Wilmington journal. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1844-1895, 1868-02-07
Railroads and Our seaports.

from Colonel J. d. WHITFoRD, President Of
the Atlantic and North Carolina Railroad
Company. The first gives those not famil
lar with the history of internal improve.
ments in North Carolina the names and
deeds of some of the leading men who
bore the heat and burden of the day, y
and to some extent their particular ideas.
What he says in regard to constructive
mileage" on the Seaboard Railroad we
have no comment to offer. We understand
that Northern and Western Railways gen.
orally allow some portion of the expenses
at the principal shipping point, either in
per centage or additional mileage. We
desire, howveer, to call attention to the fol-
lowing paragraph
s'It may now be said our seaport towns, New.
bern, Wilmington and Morehead City, cannot sue
cessfully compete with Norfolk, and to force the
business to them, over our roads, would be a
great sacrifice to the people OF the interior of the
State.
1T was believed little while ago. that the
freight could not be forced the lower end OF
the North Carolina Railroad and past Raleigh
without great injury to the shipper. But we have
seen that successfully accomplished by persever-
ance, without the owners of freight even making
inquiry of the route it was golng-and feat,
freight to the value Of two hundred thousand dol
lars, annually, away from seaport towns, distant
sixty and eighty miles, for which the roads, upon
which millions were expended by State were
especially built, to seaports in ghboring State,
one hundred and sixty miles. 1t is true it cost
$4,000 or more to perform this feat, but it was
done nevertheless"
We are inclined to think this is rather
an attack upon the management of the
Wilmington and Weldon Railroad Com
pany, the stockholders of the North Caro-
lima Railroad Company, and last, though
not least, the Board of Internal Improve
ments, as they are all implicated in the
change of this Northern freight route to
and from the line of the North Carolina
Railroad.
But are the facts as stated ? Did any
person of ordinary business capacity, as a
railroad manager, ever think the shipping in
terest would be injuriously affected by send
ing western freight to and from the North
ia Goldsboro'? We presume not. The
well-known speed of trains over the level
and straight line of the Wilmington and
Weldon Railroad was and is a sufficient
guarantee that no time would be lost nor
additional cost incurred by that somewhat
longer, though in all that refers to speed
and safety, the better route. It has been
apparent for many years to all, OF nearly all,
railroad men, except the managers of the
North Carolina and the Raleigh and Gas
ton Railroads, that it was greatly to the in
terest of the former corporation to carry
It's freight over its entire line, and send it,
North or South, by the Wilmington and
Weldon Railroad, rather than suffer it to
leave its line at Raleigh.
We are further aware that personal inter-
est has greatly influenced the continuance
of this system, so injurious to the best in
terests of the State. This change, which
Col. WHrTFoRD says was accomplished by
perseverance, abiding, doubtless, to the
successful exertions of one of the principal
officers of the Wilmington and Weldon
Railroad, would have been done by its
owners, had the North Carolina Railroad
been the property of one or dozen practi
cal business men. And while the change
may, and doubtless is, due to the long
continued and persistent efforts of that Of
ficer to open the eyes of the stockholders
of that road to their own interests, we have
always been puzzledito know why it should
have been necessary.
What claim had any side line to the
business which was going to, or had origi-
mated on, the line of the North Carolina
Railroad, when the interest of that side
line was antagonistic to the fifty miles of
road between Raleigh and Goldsboro' ?
Again: What similarity is there between
the cases as presented by Col. WHrTFoRD :?
Is it as easy to obtain the consent of ship
pers to send their goods to Wilmington to
be shipped to New York, as it was to have
them sent ria Goldsboro' and Norfolk p
In one case, no difference III cost, or time,
or safety is incurred. In the other there
IS on valuable goods q heavy insurance to
pay. We wish this was not so, and that
all the business from the West could adj
yantageously be brought this way to be
shipped through, or sold at, our port. Un-
fortunately for us, the dangers of coast
navigation have been considered so great
since the war, that Insurance has done more
against us than all that Norfolk can do in
thousand years.
It is not to be denied that great change
has been wrought in the ways and means
of transportation during the last few years.
The railway lines running North and South
along the coast, and East and West from
the Northern cities, have entered largely
into the transportation of merchandise,
which few years ago was scarcely thought
of. Sea vessels and canal boats were the
Z means of transportation that were then
entirely relied upon. To-day we see diff
ferent state of things, and the great and
good friends of internal improvements of
past7age can we'll be excused for not hay
ing anticipated some such modification of
their views.
We leave the subject, as Col WH1TFoRD
proposes to do, in the hands of the freight
ers, to go by what line and through
what port they please, with this remark,
however: we are not willing for him to
come in and make an empty bid for bust