Staunton spectator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1849-1896, 1859-08-23
coviugton aud ohio Railroad.

-
The friends of the Covington and Ohio Kali
road propose holding Convention at "inneiu'
Putnam county, sometime during the ensuing
Fall. The present is undoubtedly the time ior
the friends of this important work to make al
energetic effort for its early completion. All the
of the case are more laVoraoi'
than they have ever been before. "heh 'ne
Legislature met the last time, State oonus "ei0
at low figure in the market, aud the ous'ne''
affairs of the country generally were greatly ue'
pressed. AT present money matters are III a.
improved condition and all kinds OF puohc s'ooN'
bring comparatively good prices. In ado''ion
N this the revenue of the State has been consld-
erably increased by dividends from several OF
our Railroad Companies. Last spring the Oen-
trail Railroad declared semi-annaal dividend OF
two per cent, and more recently the Richmond
and Danyille road declared dividend OF tour
per cent. Thus, without an increase of taxation,
the State will have ample means to make hoefai
appropriations to her great lines of improvement
which are still unfinished. The people should
cheerfully submit to the same amount OF taXation
for little while longer, in view of the important
results to be accomplished, and the reiiei tney
will ultimately experience. Our Railroads, as
we have seen, are already making some return
to the State treasury, but this is nothing COM
pared to what will be realized as soon as the
works are finished and free from debt. We may
confidently anticipate that nearly the whole a.
mount of the revenue Of the State will then Do
derived from her public improvements, snd tine
people be relieved from taxation to that extent.
But the enemies of internal improvements are
also moving. A correspondent of the Peters
burg Express, writing from the White Sulphur
Springs, endeavors to excite popular preJudlce
against the Oovington and Ohio Railroad. We
had supposed that the utility Of this enterprise
was universally acknowledged, and that no one
would now deny it. The writer speaks OF the
sterile, mountainous region through which the
road posses, but omits to mention the large lex
tent of fertile country-Monroe, Greenbrier, the
Valley Of the Ranawha, &c.-which will be o.
pened up by it. He makes no allpsion, moreover,
to the immense travel which will pass through the
heart of the State, and the thousands of persons
from all parts of the Union who will be attracted
to the Virginia Springs. These travellers and
summer tourists will scatter along the route mil
lions of dollars in the course of the year, OF
which the whole people of the State will receive
the benefit more or less directly. If the writer
is incredulous upon this point, let him ascertain
as near as he can the number of travellers who
formerly passed through staunton during the
Springs season then let him stand at the Staun'
ton Depot of the Central Railroad any day du-
ring the Summer, when the cars arrive from the
East aud the West, and SEQ for himself the num-
Der of passengers; and thus he may be able to
form some idea of the flood tides which will pour
in from both termni when the line of Rail.
road is completed from Richmond to the Ohio
River. The correspondent of the Express, how
ever, is candid enough to acknowledge thst ne Is
not orthodox" on the subject of internal i'm
provements, and it is useless to argue with gen.
tlemeu of that school, BE is no doubt one OF
that class of Virginiaus who have been aptly de-
scribed as sitting on an oyster bank by river,
and seeing the boats freigbted with fish and gar,
den truck for the Baltimore market passing by,
tondly imagine that the State needs nothing
more, that her destiny is accomplished. But the
Covington and Ohio Railroad scheme has been
approved by too many of the most enlightened
men of the State, aud too much money has al
ready been spent upon the work, for any one tc
talk about abandoning it now, All that remains
is to push the work on to speedy completion.