The Charleston daily news. [volume] (Charleston, S.C.) 1865-1873, 1866-07-30
OH A RI e ST O N
MONDAY MORNING. JULY 80, 1866
RLESTON-PRESENT AND FUTURE.
We have discoursed on politics in this col

CHAhLEoION-HhESE ANU FUTURE.
We have discoursed on politics in this col
umn, long and often; we have frequently
passed in review the great changes in social
life produced by the war; we have not neg
lected the different aspects of the German
war question but there is topic of more
immediate Importance to the great majority
of our readers, which we have perhaps not
as often adverted to as becomes our duty and
we have been thus derelict for the reason
given on o previous occasion, viz: that it is
an unpleasant and q thankless task to tell
home truths to your friends and associates,-
to the people you meet every day in the
counting room, at the bank, or in the street
But the duty is upon us, and we dare not
shirk it.
Should the coming generation happen to
take sufficient interest in the events which
are now occurring in our city, to look for an
adequate reason for the apparent torpor of
our commercial community, it seems to us
they will find abundant cause for animadver-
sion.
Charleston, it will be said, suffered severely
and from sioge of several years, conducted
with malignant energy that had no paral-
lei in the history of the late war. All this
is most true. Yet Charleston is not the only
city that has been laid waste. Was not At
lanta burned, and Richmond, and Columbus,
Selma and Montgomery? And are not all
these cities already rebuilt, and in style fur
superior to their former selves? How is it
here? When, slowly and tediously, after
many months corner shop is put up, it cre-
ates great sensation in the community, AID
our "Local" goes into ecstaoies at the "march
of improvement" "signs of reconstruction"
etc.
In other Southern cities are seen the evi.
deIces of united effort on the part of the
business portion of their citizens, to retrieve
the heavy losses of the past five years. Will
mington, by an intelligent statement of her
advantages as regards location and the con-
sequent facility of reaching certain sections
of country by her railroads, goes to New
York, without capital it is true, but still not
as a supplicant. Map in hand, she says:
"Here are facilities by rail and boat, by
which 1 can reach at cheap rates such an ex-
tent of country. 1 can do this, if you will
send your steamers to this port. Your ships
shall have preference Uf return freights; only
trade with u.s." The result is bills of lading
are signed in New York for points on the
Wateree and Congaree in South Carolina,
ola Wilmington.
Our own little Georgetown aspires to con-
troll the trade of the Pee Dee country, and
speaks of having depended long enough on
the faulty and expensive arrangements of
Charleston.
Savannah, one hundred miles south of US, is
all life and activity. Three or four steam
ships g week arrive from New York alone
Passengers go from New York ola Savannah
to Macon and Atlanta for less than is de-
manded to take them to Charleston in inferior
ships. Savannah merchants pay ten centsp per
cubic foot freight from New York, while
Charleston merchants have to pay twenty
cents.
Is it strange, then, that our young men are
idle, that our wharves wear a deserted look,
shut w oi0 o0euo'Ay
Charleston has advantages, and not a few
but there appears no one to develop them.
In freightage, Wilmington and Savannah
cannot compete with her, for Charleston is on
the ocean, and, in comparison with Savannah
and Wilmington, large ships can come to her
docks. Propeller ships of twelve feet draft
will cost as much to make a voyage as those
of sixteen feet; and the latter class of ships
will carry more than double the quantity of
merchandize.-a most conspicuous advantage,
which in itself could be mado powerful
lever. Yet Wilmington is competing with
Charleston in her ocean carriage. And why ?
Because every railroad radiating from Viii.
miDgton is in sympathy with thatoiy. They
mako common cause, and, as natural con-
ae""arce, they get the business.
"s? We are so eminentIy
,'he phrase of the
ut at the