The evening Argus. [volume] (Rock Island, Ill.) 1861-1871, 1868-06-22
THE PEORIA RAILROAD.

For the interests of Rock Island, we have
alwavs been anxious to secure some other
eastern railroad outlet than the present one
to Chicago II Is not necessary here to
point out the advantagesof such q road, in
keeping JPN healthy composition for the
transportation Of freight and PASSENGERS
every citizen of Rock Island understands
the importance of such competition, and
every project for securing such road mas
had all the aid we have been able to afford
it, without favoring public or corporate sub
scriptions, to which, on principle, we are
and have been opposed Nor is it necessary,
now, except in general way, sorefer to the
origen of the present effort to get road to
Peoria. From the time the FIRST meeting
was held, at Galva, at which Mr.. Cable
suggested that, on account of the preiudices
existing against the old Peoria enterprise,
and, inasmuch as amendments to the old
charter would be necessary in order to pro-
coed under it, new charter would be pref.
cradle, down to q few months ago, no one
ever thought of securing road to Peoria
except by extending the present one. But
it win be perceived By the letters of Mr..
Cable, recently published, that he is now
entirely out of the field and will not invest
his capital in securing the desired outlet,
against the apparent wishes Of his fellow
citizens. This is precisely what we feared, -
from the beginning of the agitation for a
different route. In fact his propositions to
aid in extending the present road were far
more liberal than any man had @ right 20
expect. 1t was certainly very liberal, on
his part, to propose to invest so large share
of his means in an enterprise offering such
doubtful security, even by the Coal Valley
route. And when SO strong an opposition
was developed, to that route, by people in
this city and Davenport, men who were his
| customers and friends, it need not surprize
any one that he withdrew his propositions
and wholly retired from the enterprize.-
And the same selfrespect which caused him
to withdraw his propositions will surely pre-
vent him from either renewing them or max
ing any others. 1t must, therefore, be re-
garded as fixed fact that, if the road shall
| be built at all it must be built by way of
Moline, on the route indicated by the vote of
the people of this township, and by what
seems to be the wishes of the people Of Da-
| venport. Such being the case it becomes
! us to look over the ground and see where
we are, and what will be the prospects for
| raising funds to build the road, for We pre-
sumo that any Intelligent business man will
| see that It requires something besides votes
and sympathy to build and equip railroads.
MONEY must be had, in large quantities.
1t is estimated, BY the engineer for the new
company, that over two millions of dollars
viii be required to set the road in operation,
| and the directors will have no other means of
/ procuring the necessary funds, except by
| pledging the road as security. And the
first thing people do, who loan money, is to
look at the value of the security offered. 1t
| is, therefore, of the utmost importance that
the people Of Rock Island and Davenport
should first raise large sum, BY private
subscriptions of stock in the enterprise, and
make the security, by the Moline route, full
| ly equal TO the offers made by the other
route. To do this it will be necessary for
| them to subscribe at least $500 900 in Da-
| venport and $50, 600 more in this city, and
a like additional amount in Moline. These
! sums, with the stock voted In this town and
| Moline, viii be some evidence of confidence,
on the part of the people, that the enterprise
is good one, and would inspire money
1 lenders with faith in the scheme.
The road will run through fine country,
nearly or quite as good as the other route,
with the exception of there being scarcely
one-fourth the coal on the Moline route that
there is on the Coal Valley route. For the
| Grst IL or Is miles out of Rock Island, the
road will come in direct competition with the
Chicago, Rock Island Peoria road, which
will, of curse, detraet considerably from its
business. For the next 10 or IL miles there
will be an indirect competition, as teams will
haul freight to the road which shall offer the
best rates of transportation. At the cross
| ing of the Chicago, Burlington 4 Quincy
road, at Galva, there win be strong competi-
| ton for several miles, as that road runs to
Chicago, the commercial centre Of the west.
And at Peoria our road will run in between
the Peoria & Oquawka road Ia branch of
the c. B. & o. and the Bureau Valley road
| Ia branch of the G. r. l. K p thus coming
into powerful competition with those roads
for some miles this side of Peoria, and real
ly leaving our road only some 40 or so miles,
out of the 80 miles distance, in which it viii
not meet strong competition and be requir-
| ed TO do business at unremunerative rates or
not at all. If it proposes to do any Chicago
business it will have to depend on the Lo-
gansport and Peoria, and the Illinois Cen
trail, thus dividing receipts with two other
corporations.
| At this end of the road the revenue de.
rived from the transportation of coal cannot
be very large, lst for the reason that there is
not much coal on that line which will pay
for working; I'd because no mines of conse.
quence are open, and no companies exist to
open them, and Sd, because Cables road
will probably continue in the field, bringing
| IN +h;a IN q rko| NJ laaet a r II