The daily phoenix. [volume] (Columbia, S.C.) 1865-1878, 1869-03-23

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state that you do not believe the Executive
Committee will accede to the terms pro
posed The Columbia and Augusta Rail
road Company will be soon running it
trains to Graniteville, and, in its behalf. ]
now offer to pay to the South Carolina Rail
road Company all the receipts of its train.
between Graniteville and Augusta, and pic
rerSa, from freight and passengers, for the
use OF It's track between those points The
South Carolina Railroad Company furnish
ing the necessary wood and water.
Very respectfully,
(SigneO VIM. JOHNSTON, Pres't
In reference to these propositions. Mr.
Magrath is reported to have said:
"Ihe President Of the Columbia and Au.
gusta Railroad had offered to give the South
Carolina Railroad Company for the use OF
their track between Graniteville aud Aupus.
ia, whatever the trains of the Columbia and
Augusta Railroad Company might earn be.
tween Graniteville and Augusta. To this
proposition, it had been replied that the
offer amounted to nothing, and that the Co.
lumbia and Augusta Railroad had never
even offered pro rata of the amount of
earnings between Columbia and Augusta. u
What Mr.. Magrath meant by this state
ment it is difficult to conceive. That he
should have misunderstood the import of
the proposition is not to be supposed, for
language cannot be more explicit than that
IN which 1t IS expressed. For the use OF
the track of the South Carolina Railroad
Company between Graniteyille and Augusta.
the Columbia and Augusta Railroad Com.
pany proposes to pay over call the receipts
OF Its trains between GraniteviIle and An
gnsta' and r1ce cersds from freights and pas
sengers: The proposition, in its very
terms, includes necessarily pro rata on
the through freights and travel passing
over the eleven miles of the South Carolina
railroad between Graniteville and Augusta,
whether the freights or passengers came
from Columbia or Augusta, from New York
or New Orleans. In truth, the proposition
involved more than what is ordinarily known
as pro rata. 1t involved proposition to
pay over not alone proportion of the
earnings represented by eleven miles of the
enure line, but proportion represented by
that section of the line on which the
freIghts and travel will be the heaviest. Au-
gusta ls the largest commercial CITY with
which the Columbia and Augusta Railroad
Is connected. and for years past more than
three-fourths of the traffic and travel of
that portion of the State through which it
passes has sought that market. With the
increased facilities of access, it may be as
sumed that that city will continue TO be the
commercial mart of that section Of the
State, and that the eleven miles of the line
next to Augusta will contribute by far the
most profitable section of equal extent be-
tween Columbia and Augusta. Under nv
oher, therefore, not only would the South
Caroina railroad Company have received
their pro rata on all through business. but
they would have received pro rata on all
local traffic and travel from and to Miles
Mill, Pine House, johnson and Ridge
Spring Depots, q distance of more than
hall OF the entire line. The offer was not
IN terms expressed as pro rata; it was in
fact from thirty to forty per cent. more than
pro rata; and If the axiom in mathematics
be true that 1.-The greater Includes the less, u
the proposition cannot be construed other
wise than an offer to pay "a pro rata of the
amount of earnings between Columbia and
Augusta" " To say otherwise is to saw that
one is not offered S75 because the offer is
Sl00! And yet this offer to pay over the
entire earnings from freights and passengers
over eleven miles of the line-equal, at the
lowest estimate, to one-ffth of the entire
earnings OF the company-this offer, Mr..
Alagrath says, amounted to nothingv'
AS to the reasonableDess and snficiency
OF this offer, you will allow me further
word:
The usual terms, where two railroad com
panies use the same track in the South
one one furnishing and keeping up the track,
the other furnishing and keeping up the en-
glnes, cars and coaches-have been to divide
the receipts or earnings, the track taking
one-half and the trains the other half. TIE
proposition of the Columbia and Augusta
ltallroad Company was to furnish the en-
gines coaches and cars, and to do the trans
portation. giving to the South Carolina
hallroad Company, for the use of their
track, all the receipts and earnings Oh the
eleven miles of their track thus used. and
yet the reply was, that the proposition was
too insignificant to be entertained! I can
not better illustrate the import of this reply
than to suppose the case that one should