The daily dispatch. [volume] (Richmond [Va.]) 1850-1884, 1866-11-20

syeu OF inc TUuso o.s1S' ~
nv. .,rss,idsss Of .tbs company, made some
,,,msrks touching the gauge" Of the ro e.c.
now under his direction. He declared IN
favor Of. the g ive.foot" gaugc-the same
As that Of, the Danyille railroad-in order
TO avoid q, break Of gauge tn connecting
vita that foad at DanuiN. A breakiof
esure there would put the Lynchburg road
!. at the mercy Of the Richmond and Dan
vile rsilroad," and damage the, Lynchburg
and Danville Company In their "efforts to
raise subscriptions Tor borrow money2) at
the North to the extent Of twenty per
cent,"a7q sfEoG 81 s4r H. "a
! ourrneighbor, the Whig,in noticing these
remarks Of Mr.. DEASE, shows some dissat-'
isfaction..with them in making the inquiry
"Does this mean that to secure subscrip-
"tion tothc stock of the road in the North
"Mr. DEASE is willing to facilitate the pas
"sage of trade through the State for the
"benc6t of the North and to the disadvan-
"tage Of the principal cities and great sea-
sport Of Virginia." -
We confess ourselves somewhat sur
prised at the confidence and trust in the.
State pride of railroad corporations and
partisans at this. late day, which we may
infer from this gentle inquiry of our good
friends of the Wing. Without claiming
one whit more astutencss than we award
to them, we, nevertheless, think that their
attention hasynot been sufficiently directed
to some peculiar features of the internal
Improvement history Of this State when
they evince surprise that a corporation d.
reefs itself exclusively to the interests it
was created to subserye, and by subserv-
ing which alone it can be built, as Mr..
DEANE, in effect, confesses. We. there
fore, see no good ground for surprise that
Mr.. DEANE endeavors to shape his admin
istration so that his road will command
the confidence and support of the great
community to advance whose interests 1t
was incorporated, and whose money alone
can build it. Our friends will soon find
this out, if they have not already done SO ;
for Mr.. DEASE will not retreat from his
position. We never knew him to surren-
der on j" gauge" question.
There is one point in Mr.. DEANE's
remarks which should be noted down.
1t is that the "gauge" of his road must be
the same with the Danville road--not for
the sake of Lynchburg-not in order that
that town may derive the benefit of the
break of bulk which must occur there,
since the Orange road is of different
gauge from that of the Richmond and
Danville road-but to propitiate northern
capitalists and facilitate the procuring of
subscriptions (or7 loans), we suppose, in
Baltimore. In other words, the break at
LmchJurg will better secure trade to those
whose money is relied upon to build the
road than the break at DanuiUe. The far
Their north you transfer the point where the
" break" takes place, the more certain will
it be that the freight will continue north
ward-the more difficult will it be for this
city to attract it! g 90. a.
This is point worthy of attention. But
there is no ground to hope that the origi-
nal purposes Of this new road can be
altered in any manner. 1t was built as
Baltimore line-as the Piedmont route
continued-and is intended. to keep the
trade and travel of the cismontane terrace
right along parallel with the Blue Ridge to
the Potomac and to Baltimore and the
North, to the very great detriment of the
tide-water cities and the really great inte-
rests of the State.
We do not desire to be understood as
considering that these routes crossing the
State northeasterly are such as were to
be forever prohibited. We always knew
that they would be built. But what we
deplore is that our people should show SO
much more zeal in promoting their con-
struction than in the building Of those
latitudinous eastern and western lines
which. promised to build up great CON-
mercial communities for Virginia, and
thus increase her resources and political
power incidentally. This day, if she had
one single line to the Ohio, her public debt
would be burthen so light as not to be
felt. .......l d ,sasgU : @,.....,,..sl ,...s
But what is the lesson to this city to be
read in the. light of these events 1T is
TO GO TO WORK FOR HERSELF AND
RELY ON NOTHING BUT HER OWN ENERGY
AND sAGAcITY. She must now plan for
herself and work for herself. She sees the
plans and schemes that are against her,
and she ought to see that unless she does
something to check or defeat them, she is
gone--a dead city. If she suffers herself
to be deluded by corporation partisans, or
the faith in corporate promises-if she, in
deed, is satisfied with anything less than that
system improvements which will put her
in the shortest and most rapid communica-
ton possible with the sources Of Supply
with the thyproducing districts-she is
indeed dead and lost city. She may just
as well tear down her buildings, pillow up
the ground on which they stand, and SOW
It with salt! No city in this day and time
which possesses not this indispensable adj
vantage can survive the great struggle for
commercial existence. = People of Rich
mond, we are no CAssANDRA-no prophet Of