The Wheeling daily intelligencer. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1865-1903, 1867-07-02
RATE OF sUBsoRIPTIoNs.
RATES OF ADVERTISING.
LETTER PROM GOV. PIERPONT,
A New ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS and Ohio
Railroad as u Government Road.


| A New Scheme---ChesapeR and Ohio
Railroad as u Government Road.
To the Editors of the Richmond Dispatch:
GENTLEMEN-Some time since I re-
| lluctantly gave a promise to friend TO
write letter for publication on the
subject of the Chesapeake and Ohio
Railroad, now occupying SO much of
| the public attention in Virginia and
| West Virginia. This road is designed
| to connect-the tide-wateT of Virginia
with the Ohio river at the mouth of the
Sandy, at the Kentucky line. The nav
igation of the Ohio river from this point
| 10 Cincinnati is about the Same as the
| navigation from Cincinnati to the
mouth of the Ohio, which is not much
Interrupted by ice or low. water at sea-
sons in which heavy commercial arti-
cles are handled.
| My.reluctance to write the letter ask
ed for grows out of the fact that fear
| the scheme for the railroad now con-
templRted is not commensurate with
the great object it ought to accomplish.
| Nature has indicated the route from
the Atlantic by the courses of the James
10 the waters of the KRnhwha, and
] thence TO the Ohio, as the natural and
easy ronte for conveying the commerce
of the Mississippi valley to the Atlantic
ocean. From the mouth of the Big
Sandy. or Kentucky line, to tide-water
in Virginia is about 400 miles. This
whole distance can be traversed by a
railroad from west to east with maxi
mum grade of less than thirty feet, to
the mile. No other passage can be
found in the United States combining
equal shortness OF distance and easy
grade from tide-water to convenient
navigation in the great western valley.
This ought to be a national thorolI1hJdTe
created by the nation for the accommo-
dalton of the commerce. ofthe great sec
tions OF the country. Ohio, Kentucky,
Indiana, Western Tennessee, Arkansas,
| Missouri, Illinois, Wisconsin, Minneso-
Ia, Iowa, Kansas and Nebraska, have
in fact as great interest in this work as
States are directly interested In not
having this work done by pri-
vate corporation, as other roads have
been made from the east TO the
west. The railroad system Is yet in Its
infancy, and hazard nothing in say
ing that our railroads have Jailed to
| fulfill the anticlpations OF the country
| in the cheap transportation of com
modities from distant western localities
to the seaboard. This failure results
from two causes: First, they are owned
/ exclusively by private corporations
| that have not been content with mod
crate dividends, or have increased their
| stocks for the purpose of stock jobbing,
until they have become great specu-
| lating monOpolieS; secondly, the un-
1
| transportation, by which nine.tenths
| OF the Tonnage power is neutralized.
| The people of the great West demand
cheap transportation to the seRboard
for their productions, that labor may
be remuneratiye. The charges for
freight on the existing railroads are so
high that the price paid for the pro-
| duce in market Is nearly consumed by
the cost of transportation, leaving little
profit to the producer. Yet 1t is claim
| ed by these corporations that their
| compensation is barely remunerative.
The great demand, then, is cheap trans
portation, that the producer may be re-
Enumerated for his toll.
Can a railroad from the mouth of
Sandy TO tide-water in Virginia, be
constructed as a freight road SO as to
afford the cheap transportation which
Is now so imperatively demanded? L
| think it can. It Is believed that this
road may be built at a reasonable cost,
and worked on the freight principle
SO as to carry an amount of freight an
nually equal to that now transported
by the Erie canal, New York Central,
| Pennsylvania Central, and Baltimore
| and Ohio railroads combined, and at
rate of less than one dollar per ton for
100 miles. This proportion may seem
startling at first sight; but we can only
may be done by ascertaining what has
l been DONE The New York canals for
the last year carried 5,775,220 tons of
freight. The Philadelphia and Reading
railroad the same year carried 8, 5,5I4, ,9O7
tons. The Reading road was worked
with unequal rates of speed for travel
and transportation, by which more
than nine-tenths of its tonnage power
was probably neutralized. This esti-
mate shows what a railroad has done
in comparison with what canals have
done. .r.
My proposition is to construct dou-
BILE track railroad from tide-water Viz
ginia to the mouth of Sandy, on the
Ohio, and work it on the freight prin-
ciple-all trains running at equal speed,
1t is estimated that the Erie canal,
worked day and night, has only ton
mage capacity for s, ,O00, 600 ton for seven
months and half of the year, being fro
zen the residue of the year. That is
1000, 900 each way; and this is based
upon an assumption that each boat shall
move one mile and a half per hour.
This is liberal calculation in favor of
the canal.
The New York Central railroad last
year carried 1902, 1877 tons; the Pennsyl-
vania Central and branches carried
3452,71S tons; the Baltimore and Ohio
about 9, 900, 600 tons.
A railroad constructed on the plan
have above indicated, with double
track and equal rate of speed for all
ira ms, has the following capacity:
i Railway, eight miles per hour and
two miles space between trains, 7,00S,-
600 tons each way; total capacity, a.
"Ri iIway, ten miles per hour, space
two miles between trains, s. s.76O, 900 tons
each way; total tonnage capacity, IT,
$40.
RAILWAY, ten miles per hour, space
one mile between trains, II, $50, 600 tons
each way; total tonnage capacity, 35,-
o4O. 900. -
4 Railway, eight miles perhour, space
one mile between trains, Il, 4,016. 900 tons
each way; total tonnage capacity, 2S,-
032, 600. ll.5
Railway, eight miles per hour, space
half a mile between trains, 2S,O32, 900
tons each wny; total tonnage capacity,
sc, ,O74 900. -'
hRailway, ten miles per hour, space
half mile between trains, 35,040, 900 tons
each way; total tonnage capacity, TO-
. 0sO, ,OO0." ...--
cit is not difficult to perceive that on
II rate OF eight miles per hour, the speed
at which lateral friction nearly ceases,
freight capacity four times that of the
Erie canal can be achieved with entire
success. It only remains to take care
of the economic arrangements in COM
binatlon to accomplish the reduction
of freights In an inverse ratio some
what corresponding to the increased
capacity of the road.n
These data aregiven by scientific men
1 who have Daid great attantiOn to the