Staunton spectator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1849-1896, 1870-05-10
For the Spectator.
To the Citizens Of Augusta County.

There is tide in the affairs of men, which
taken at the food leads to fortune and renown
This tide has just now set IN towards the Val
ley OF Virginia, and especially to Augusta coun-
ty, but If not taken promptly at the flood, it
will certainly recede and leave US stranded, high
and dry, on the shoals of poverty Augusta
county, situated near the centre of the Valley
and having one line Of railway from East to
West, if she will now seize the opportunity Of
fered her and secure one or both of the propo-
sed lines through the Valley, she may make
herself a great railroad and commercial centre,
and have her inexhaustible sources Of wealth
speedily developed, her mines of valuable ores
opened and pouring oat their treasures her
fields enriched with cheap fertilizers and her
produce carried cheaply to the best markets -
furnaces, foundries, workshops, factories, -four
ishing stores with cheap wares, churches, de-
potts. and school-houses, with teemng, pros
porous and happy population in all her borders
But If, IN her penny-wlse and pound-foosh
policy, she now refuses to subscribe her small
quota to the Valley Railroad, and thereby de-
feats that enterprise and discourages, by so do
ing, the Shenandoah road, those enterprises,
with the capital at their command, will be di-
verted into other channels, and go to build thor
oughfares and carry prosperity to sections Of the
country that know how to profit by them. The
Ches. Il Ohio r. r. Company have resolved
to have their road a direct line from Kanawha
to Norfolk. (fhis the writer states from posi-
tive knowledge direct from the parties and not
by what has been developed This will leave
Staunton and Augusta with only an old circui-
tous local railroad track OF no general public
value, which may be abandoned altogether, un-
less the countries ON its line will undertake to
keep it up, and if they do, it will cost Augusta
county more to keep it up than it will now to
oil *bo
county, thus cut off from general railroad COM
munication, her men of enterprise and capital
will leave her for better fields Of operation, her
young men, when they grow up, will find no
avenues to success at home, and will desert her
for more prosperous sections of the country -
Her farms will be worn out and deserted, pow
erty, desolaiion and want will brood over all her
borders, and the owls will hoot at their folly
This is nc fancy sketch. We live In an age of
progress, and We must either ride ON the wave
to success, or we must be content to fall back
into oblivion We cannot stand still if we
would; we cannot plod along In The old beaten
track that our fathers did, for the world has
gone far ahead Of their times. Our fathers
kept up with the times in which they lived, and
we should do the same. 1t is as great folly for
us to talk of doing without railroads, steam,
machinery, and modern Improvements, as it
would have been for them to have abandoned
their houses, farms and agricultural implements
and adopted the life of the wild Indians around
them. Aud for what do you propose to sacri-
fce all the prosperity to be had with these rail-
roads? Ga account of paltry tax that cannot
in any event, exceed of one per cent. per an
num on your property, and IN all probability
will never have to be paid at all, as it is almost
certain that the road will pay dividend that
will meet the tax and yield an income besides
1t is true the Central road did not pay such div
idends, but it began nowhere and went to no
place in particular. 1t never was finished, had
no connections West of Gordonsville till after
the war, aud was nearly destroyed by the war !;
in other words, it was failure aud yet is there
any man in Augusta county so far demented
that he would be willing to take back the coun-
ty subscription into the county treasury and
have the Central X. h. blotted out of exist
ence2 You know there is not. You have got
ten times the worth Of your money, and, for
shame, let US hear no more about that ptifu
$40, 0OO Besides, this tax, if it ever has to be
paid, will not be called for until 20 years from
the time the subscription is made, when, if we
get the roads. the population and wealth of the
county will be at least ten times as great as now
end your ability to pay proportlonately lncreas-
ed, and for every dollar you are asked to sub
scribe, FIVE dollars in ready money viii be ex-
pended among you in building the road, reliev-
ing you OF the present nara times ana scarcity
| OF money. It will take at least 81, 100000 to
build the road through the county Consider
the effect of having that amount put in active
circulation ia the county, remember your need
of money to pay up old scores, and, above all,
to meet the heavy taxes that are not Of your
own choosing, but ase to be imposed upon you
for free schools, and other Radical devices. =
| Remember, these taxes must be paid, nQleus
| uoiens, and where is the money to come from
| from no possible source that at present can be
dis covered if you reject this overture of capital
from Baltimore and the lower Valley counties.
The fact is, you must have this money, and get
it by voting the subscription by Augusta coun-
tY, or financial ruin is inevitable. Do not con-
tent yourself with voting yourself, but go to
work and arouse your neighbors to the impor-
tanee of the crisis, and see to it that the coun-
Ety is saved PKOGRESS.s
RAPHINE, VA. sgrfi
Vindicator and Virginian please copy.