Bristol news. [volume] (Bristol, Va. & Tenn.) 1867-189?, 1871-08-18

TIE SNOTn report OI NOi. II. II. OWeH,
President, to the Board of Public
Works, of Va, in 1867:
RATES on FREIGHT PER TON PER MILE
CHARGED.
On first class freight cents.
81 Second a.
Average rate on all classes 6.6S7
1.-The above applies to local .freights.
The charge OH through. frcights on an
average is q cents per ton per mile,
Thus it is seen, that up to the very
time when the advocates of Antf-COn-
solidation went out of power, they
were not only secretly carrying all the
through freight they could get, but
actually charging tocdkshippcrS three
times as much as they did on these de
decried and abused through freights,
and even with this, they had about
run the road so deep IN the mire of
debt and decay, that all the men in
Washington county would have been
unequal to the task of lifting it out.
but for the Consolidation trump spade
which so deeply hOrrifies Virgin all.
So then, Mr.. "Virgin an" out of
your own friends mouths, do we nail
the assertion to the counter, as libel
that this practice of " carrying through
freights at low prices aud of devOlv-
ing heavy charges OH local produc-
tions" is new and strange condition
of things. Col. Owen charged q cents
and Gen. Malone 2.35 cents, and
Quantity and classification being con-
sidered, the rate is about the same.
Col. Owen charged 6.6S7 cents on To-
cal freight and Gen. Malone charges
ABS cents, this latter item Is NEW and
deserves to be repeated-that by open
ly securing for the Road, all the
through business which could lie car
ried (which is Mr.. McDaniel's theory
to reduce the cost of transportation
Gen. Malone is carrying local freight
tOl 1T I'm zen l8TsSS llldIl " ClS IiIC
viously charged. We guess "our far
mers, merchants and manufacturers T"
can stand this change and any other of
like character which can be made.
Again he tells us. that Virginia
has actually lost population in the last
decade" and he wants all people with
eyes and ears to know this fact. Who
does not know that poor old Virginia
has lost population in the last ten
years ? For five years she bore upon
her bosom the tide of war, and i'm de-
fence of her soil gave to the embrace
of death thousands of her noblest and
bravest SONS. while the demon of de-
struction, with flaming torch, carried
devastation and ruin in his track
After the war, in her poverty, she
could not furnish homes and subsist-
ence for all of the sons who remained
to her, and thousands of them left to
seek homes elsewhere; but the truth
remains, that the population of Vir-
ginia in 1870 was 500 in excess of that
of 1850, though she has not kept pace
with the richer states of the Union,
aud the reason we have given above.
We are further told that our cities are
declining, that our trade in general
merchandise with the West is being
rapidly withdrawn from us. Now, on
account of the Ubiquitous tax on tobat
co, which is the chief staple of Lynch
burg, that city is perhaps the least pros
porous of any in our state, and so far
from falling off i'm her trade in gen.
eral merchandise with the Wcsti is
the truth of the case, that if "Virgin ].
An" dare attempt toprove his assertion
or coniroVert ours, We will prove to
him, that year By gear, from 1867 TO
the present time, her trade in general
merchandise with the West, has been
constantly increasing and enlarging.
As to the assertion he makes that |
''cheap tobacco, wheat, bacon &c. &C.,
from the rich West, are being intro
duced in our Virginia markets TO conf
pete with the more costly productions /
of our soilr we have this to say, that
our cities are complaining of the Road
because more of these commodities
don't come 70 them-all that we can
hear of on this line, tOhich do stop,
are mainly the products of East Ten
ncssoe, a country scarcely richer in
anything or less costly ia its produc-
tons, than the beautiful region of
Virginia.
As to a remedy for what he terms
evils lie. the subversion of every sound
principle OF railway management in
the United States) being found in the
regulation of tariffs by a legislative
there is but one reply and
that is, that the remedy would be worse
than the disease. The idea of set of
men who would be selected at random
from the whole face of Virginia, (pos-
sibly presidcdov 10y man who new
er saw a railroad, converting to make
fixed rules for the government of the
shifting currents of trade carries alb
surdity on its face unless somebody ace
rot Of thinks he might tocdgc hiss spade
into the treasury OF one of those pay