Nashville union and American. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1868-1875, 1871-12-02
LOUISVILLE ANDNAsRyFLLE RAIL.
ROAD.
General Freight Agent Smith writes a
Private letter which has been
Made Public.
The Nashville and Chattanooga Rail-
road Compelled TO Abandon
Their Position.
EvansvIlle Route Cutting Rates, etc.

Evansville Route eating Rates, etc
The Cincinnati Gazette has come into
possession of an important letter from M
II. Smith, General Freight Agent of the
! Louisville and Nashville railroad, which i:
published in its issue of Wednesday last. IL
! introducing the letter the Gazette calls at
tention to the following paragraph from q
report of meeting held in that city in June
last, which is as follows:
For some time past it has been the object
of the Louisville and Nashville Railroad tc
spool" Nashville, and force all agents, other
than those for the road, out of the city,
| (Nashville) issue its own bills Of lading, dc
| all the business at Nashville fall the lines
| itself, distribute the cotton and other freight
among the various lines of transportation
to suit itself, then fix the rate for all lines,
and prorate with connecting lines. If any
! line refused to come into the arrangement,
it would charge that line arbitrary rates.
The merchants of Nashville and
! points South feel very sore over the policy
of the Louisville and Nashville railroad, land
one meeting has already been held at Nash
| vile to give expression to the feeling
on the subject. There is, from all we could
| learn, disposition to ignore the Louis
vile and Nashville Railroad altogether, and
ship east by the Virginia Air Line to Nor
folk. This would cut Cincinnati out of an
immense carrying and commission trade
that she has had for years. Another effect
of the above policy viii be to advance the
rates of freight from the South, especially
for the next four months, when We viii have
less water in the river, so that boats cannot
get over the falls, and the canal at Louis
vile will be closed 10 the passage of boats
while the work of its enlargement is il
progress. Competitive transportation fOl
many hundred miles is thus destroyed by
one monopoly, whose line is little less thar
200 miles long. Cincinnati is, therefore, to
great extent, at the mercy Of the Louisville
and Nashville Railroad.
The Gazette further remarks that the
sequel to the above is contained in the letter
of Mr.. Smith, which is as follows
LOUISVILLE, Nov. 13, 187I.-Dear Sir
regret to inform you that we have been
compelled to open the door for low rates OF
freight from Nashville, by instructing our
agent to meet the rates of competing lines.
The character of competition from Nash
vile is such that this course on
our part, in my opinion, renders low rates
from Nashville certain. When this COM
pany decided to put its bill of lading into
the Nashville market for through business,
there was, of course, something of cOmmo-
ton among the various agents who were thus
thrown upon their resources. They exert
ed themselves to convince shippers that
there was strong probability of their hav-
ing a remunerative rate on their
shipments to Seaboard cities, something, by
the way, believe they have. The shippers
professed great alarm at this, and believe
appointed committee to wait upon the Of
fcers of the n. & c., E. & K, and E. II. d
Y. Railroad Evansville route) to urge up
on them to enter into agreement with this
company for the maintenance of rates.
Subsequent developments warrant the be-
lief that the roads named acceded to the
request of the committee, and thus secured
for themselves the enviable reputation,
heretofore occupied by 'McCoy," of bene-
factors. This company started out by pub
fishing tariff of rates to all points North
and East at what was considered very low
rates, hoping that they would be more
easily maintained, believing it was
maintenance of any rate from Nashville
was possibility. The results 50 far have
not been encouraging. The Nashville and
Chattanooga Railroad Company, using the
great Southern freight line via Charleston,
undertook to break eetton rates to New
York, making rates over that line 10 cents
per 100 pounds less than "all rail-" The
condition of the line at the time was such
as to render a collision between the Gene
raj Freight Agent of our line and the ship
pers apparent, as the Nashville and Chatta-
nooga was badly crowded with freight that
paid them from to 4 cents per ton per
mile, and was dependent upon this company
for cars. SO well satisfied were we Of this
fact that we were determined not to reduce
the all rail rates, but TO make strong effort
TO compel the Nashville and Chattanooga
Railroad to abandon their position, and |
am able to report that we were successful.
Col. Cole, President, having agreed with the
Vice President and Superintendent to make
the Air Line and Charleston Line rates on
cotton the same, 1. E., cts. less than all rail
rates. 1t should be borne in mind that the
n. & c. Company only reduced the rates
on cotton to New York, and did not in any
way interfere with our rates to other points,
or on other articles. | have now to COM
plain of the evansville Route" and our
mutual connections. While We have been
contending with the y. & c. Road solely in
the interests of our connections, refusing to
reduce the rates, but depending upon our
ability to compel them to abandon their pO-
sition by other means, and in the meantime
permitting them to take several thousand
bales of cotton from US, using our cars TO
transport it, at a time when our own South
bound business was suffering for the want
of them, and we were hauling large num-
bers of empty cars from Nashville TO Louis
vile, the Evansville route has been permit
ted to cut rates on all articles and
to all points. We anticipated that all
irregularities by that route would be
checked by our connections from Indianqp-
oils, and therefore simply contented our
selves with reporting them. 1t is proper to
saw that we place no reliance upon the Off
GERS of Edgetield, Henderson and Nashville
road. Our experience with them has con-
WINGED us that they are not responsible for
their contracts, and we cannot, therefore,
make any with them. Mr.. Shraeder has
been invited to cooperate with us in MAIN
tanning rates at Nashville and elsewhere,
and always reports in the affirmative.
When irregularities are reported 10 him he
states that he has notified Pitcairn" or is
trying to maintain rates, evil not sustain
fast freight lines" etc, "Star Line is doing
likewise" etc, etc.
While we have been making every pos
s;ble effort to drive the "scalpers" of the
Mccoy genius out of the business, refusing
to transmit shipments for them, except at
fictitious local rates. the Evansville route
holds them up. The agent of the so-called
"E. T. Co." has the impudence to pretend
to offer us his business at same rates as via
Evansville, and really taunts us with our
inability to drive him out or meet his rates.
The shipment of cotton from Nashville TO
Eastern cities via Evansville, from Sept. %
to Nov. 8, are estimated at 1880 bales,
against $50 via Louisville. No shipments
of Importance have been made via Louis
vile the past fifteen days. Yours truly,
NJ. II. SMITH, G. F. A.