Staunton spectator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1849-1896, 1870-07-19

Thomas J. Niche, John B. Baldwin,
John Echols, Nicho. K. Trout
G. r. Harris, VIM. A. Burke
Ro g. Bickle, George Baylor,
Joseph A. Wadde1l, James FL. Skinner,
Thomas G. Elder S. Travers Phillips
John NJ Hardy, w. I'll. German,
p B. Hoge. H. NJ Bell
5l DAVID FULTZ Chairman.
G. W. S. TURNER, Secretary.
To the Voters of Augusta County.
On the 9th day of August next you will be
called on to determine by your votes, whether
Valley Rail Road Company. We have been
appointed Central Committee to use such
proper means and arguments and to dissent
nate such information as will induce you to
respond favorably to the question to be SUBJ
mtted for your decision. You will under
stand us, then, as approaching you 10 no par
tizan spirit, as the advocates of no individual
or sectional interests, but as friends of the
proposition, that a great line of Rail Road
shall be carried thirty-four miles through the
heart of Augusta county, and that you, who
we think, will be recipients Of immense bene=
fits to flow from the construction Of this Road
shall help to make it. In various ways you
have given your confidence to many of us in
times past; we think we have not heretofore
deceived you by our counsels, and We now unite
land In this We are sustained, we believe, by
every citizen of the county, in whom, at any
time, you ever reposed your general trust), in
earnestly urging you to vote for the subscrip-
ton. We are influenced In giving this advice,
by considerations too numerous to be stated
here in detail, but we have carefully pondered
them. a4af ~
Communities are generally infuencedin their
actions by two considerations First, do honor
and good repute urge us to follow certain line
of conduct? and Second, does self-interest in
cline us 10 that direction? We are convinced
that both of these considerations demand that
you shall vote for this subscription
Augusta county is the Empire county of
Virginia it is the most populous and wealthy
county in the State. 1t has for many years
been the favored recipient Of public monies,
freely spent in its borders; it has been dis
tingulshed by its support and advocacy of In
ternal improvements, and for its public spirit
it has for many years past been earnestly de-
string the construction of great Rail Road
thoroughfare through the Valley it has, in
connection with delegations from all the Valley
counties, gone, by its delegates in large num-
bers, on two occasions, to the city of Bati-
more once under the immediate auspices
and personal lead Of Gen. Robert E. Lee, Ito
whom the construction of this road is an OBJ
ject of peculiar INTEREST,"; and has urged and
entreated Baltimore to aid in this great enter
prize. The efforts of her citizens, in this re-
gard, after an earnest struggle, have been sue
cessiul. Baltimore has agreed to subsc lbe one
million of dollars; the Baltimore and Ohio
Company has agreed to subscribe another mil
lion; nay, more, the sister counties along the
line of the Road, have subscribed 100000,
aud the Town of Stanton 100000. All this
has been done, in furtherance and part per-
Torrance OF what Augusta county has de-
manded for many years should be done, and
yet all this must 60 for nought-must fall as
water poured on the sand, without the cooper
alton Of Augusta. All the other subscriptions
are conditional, and unless an additional sum
be subscribed by Augusta or some other coun-
ty or Town in the Valley they must all fail =
We know Of no other county which can or will
subscribe an additional sum. We confess that
we shall feel humbled and wounded in our rep
utation, as Augusta county men, ii We turn
our backs on our friends at the crisis of trial,
and refuse to unite with them and the more
SO, should the refusal be made Tor the reason
urged by some for pursuing this line Of con-
duct, that is, that somebody else will do the
work, and we will get the benefits and pay
nothing for them Take an illustration of
this Six nelghbOrs want q road made thro'
district of country for the accommodation
and convenience of ali; five of them raise and
are ready to eXpend the means, on their part, to
pens to live midway between the terminal
points, says to his neighbors-"I want the
road very much it will be a great blessing to
me, but as think you are bound to have it
any how, without my contributions, l will do
nothing and either live without the road, or
enjoy it at your expense" This we say is not
the utterance of an Augusta county man Of
the olden time and we trust no such thought
will be cherished and acted on by any of our
people.
Again, self-interest governs communities
This is too wide field for comment
here, but we venture to say, that there is not
judicious man in the county who will deny
that, to the county as whole, the constrac-
ton and working of this road will be immense-
ly beneficial In the construction OF 1t, simply.
ST. 250, 600 1.-THE far greater portion OF 1t other
peoples money must be spent in Angus a
county we all know how the property holders
and laboring men must thrive and prosper In
the midst of such an outlay. In the working
of it, who can enumerate the blessings it will
confer upon our people? Located as we will
be, just at the point OF intersection OF the
Chesapeake and Ohio and the Valley Rail
Roads, just at the point of competition, our
county in its length and breadth will feel In all
its interests the effect of reduced rates of trans
portation on ali its products and imports-its
-four, corn, bacon, beef, hay, live stock, iron
and the many products it sends abroad and
on the plaster. salt, fertilizers, agricultural i'm
plements and merchandise it imports. Two
great rival markets. Baltimore and Richmond
will compete for our trade; two great rival
lines will compete for our transportation. Who
can doubt that the cost OF transportation Will
be greatly reduced? If reduced even slightly
it will pay the tax ten cents on barrel OF
-four will save the county $4,000 year; one
dollar on a ton of plaster 1.-TWO dollars can cas-
lily be saved) will reduce the cost of that ar
ticle about $4,000 Consider, in addition, the
saving in hayfreight, on live stock and other
tonnage, and we must be of opinion that this
subscription will be no gift, but wise and pay
ing investment.
A great deal has been said about the burden
of the tax. The real and personal property of
the whole county of Augusta, on the basis OF
the assessment of 1856, in part, IS valued at
ST.. 4O7, 695. By the census of 1860. the real
and personal property of the county, exclusive
of slaves, was estimated at $4,000, 600 IN
round numbers; and by the report of the Aud,
itors of Virginia of 1861, the value of the real