The daily dispatch. [volume] (Richmond [Va.]) 1850-1884, 1867-09-11
All or None.

upon, is a mere prophecy, poorly sustain
ed by facts or circumstances: That If the
road is built, Baltimore will get all its
frcights. If, in reply, it is said that we
can at least get the bulk of the freights
east of the Ohio-and that is quite enough
to build up great city here-they con-
tend that even that will 60 off at Staun-
ton, although Richmond has hundred
miles of advantage in distance; or that it
will be run through Richmond to West
Point notwithstanding that here We have
men of enterprise, and We have manufac-
lures which will constantly be augment
ed, and whose demand for raw mate
rial for their operations must be large
and steadily increasing. Such arsu-
ments are idle, and only prove "oppo-
stion " to the enterprise. II, with the
advantage of distance Of transportation OF
100 miles, the control of the line of trans
portation itself, and the complete oppor-
tunity of dealing in the freights that enter
the boundaries of the city, we yet let
them go away from US, there must be
something radically defective in Richmond
enterprise, Richmond energy, and the
kind of mankind that Providence has set
tied down here. If such opportunities
fail, and are not turned to account, then
there is no hope for Richmond. II all the
conduits of commerce in Virginia were
let loose upon her, it would be only waste
of advantages-all would flow off and en-
rich communities elsewhere
This sort of argument against the Chesa-
peake and Ohio railroad is altogether un-
Just to this city and her people. They will
take care Of themselves; and with equal
chances in the competition for trade and
commerce, their energies and enterprise
will tell most successfully.
But tho "all-or- none policy can never
build up city. 1t is the most contracted
and narrow Of all ideas-and imposes
shackles upon enterprise, restricts trade,
destroys commerce, and dwaris and con-
fines every element Of prosperity, every
impulse Of generosity and manhood. IL
has been held up to the adherence OF
mankind in giants and monsters Of all
shapes, whose greed was Unsuitable. Heroes
of story have had no greater glory than
their wars against these monsters from
JACK the Giant Killer upwards or down
wards, us you like; for JACK was mighty
man, and he triumphed over the giant as
the heroes always do-and as the dramatic
fiction is but an illustration Of human life
in its real phase, SO does society finally
rise superior to the narrow and contracted
views Of the " all-or-none men, whose
greed is like that Of the giant, not to be
satisfied unless all the tracks come into
the cave and none 60 out. What natu
raj sentiment of surprise was it Of the
guest of that giant who called his atten-
ton to the fact that all the tracks did GO
into the cave, and his uneasiness was most
natural, and we'll did he dis.rust the hos.
pitality of the host !
This propensity, so uncongenial with the
active, comprehensive, and liberal spirit of
commerce, was happily characterized by
Governor FLOYD as the Shavetail mule
and niger interest" (that was during
slavery. 1t objected to al railroad con-
nectionS through cities, and would compel
the stranger and traveller to submit to a
portage of self and baggage, that he might
be shaved by the shaye-tail mule and
"porter." This was quasi robbery-or
claim to salvage, as though every man
who passed through city was an unfor-
tunate cast-away on bleak and barren
shore, and was at the mercy Of the mer-
| CHESS wreckers. "Shave-tail mule and
niger" had no mercy on him. But we
have triumphed over them; and thus it
will always be.
There is no success in this fearful and
greedy system. A community Of such
people are but the followers of DR.. FRAN
GA. They would shut out the world, for
getting that at the same time they shut
up themselves. They will venture no.
thing lest they should not gain all! No
such people ever built noble city and q
fair and prosperous commerce, and never
can.
Money at Home and Abroad.