The daily dispatch. [volume] (Richmond [Va.]) 1850-1884, 1870-03-19
The Great AbSurSitv.

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The Great Absurdity.
There are some things III the world SO
plain that there can be no mistake about
them. One of these is that q straight rail
road running from Bristol to Norfolk, and
leaving this city fifty miles to the north
of the point of junction with Richmond
road, is not the best road for her COM
merce or for any travel that may be for
her benefit. This is undcniable. The
"air-line' from Lynchburg to Norfolk
was avowedly built for that city, not for
this. Can any sort of management make
it as good highway for Richmond as for
| Norfolk Can communication between
| Richmond and the Southwest through the
elbowed junction with that airline, meet
the requirements of speed and dispatch,
which are Indispensable to success in the
struggle for trade in these days? No, no !
The man is crazy who says it can.
What are the tables now-showing what
| Richmond gains hy Il route go much 10 her
disadyantage-but proofs that her enter;
prise and manufacturing force triumphs,
| to some extent, over the disadvantage
| What is it, furthermore, but proof that
with Richmond airline to Lynchhurg
we should receive much larger trade
Look at the passenger returns, and see
how the business drops off at Lynchburg.
4 very large majority Of those who are
only travelling from Lynchhurg 10 Rich
mond take the Nortlside lines. What more
need we say9 You may have travel with
out trade, but you cannot have trade with
out travel. What are We TO deduce from
the fact that the consolidated line has large
through freight and only local travel?
Why, that there IL no trade III Virginia IN
that freight. Let Norfolk answer.
Make the most of consolidation, and tell
us even then that this "air-lnc TO Nor
folk is so beneficial to Richmond that il
is all she can ask-tcll us that il is as good
! for Richmond as for Norfolk, and what can
| the persons who suy 60 expect in reply
Certainly they canuot expect belief i'll any
such assertions.
If the route is unfortunate for us--if u
line which prcternits the largest city in
the State does injury to the States inte-
rest-if such line has lost trade which it
can never recover because it does not fySa1
nish the necessary sSdsaiIiaie1sss
of LEpSlaaaea !se1se1n @ travel east
Z Y Ssirg-can consolidation make
! it so much better Us to enable it to repair
all injuries that it has inflicted?
| No, gentlemen cannot clear up these
points. Have We not seen the seminariaus
of the consolidation school in Lynchburs
! raising a great war within q few months
| III on the ground that railroad from Clifton
| Forge to Richmond was projected
which left Lynchburg thirty or more
miles to the south Of its point Of
crossing the Orange and Alexandria
railroad? Did not they proclaim that it
would be ruinous to Lynchburg thus to be
cleft out in the cold,' as they styled it
Did they not scorn the proposed connec-
ton with Clifton Forge and the Cheasa-
peake railroad ui0 this junction with the
Orange and Alexandria railroad: And
yet that junction is as good for Lynchburg
as that at Burkcvillc is for Richmond. Pos
sibly Lynchburg is considered by the con-
sulidatiun seminarians rs Q! more import
auce than Richmond, and the trade of that
city of terraces more important to the
State. Still, Richmond might emulate
Lynchburg without offence to the seminal
Rams, admiring, az they do, liz more the
"straight line" consolidation between Gill
ton Forge and Richmond than we do that
between Bristol and Norfolk.
No, people Of Richmond, suffer not
Yourselves TO lie lulled into d sense of
safety BY any of the boasted advantages OF
the "stright- shoot" 10 Norfolk, consoi:-
dated or not consolidated. Whatever Ii
does for lie is only proof Of the attractions
OF this city, in spite of disadvantages any
increase under the Inconvenience and de-
triment we are now subjected to only
shows us how much greater would be the
increase had We ourselves O straight road
to Lynchburg. We would not only get more
freight, but we could divide the travel with
the Orange road by running passengers
through from Lynchburg Ill three hours
Thus we would get travel and trade, too
Which will never come 10 Richmond under
the present line, consolidated or not consoii
dated.
Why was Richmond left out in thu
cold -" 10y the projectors Of the Southsld'
line ?-those men who leaped upon tint
great wave of grand ideas vibrating from
mountain to Seab0urd ?" 1t is only fou
miles further from Lynchburg to Norfolk
by Richmond than it is By those p,omisin!
commercial marss Burkevillc and Black
, and Whites. And yet those four mile
we're deemed 50 important, and Eichmon'
60 insignificant, that they could not be sacri
feed for her sake, although she was large
| than the four other largest cities IN tn
State, and paid one-thirtee nth part oil III
revenue of the whole State
, The folly then perpetrated cannot d
retrieved by consolidation
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Some one should teach the Washlngto
Cyoho how IN snell the names of the tW