Wilmington journal. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1844-1895, 1869-01-15

Intelligent and successful administration of
President TURNER and Superintendent AN
DERsoN, this just and wise policy was adopt
ed. All freights which passed over the
North Carolina road to and from the North,
whether shipped through Wilmington,
Newbern or Norfolk, passed over the en-
tire length of that road and reached its
with expedition and upon rates most adj
vantageous to shippers That this arrange
! ment no longer exists, is the fault of N.Y.
Smith, and he hes only himself to blame
that consolidation has become so
popular.
Beyond doubt, the consolidation Of
these two roads would be unjust to the
private stockholders of the North Carolina
Railroad Company, if not to the State.
and we are satisfied that any act con-
so!idating them would be unconstitutional,
as interfering with the obligation Of con-
tracts, and we have repeatedly urged this
view. In former Legislatures the scheme
commanded only corporaps guard of
supporters, and mainly upon these grounds.
It appears as if the bill now pending would
pass, and the question would then come
up for judicial investigation and decision.
Mr.. Smiths protest, however, against
this movement as matter Of protection
against injury to the State and her works,
comes with avery poor grace when his whole
official influence is directly against his own
words. Appointed a Director by the
Governor, and elected President by the
other State Directors, he has used the
whole force of the great work over whic.]
he presides to injure other roads in which
the State is vitality interested. In order to
ignore Wilmington entirely as shipping
port for goods coming over the North
Carolina Railroad, he makes incorrect
figures in regard to the rates of insurance.
Insurance is about double, not more, from
points south Of Hatteras to New York than
north of that Cape. And this is in conse-
quence of the character of the vessels now
in use. In first class steamers, which could
and would be put on the line. if our port
was not deprived of trade by the influence
of railroad combinations in our own State,
the rates of insurance would be only one
half or one-third per cent. Never before
the war were the rates more than one
fourth per cent.
Although the present President of the
North Carolina Railroad does not &C
knowledge this as one of the available
shipping ports for the freights Of the
section along his line, the time is not long
gone when, during one season, from
seventy-five thousand to one hundred
thousand bushels of wheat alone, raised
along the line of the North Carolina Rail
road, were shipped North, through Will
mington, when only sailing vessels sought
our port. Now we have steamships leaving
two and three times week for New York,
and weekly for Baltimore and Philadel-
phia.
The letter of Mr. Smith is so much more
of an argument for the Raleigh and Gas
ton Railroad than against consolidation,
that we more than half suspect that his
name is about all of the communication
which he wrote. 1t was evidently penned
at some other point than Company Shops,
and its author had the good sense to leave
the place blank, and Smith evidently forgot
to fill it up. While such men remain in
power, North Carolina will, and ought, to
suffer.