Wilmington journal. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1844-1895, 1867-01-24
rae western railroad Extension.

book. 49,
| Thc Western Railroad Extension.
To tie Editors Of tie .Journal:-
Your comments upon the report OF the
committee of the Chamber of Commerce IN
/ reference to the proposed extension OF the
Western Railroad, contained in the leading
article of your paper of the 18th inst, al
fords us an opportunity of explaining that
portion of the report to which you seem to
have taken exception, and which certainly
does not express what the committee IN
tended should be understood by the words,
n the very great disadvantages that must
inevitably result from the choice of any
point east of that" Salisbury as the point
of intersection with the North Carolina
Road The committee, considering Sails
bury as the point of paramount Importance
to be reached, used the phrase, ''any other
point" in comparative sense, and think
they were so understood by the Chamber.
They did not mean to convey the idea that
ana other point would be really disadotna-
tnge to Fayetteville and Wilmington. But
they really do believe that some of the other
points that have been advocated would af-
feet the interests, both of Fayetteville and
Wilmington most disastrously. AS, for in
stance, that of Greensboro, connecting AS
it would the valley of the Deep River with
the Danville Road.
We have not the time, neither nave we
the ability that we think the subject should
command, to engage in a discussion upon
the advantages and the disadvantages to
our city, of the various points advocated by
different parties, us the terminus OF the pro-
posed extension, or the point at which it
should strike OF cross the n G. Road. But
will avail ourselves of this opportunity
to present d few of the most prominent
considerations leading us to favor Salisbury
as the point promising to us the most sub
stantial advantages. 1t is very true as you
have stated, that to reach Salisbury we
must construct about eighty miles of road,
! while we might make the connection at
] High Point, or at brownsville, by building
fifty-fve miles only. But when we have
reached that point we have simply made a
connection with that road, which, if that
were all that we designed, we might make
with a much shorter line. But to secure
any considerable advantages by this extern
sion, we must go beyond that point, for we
can readily see that it will not be advancing
the interest of the North Carolina Road to
permit any freight once placed upon its
trains, west of the intersection, to leave
them at that point, and that, by discrimi-
mating tariffs, and other measures suggest
ed by the spirit Of competition, we should
get b 1t u small portion of it. We must
therefore build thirty or forty miles more
of road, most of it through certainly not a
very fertile section of country, terminating
nowhere in particular, and touching no
; section of country comparable with that
portion Of the Valley of the Yadkin lying
between Salisbury and the southern bor-
der Of Surry county, where the proposed
extension from High Point would APP
We should then have built the eighty or
ninety miles of road necessary to reach
Salisbury, at perhaps greater expenditure
of time and money; when by making that
the terminus, we should connect with the
Western extension, giving us forty miles
more in Il direct line westward with a pro-
bable further EXTENSION of that road, of
many miles more, by the time we could
reach Salisbury. There the products of all
that rich section of country i'll the valley
of the 1adkin, and on the line west of that
point, could be placed directly on our line
of road without danger of being intercept
ed by rival lines.
There can be no question about the
choice of markets with the people of that
section of country resulting in favor Of
Fayetteville and Wilmington, as the diff
ference in distance and expense, with a
hundred miles of water transportation at
this end of the line, would be vastly in
their favor. when compared with that Of
any other Of the principal markets at pre-
: sent, or likely hereafter, to be within their
reach.
Should this road be extended from High
Point to the northern border of Surry coun-
ty, on the Virginia line, it might and most
I probably would, be tapped by read from
, Danyille, thus placing the merchants of
Richmond and Petersburg some fifty or
sixty miles nearer that section of country
than that of Wilmington
We are not prepared to believe that the
people of Salisbury are SO We'll satisfied with
their present facilities, that they will not
take lively interest IN an enterprise con-
Meeting them directly with Fayetteville and
Wilmington, where they have been so long
accustomed to trade, and from whence they
have always obtained a large, if not the
principal portion of their Salt, Sugar, COT
fee, Molasses, DC. !; especially when this
line would afford them much the cheapest,
and equally AS eXpe itious transportation
as any other, This is work that will af-
feet our interests for all future time, and
we must not perm our anxiety to have
it completed in the shortest possible
length of time, and by the most expeditions,
and least expensive route, to induce us to
concur in the selection of a terminus or
J intersection with other lines, that we may
have cause to deplore hereafter.
Comm,
For the Journal.