The daily dispatch. [volume] (Richmond [Va.]) 1850-1884, 1868-11-07
Railroaa Quarrels-Ric hrnond.

RallTOaGs NEUTRALITY-SUSPICIOUS.
The Richmond Wing printed supple
mental sheet yesterday morning containing
nearly eleven columns of controversy upon
queetions at issue between General Ma
HONE, president of the line Of road from
Norfolk TO Bristol, and Messrs. SAMUEL
TATE, JoHN r. BRANSRR, and THOMAS ID.
CALLAwAY, presidents Of Tennessee lines
connecting with General MAHoSE's line,
forming with their joint roads the fa Tel
through line from Norfolk to Memphis.
The matters in dispute are terminal
charge Of five cents per hundred weight for
transferring freight--pro-rating with the
Orange and Alexandria road--and facili-
ties of INSTRUMENTATION between the
cooperating lines. The main difficulty,
however, Is with reference to the Or
ange and Alexandria railroad, which
General MALONE contends should not
be placed in competition with the "air
line" to Norfolk. e., we take it, should
not be permitted to underbid the Southside
line, and thus injure its business, as that
line is on important part Of the :" air
line" from Memphis to the sea, and
therefore, on account Of the common
Interest Of the combined line, should
not be subjected to this competition. The
Tennessee presidents urge the bringing the
Orange and Alexandria railroad into the
ring as competitor with other lines than
the Southside, contending that its facilities
=,far travel and transportation, properly en-
twill enable the western SsLae iSfom
Lynchburg to Memphis to oornpotA sirecesS-
fully with those lines crossing the ohio' go
ing by the sea or following the seaboard.
General MALONE is Incorporating in
his opposition, to altering the schedule OF
pro-rating with the Alexandria road, but
offers every facility for the transferring of
freight and passengers at Lynchburg. As
he is president of 200 miles of road that
lies between the Orange and Alexandria
railroad and those of the Tennessee presi-
dents he has the whip hand in the contest;
but at the same time, should the quarrel
proceed to open rupture, those roads may
do serofs.eexil to Genera MAHoNE's roads:
1t is just ct this juncture that the expe-
dent of buying QUIT States interest inlthe
Lynchburg and Tennessee road is ven
tured upon. had it succeeded, the Baltimore
and Ohio road would, in commercial sense,
have made another division of Virginia,
and her cities would have been blighted.
why cannot that great corporation be
satisfied with getting along, and permitting
this poor community to do the same? Its
grasping and greed are monstrous). For
tunately, in this hour OF prcstration and
poverty of our dear old State, the privilege
of exchanging State bonds for the States
interest in the Virginia and Tennessee and
other roads was limited to the companies
themselves. There can be no sale made
to any other purchaser.
1t is needless to say that our sympathles
are With General MALONE in this war. We
should be sorry to see any new privileges
extended TO the Orange and Alexandria
railroad-certainly until that road shows
more justice and fairness to the cities Of
the State whose money built it. A road
that charges as much for conveying busbel
Of wheat few miles to Gordonsyille as is
charged for its transportation thence to
Richmond can hardly be trusted where it
can be restrained.
But it is we'll enough to look at this trou-
bic on the consolidated line" in some
other aspects. The disagreements of the
presidents show that there is q screw loose,
and they exhibit that conflict of local and
personal interests which is but too often
settled in favor of the longest purse the
term I" consolidation " affording no protec-
ton against injury. Harmonious interests
are not given to quarrelling; but where
counter interests exist in combination the
parties soon show them by cavilling over
small matters. They apon't agree. We
wish General MAHCNE success; but he has
trouble, and with some Of the shrewdest
and most far-reaching men Of the day
When We read these alterations and
look at the position of Richmond we are
panied to think how she has been cheated,
and how the contest for the maintenance
of Virginia commerce has been weakened
on her side by leaving Richmond, as it
were, out of the field. There is no direct
line westward from the largest city in the
State-one which had direct foreign COM
merce before the war-which has shown
vastly more enterprise than any other of
the Virginia cities-which in population is
equal to any four Of them combined, and
which prior to the late civil war was
the only city which made some considera-
BILE show of capacity to do something both
in trade and manufacturing with the pro-
ducts of the West. Showed aside and pass
ed by as though she had been cross-road
inn-a Burkeville--she is out of the field
as it we're. The State in the, great battle
for commerce has absolutely entered the
field with one wing of her army, and has
80 placed the main force that it cannot be
brought into action! Never was there such
folly in State policy.
1t is bad enough to contemplate this state
of things; but the modification it occasions
is heightened when We remember that
Richmond contemplated + the proceeding
with listless eyes and folded arms We