Staunton spectator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1849-1896, 1868-08-18
The Valley Railroad.

The Valley Railroad.
The estimated cost to build the Valley Rail
road from Rarrisonburg to Salem is about 3d.
10000 The State of Va, no longer sub
scribes its three ffths of the cost out OF the
State at large. hence the whole amount must
be raised by the people directly interested
y;;z the three counties along the road. line
nonulation to Augusta would be about l,5oO'-
600. And yet only the upper end OF this coun-
ty is particularly interested and that END IS re-
ported to be opposed to county subscriptions TO
Railroads
Will Baltimore build it? That city already
has, through the Orange Road, a railroad route
into the Valley via Lynchburg to Salem; also
MIA Blue Ridge Tunnel to StauntOn ma Ma
nassas Gap to Strasburg and to Hamlsonburg;
and cia Harper's Ferry to Winchester. thus
grasping the chole Valley with iron fingers
The expenditure of 100000 more will give
her no compromising additional advantage, I'M
less it should become necessary to secure her a
a continuous route, throughout the Valley,
complete to Salem.
But the law as it now stands forbids the COM
mencement of the Valley road to Salem until
the Chesapeake and Ohio Road is finished
Hence Baltimore could not, build the Valley
Road even if she was thereby to get any adj
vantage for her outlay And we are told that
unless Augusta votes her proportion OF the
subscription to the Chesapeake and Ohio Road,
it will not soon-if ever-be finished"
Jo+o jIo
Ohio Riiycr, and is pouring its teeming tide OF
freight and travel in its hundred trains day
across this Valley, then Baltimore may we'll at
ford to extend Manassas as far as Staunton to
tap the rich stream, and thence onward as she
may by law then do, to Salem.
Thus qclep Augusta votes her subscription,
and secures the amount needed to make sure
the building of the road to the Ohio, at once
will there arise an occasion for Baltimore to
move promptly to secure to herself the advan-
tages of the Valley connection. And not until
then 1t will be the live coal on the terrapin's
back And thus only, it seems to US, can the
present generation hope to realize the long
cherished dream Of ''The Valley Railroad.'
A Railroad Tax
The farmer in Henrico receives for his crop
ia Richmond precisely the same price that the
Augusta farmer receives for the same articles;
but the Augusta farmer has had to pay the
railroad its freight charges to place his crop
along side the Henrico farmer, who pays no
such charge-thus the amount of this charge
represents a tax upon the one farmer, and
gain to the other and the Augusta farmer will
find it to his interest to reduce these freight
charges in every possible way in order TO re-
lieve his products Of this tax.
Now this tax is exactly proportional to the
distance on the railroad transporting to market,
the charges being so much by the mile. If
then the Central Railroad is shortened 81
miles-as is proposed by building the ''short
track to Richmond, this tax is reduced nearly
one fourth on all the produce sent from Au-
gusta; and also in like ratio On ell the mer-
chandizc &c, transported into Augusta, and
purchased by consumers here.
The total Of freight, received at and sent
from the seven depots Augusta, in SG7, was,
in round numbers, $4,000 tons: at the usual
charges per mile for freights, the saving of 81
miles on this tonnage 2goald SAGE, liz one gear,
to the county, 800, 10000! Of course this to-
al tonnage for SCI was not all through freights,
but it illustrates the argument. The annual
report does net give the details to enable the
writer to calculate exactly. The tax then for
transporting this Augusta freight Of 1867 over
81 miles Of unnecessary length of road was
sos, 10000 for that single year
The total number of passengers going from,
and also arriving at these seven Augusta depots,
in 1867, is reported at, in round numbers 49,
900; at the usual passenger fare the saving Of
the 81 miles each way would amount to $92,-
O70.O0 IF then the travel and tonnage of
Augusta in 1867 had moved over the whole
line to Richmond and back it would have been
saved by the short track an otherwise unneces-
sary tax of $157, 1000 for that single year
The condition Of the subscription by Rich
mond and other counties, is that the short
track shall be built promptly If Augusta
votes her $500, 900 in 186S-itis estimated that
the tax theron she may have to levy payable
January 1870, will be Sc, 00.00-doubling the
next year and so on for four years.
Now the seven DepOts in Augusta sent
through to Richmond, in 1867, %, 325 barrels
of -four and 20, 40 bushels of wheat: the sa-
wing of the charge on the unnecessary 81 miles
around my Gordonsville on the wheat crop of
1867, would haze paid the county tax for the
first gears subscription, ard the saving on the
rye, oats, corn hay, and even the 100000
pounds Of bacon and butter sent that year from
the seven depots would have paid it over and
over again, and would have put the Augusta
farmer on more equal chance with the Hen
rico man for profit on his produce.
IF then Augusta by voting the subscription
secures the saving of freight charges on 81
miles to market-she viii while the tax is be-
ing levied actually more than pay it off each
wear, by this saving, and have it as clear profit
ever afterwards.
IF Augusta fails to vote the sum asked of
her, and the Chesapeake railroadfalls through
the Central Railroad cannot afford to build the
short track to carry off only the Valley freights,
which it now carries On its single track and
makes greater profit because carrying it the 81
mt rf 81 HI