The daily phoenix. [volume] (Columbia, S.C.) 1865-1878, 1869-12-29

MEssRs. ED1rons: The proposition in
our City Council 10 prevent q connection
betweg9 the iseenyilIk ana Charlotte
Raihosds, uni as thb AsterFreaS |wiR.re-
duceAll freights to O. dity toehS 10 est
pro rata char ged IL thropghffreie ehts
passing 10 any point, is one which, While
seeming to be to the benefit of our city,
will really prove an injury to it, and is
the carrying ont of policy which. if it
were adopted by every city, no class
would condemn more bitterly than our
own merchants. It will injure the city
in two ways. 1st. The city is large
stockholder,in the Charlotte Road, and is
interested in its securing all the freights
it can compete for, and yet, by this ac-
ton, it would compel it to give up all
competition for the freights to New York
from the up. country, or at least to con-
time the competition under many dis
advantages. I'd. No city is entirely in
dependent of popular opinion, and to
enforce upon the travelling and mercan-
tile portion of the up-country all the in
conveniences of the present separation
of depots, that we may levy a small tax
on every passenger and every bale of
goods going, no matter where, will GER
tainly and deservedly gain us the ill-will
of all the rest of the State. We are not
and we never can be independent of this,
and, if we once incur it, will suffer from
it long in the future. and not only COM
mercially, but politically. Lastly, this
restriction is q blow at the principle of
through freights which, while on the one
hand, it does operate against our mer-
chants in giving the up-country mer-
chants wider field to buy in than our
Main street affords; on the other hand,
gives the same advantage to the Main
street merchant himself, and enables him
to pass through Charleston, Augusta, and
Charlotte, and buy in Boston. st. Louis,
and New York at his pleasure. Our mer-
chants now buy largely of corn, oats, and
-four in st. Louis. Suppose that Gin
cinnati should object to flour coming
from st. Louis to Columbia-being car
ried at q less pro rata than that brought
for her own merchants-that Louisville
did the same with -four from Cincinnati;
Nashville the same with flour from Chat
tanooga, Atlanta, and Augusta, each the
same in turn. Our merchants would then
be compelled to buy from Augusta, or
lose at least in time and the value of more
distant exchange. The Augusta mer-
chant would have to purchase from the
one in Atlanta, and he from the one in
Chattanooga, and he from the one in
Nashville, and he from the one in Louis
vile, and he from the one in Cincinnati,
and he from the one in st. Louis; and
the history of the barrel of -four would
read very much like that of the house
that Jack built. The whole thing may
be summed up in this: through freights
give wide field of purchase both to the
merchant and his customers pro rata
freights give q narrow field to both-re-
stricting each to the line of road on
which he lives.
Ten years ago, every city from Peters
burg to New York jealously kept the
railroad depots mile apart, that every
through passenger might leave q few
cents as he passed. Now, Columbians
who travel bless the more liberal spirit
which prevails, as they run through with
out changing cars, and they report that
the cities do not seem to be materially
injured by the loss of the omnibus fares.
Let us give to the Walhallians and the
Green and the Abbevillians Gas Cover
nor Scott and Judge Hogo might igno-
rantly call them in their blind disappro-
baton of that section) the same freed
mans privilege, and not make of ohr
city nuisance on the kings highway that
ought to be abated. And then, Messrs
Editors, the principle is one which the
South and the West should cherish as
warmly as tho North and the East hate
it bitterly; it is the grand principle of
FREE TRADE.
How THEY BLEED THE LITTLE STATE -
The Wilmington Journal says: "From