The daily dispatch. [volume] (Richmond [Va.]) 1850-1884, 1871-02-15

..,. Richmond, Frcuo - missing link
o. sns ,siIroad. Even On ~" Nth of Alex
scm an,, twenty-seven m"es ,n ay after their
o s oaS they had not, SIN 'non s : s,n,,n 10.
as.J charter was eran'eo'
sfnenas" work although they haa ooas'eu
oo.el ., to have 1000 men at work on
:. ~ ss;tb,n thirty days after the enactment VI
that chartsr; and to construct even 'h's
work they sought the aid of stockholoess VI
the Richmond, Fredericksburg and fo'o-
mac Company.
gut If thov had any intention OF con-
structipg the proposed road to hicnh''""'
why did they make the urgent ot'e'' %
rather the importunatc demand, 10 pun
cnase.-not the Richmond, Fredericksburg
and Potomac railroad, nor even al OF It's
stock-but merely a CONTROLLING INTsNhS'
for fifty per cent. more, as they aiicSe' 'n''
its market price? Why indeed, but because
they knew that they could well afford TO pay
more than three times that marker p'fce LOT
this MAJORITY merely Of shares ana YET
save more than ONE MILLION DOLLARS OF the
cost of building another road. SeVenty-nVe
hundred shares (Which would give that
complete control Of the Richmond, Fred
ericksburg and Potomac railroad), at TWO
HUNDRED DOLLARS per share, or more than
three times their present market price,
would amount to only 81 800, 900, while it
would be confessedly impossible to build
another railroad from Quantico to Rich
mond for dollar less than g, 500, 600, or an
excess of q, 000,0 00.! Now, with such
margin for bargaining with those holding
the majority of this stock, can any one in
dulge in n credulity so tnfantite as to be-
lieve that these shrewd Pennsylvania rail-
road spectators will be willing to throw
away this million or more of dollars just
for the pleasure or pride of having another
parallel road to share with the road now
muse that business insufficient for one,
THE WHOLE of which they might enjoy by
purchasing for million Of dollars less
majority Of the stock Of the Richmond,
Fredericksburg and Potomac Company
And why is it, if they entertain any such
idea, that every one Of the many bills they
have intro duced into the Legislature, eX-
cept the first-which was mere blind or
mask for the others-contains provisions
for the acquisition by them Of this very
CONTROLLING INTEREST in the stock OF the
Richmond, Fredericksburg and Potomac
Company? And why is the GREAT decisive
struggle made in both Houses over those
very provisions? And why did Mr.. G. B.
Roberts, in his various lectures to the COM
mittees Of the Legislature, dwell with so
much earnestnesS and JUNCTION Oh the ne
cessity of EXCLUSIVE CONTRACTS making the
achole cham Of railroads between Philade-
phia and the cotton and Gulf States uir-
tudlly one rodd-under one arbitrary and
exclusive control Of the Pennsylvania Rail-
road Company? Why did he argue and
insist before the Senate committee that, to
permit any company owning any interme-
date link of railroad in that continuous
chain to have any voice in fixing the tolls
on through traffic, or in the terms of the
secret contracts for freights made by his
soliciting agents stationed throughout the
South, would be to "erect toll-gates and
create distractions" This own words] on
that through business which would render
impracticable such through-freight busl-
ness? Gould he hare such arbitrary and
undiutded control with taco roads betceen
Richmond and Washington, connecting at
both ends eotth roads competing ec'th has
o,cn9 Who can be so infatuated as to be-
Ieve this:
If, then, it be true beyond question or
doubt that there never will be another rail-
road built undev this Washington and Rich
mond railroad bill, what becomes OF all the
arguments for it based on such an eXpecta-
ton: What is Virginia, or are Nirgnians,
to gain by having no additional railroad
built, no additional capital invested in the
State, but merely the capital of these Penn
sylvania railroad spectators substituted in
our Richmond, Fredericksburg and Poto-
mac railroad for that of the present stock
holders, of whom the majority, including
the state, are in Virginia, and Of the others
large proportion natives though not resi-
dents of Virginia. How long shall this fatal
delllsion last? Until too late to avert its
disastrous consequences.
A NIRGINIAN.