania railroad purchasing the price
is nine millions of dollars. What does
this additional four millions and half
represent! The first tax that is taken off
her Is the tonnage tax. Last wear the
tonnage tax amounted to one hundred and
nlnety-seven thousand two hundred and
nlnety-eight dollars and ninety.five cents.
We believe this tax to be unsound and vi
clous In principle; but that part of il we
will not argue. At the time that the char
ter of the Pennsylvania railroad was grant.
ed, this tax was imposed to protect the
Nam Line Of the public improvenaents
from the competition Of the Pennsylvania
railroad. Has the Main Line been iniur-
ed!-has lis value been impaired by the
extension of the Pennsylvania railroad
from Harrisburg to Pittsburgh! We saw,
no. Modern Improvements in New York
and Maryland, above and below il, have
destroyed It's value. The Main Line is
better off this day than it would have been
If the Pennsylvania railroad had never
been built. We will illustrate this fact.
By the Main Line before the cons,ruc-
lion of the Pennsylvania railroad, a pas
senger started from Philadelphia in the
morning, and was brought to Harrisburg
by noon, then shipped by canal boat to
Hollidayshurg. distance of one hundred
and thIrIy-hve miles. at the rate Of three
and half miles an hour I'm half dav
more he was passed over the ten planes
ON The Allegheny Portage railroad TO Johns
town; again lranshipped at Johnstown 10 a
boat, and in thirty hours more. found him.
self at Pittsburgh. The other mode of
passenger transportation was by stages
over the roughest roads for two hundred
miles, from Harrisburg to Pitlsburg, at the
same rate OF three and half miles an
hour. Ii the Pennsylvania railroad had
not been made, of the thousands of pas-
sengers weekly, almost daily passing over
the Columbia railroad to the western States.
and even the western counties of our own
State, not solitary one would at this day
have passed over it. This is fact mast
all denial. The Baltimore and Ohio. and
the New York and Erie railroads wouId
have taken from the Columbia railroad The
great throng Of through travel that now
seeks the west by this route. Has the
pennsylvania railroad injured the Coium-
ba railroad in this respect! The question
needs no answer. The State road is
large debtor TO the Pennsylvania railroad
on this head. She would have been at
this day, if it had not been for the extern
sion west, mere local road, doing pett'y
local passenger and freight business.
The same result can be shown in refer
ence to all the light and valuable goods
those that remunerate the carrier best-the
profitable kind Of freight. Would pound
of il at this day have taken the disiointed
line OF canal and railroad, and been fen
days reaching its destination, when il could
pass direct by railroad both above and
below it in taco2 Why even the Pitts.
bnrgh merchants would have become the
patrons of the Maryland railroad. The
building of the Pennsylvania railroad has
saved all this trade TO the road owned by
the Commonwealth. These are facts that
defy contradiction. We now come to The
heavy and cheap articles, cotton in bales.
tobacco, rice and flour. There was a time
when the Main Line transported heavily
from the west these articles. Would she
have still had this'trade if the PennsyIva-
MIA railroad had moi been built? With the
Baltimore and Ohio railroad tapping the
Ohio river below Pittsburg would not all
these heavy articles have passed east by
that route! Would they-could they have
passed on up TO Piusburg--been re.ship.
ped to fifty ton canal boat a, that no;nt
carried east to Johnstown by the Main
Line, then transferred to cars, and passed
over the Portage to Helidaysburg; again
lranshIpped to boats, and boaied 10 Coium.
bia; changed at ihatpo and again placed
on the cars, and transported 10 Philadel-
Phla! Tapped as the Ohio river is below
Pitisburg oy our southern rival this freight
would all have gone by Baltimore. The
handling of these goods on their transit
four times between Philadelphia and Pitts.
burgh, and the great delay and uncertainty
upon broken line of canal and railroad
transportation, would have swept all the
through trade, Hight and Aeavy, passen-
ger and freight, to the Baltimore and
Ohio road. The Pennsylvania railroad
hnS Saux,d tha Il