Staunton spectator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1849-1896, 1870-07-12
Editor of the Staunton Spectator.

Dear Sir--In the Spectator of June 2Sth,
you have admitted an article from person sign
ing himself Augusta, which much suprised
myself, and others who had supposed you friend
ly to the Valley R. r. 1t may have emanated
from personal friend, or an old supporter of
your paper, or person holding position in
society which gave him an apparent right to
sides of the question. But let me ask you if
some one should write an article for your pa
per in favor of burning the town of Staunton,
or in favor of burning all the barns and mills in
the county, urging. the citizens of the county to
go to work and do it. Would you publish it
without comment, as you did this article? And
yet such an article would have much less tend
ency to lnjure the county than one you gave
room for-lst, because it would be less likely to
be needed, and 2nd, if it was heeded and car
ried out, the county would be able to recover
from the effect Of such destruction, and rise
again to prosperity in far less time, as we know
from our late war experience, than it possibly
can from the consequences of defeat to the Val
ley r. r., yet perhaps it was well enougtI to let
the public see what the reasons and arguments
OF the opposition are so that we may know how
to combat them, and expose their weakness
and absurdity. The great bugbear with EAU
gusta" seems to be the tax tor the enormous
sum of 100000 which has scared him out of
his sober senses, and set him to raving about
mortgage on his farm to pay it. Let us take his
own estimate, that the road will be worth no
thing at all to any body, and that the county
will have to pay the whole subscription and in
terest for 80 years amounting to $840, ,000-
How much. is the amount to each person in
Augusta? By the census of 1860, there was
II, 749 inhabitants, and at the lowest estimate
of natural increase the population must now be
10 (f)O and IN tho thIrtu m durIn O
which the Interest, and at the end of which the
principal is to be paid, the natural increase,
without the aid of the road, will make the num-
ber $4,000, which, divided into the $4,000,
gives $40 so to each person In thirty years or
3lS cents year But says Augusta the
tax is to be laid upon the land, not the popula-
ton. Then let us see how it stand. l have
not before me a statement Of the number Of
acres of land in Augusta county, but, by taking
the scale Of the map. 1t cannot be far from
100000 acres, which will make the tax $l335
cents per acre in 80 years, or less than an aver
age of 49 cents per acre, per year. All! poor
Augusta, he is going to be ruined by having
his land mortgaged for Al cents per acre, or 81
cents for each member of his family. There
are facts and figures that cannot lie, and how
contemplate it makes the complaints of the
croackers. Now is Augusta any more hap
py in his facts than his figures. The promises
and advantages to which he refers are In a good
measure as certain to follow as day follows
night Railroads are no new experiment-they
have brought such advantages wherever built
all over the world, and the time has come when
no country can prosper without them, not such
road, as the G. & 0. r. R., has been running
into the mountains and stopping, doing only a
and Richmond, but great through lines such as
the Valley r. r., and the G. & O. r. R., will
be when completed. Augusta asserts there
is no Valley Il. r. Company. can find no
milder term to apply to this statement than
that it is false, and without foundation, refuted
In the very letter he refers to for proof
The Valley Railroad Company is duly organ
lied under an express charter from the Legis-
lature Of Virginia, with President, Directors,
and all the proper officers Of Company with
power to sue and be sued, and transact any bus
mess lawful for company to do. 1t is equally
false that there are no private stockholders
The amount of private stock [ am not able to
give but this | know That $lOO, 900 was sub
scribed by individuals, before the Company was
organlzed-that | am stock-holder myself,
and that |, with others, subscribed after the
500, 900 was complete Is the city Of Balt-
more, the b 4 o. r. R. Co., the counties of
Rock bridge, Botetourt and Roanoke, the towns
of Lexington and Staunton all fools to suscribe
So, 900, 600 to a company that does not exist
What pity this Scion did not arrive in time
and put us all on our guard He has been very
direlect of duty to hold his peace until all ex-
cept Augusta has been swindled Again. ''Au-
gusta' tells us that the B. & 0. r. R., by
holding 81, 900, 600 of the $4,2OO.OOO required
to build the road, will hold controlling vote,
chow p and will manage the affair so badly that
we will lose both principal and interest, and,
in the next breath, tells us they manage their
own road so well that they make one million OF
dollars month. He also tells US that we have
no security that the terms of subscription will
be complied with. The County Court has pro-
vided that the bonds Of the county are not to
be given until the whole subscription sufficient
to build the road is complete; that the money
shall all be expended in the bounds Of Augusta
county, and the stock of the road secured te
the county. In fact every guarantee that the
court could throw around the citizen has beer
done. The fact is, Augusta is blindly beat
ing the air in frantic despair at the idea of hav
to follow all the wanderings of his distemperet