The daily dispatch. [volume] (Richmond [Va.]) 1850-1884, 1870-03-11

/, As capital investment, the first-named
| road win attract plenty Of money to COM
plete the work. Such O fine investment
is it, indeed, that no one community
will be permitted by others, equally
1esirous Of such an opportunity for
I a1deome profits, to enjoy it alone. AS
for the Richmond and Lynchburg road,
our city will have to build it, with such aid
as the people along it's line can afford to
give. This road will pay Richmond, and
she will build it-for she can control the
money for that purpose just as soon as she
feels how necessary it is-at no distant day.
ANY hopes of the speedy construction of
any other proposed Virginia lines are based
on slender foundation. The State can
give them no pecuniary aida fact that
should set at rest all newspaper controver-
sizes about the propriety of their construc-
tion. ANY community that has OF can get
the necessary capital can get the right
to build roads as we'll as houses or mills:
If Lynchburg and Norfolk want O road
to Clifton Forge they can build 1t. Capital
is all that is necessary. But if they desire
to enjoy the fruits of the great work of
Virginia, the Chesapeake and Ohio railroad,
and that Mt the expense Of the State, they
are doomed to disappointment. The Legis-
lature may be quite partial to the wishes of
the Southside in this matter, but yet it can
not affect the general laws of trade and
custom enough to induce the Chesapeake
and Ohio Railroad Company to give away
onc-half, or any portion, of their business.
All such fancies are wild in the extreme.
If LYnchburg and Norfolk could secure
a portion of the tonnage that shall
pass into Virginia from the great
West, what could they do with it
Simply forrard it to the next station, re-
ceiving in return only the little tolls that
would arise from handling and transport
ing! This is all they ask or could get il
they had half-dozen lines. 1t is not so,
however, with Richmond. She intends to
manufacture and dispose Of these western
productions here. Here the South can get,
and does now largely supply itself with,
the manufactures which New York, Phila-
delphia, and Baltimore, furnish. Rich
mond has largely the advantage over oil of
her competitors for the central southern
trade in her proximity to these points of
consumption. This proximity has al
ready gained for us these points Of con-
sumption of articles manufactured here
nor. In the manipulation of the pro-
ducts of the West we shall need twenty
thousand operatives. This will increase our
population handsomely, as well as our ia
cilities for building new lines of rail that
shall in turn open new and richer fields for
prosperity and increase. Itrequires no en-
thusiast to foresee the glorious advantages
which we arc beginning to feel in the de-
velOpment Of RichmOnd's trade and intiu-
cnce. 1t is fallacy, however, to imagine
that we are to go up at once like rocket to
this pinnacle of commercial grandeur. 1t
is to be done gradually. The work has been
commenced, and it only remains to remove
all the obstacles that rctard it. And here
we invoke the MD of the press and the peo-
pie. We call upon the press and the peo-
pie to prohibit the transportation through
the State and into it OF foreign manutac-
turcs at lower rate per ton per mile than
is exactcd from our own manufactu-
rers. The people of the State, through
the press and through their representa-
tiycs in the Legislature; can and must
attend to this important and vital point.
It is mistaken notion. II is silly to sup
pose that because this or that line OF rail
transports many tons Of through freight
the people and the State arc prospcring III
proportion to the increase Of tonnage oi
the line. Let this increase go on, and
what will be the result Simply this
Every line running in the same direction
will lid for the great business OF through
transportation, the one comingn little lower
than the other in its rates until foreign
manufactures nGe furnished ut such low
figure that our own manufacturers will be
forced to close their shops and dismiss their
employees: WHO will very naturally seek
employment at those points from which or
roads bring lie cheap goods. This state OF
things will operate the diminution OF our
population and paralyzc the energies
of those who are forced to remain
here. 1t may benefit the few who
own stock in railway companies by slight
dividend twice year, but even they can
i'll afford to hold tenantless houses and stores
with all the dividends dcriYable from rail-
way corporations. Few indeed are so in
sensible to the feelings Of humanity ne to
desire 10 grow rich at the expense oi his
neighbor. who, in every respect, is as ka-
cretlly entitled to the benefits received; for
We regard railroads az public property,
made for the public good. If through
frcights are to make towns and cities great,
Norfolk, and Weldon, and Burkeville, and
Lynchburg, are in the high road to great
ness. Fortuitous circumstances have smiled
upon the one and frowned upon the other
yet essentially they will have the same
claims to. greatness.
The Dispatch fully understands the whole
question, and it il only when it gives such
prominence to unnecessary sguabbling q
with the provincial press upon unimportant
| questions that We feel inclined to take hold
of the sacred quill. Don't forget the low
tariff on Richmond and Virginia manufac-
lures. Here is the point. VIRGINIrs.
For the Dispatch.