The daily dispatch. [volume] (Richmond [Va.]) 1850-1884, 1871-03-06
Alttlutor.6 lispattt.
Enllias and Fallacies.

Follies and Fallacies.
The debate in the House Of Delegates w
Saturday upon the proposl1lotth o Rich.
yoop. of Halifsx, to hand Owe, .'' Govern,
mond aud Petersburg raiiroau w n,r tho
m,uosr was quite remarkap.e ~. Nv
sr,orm Of folltcs and fallacies II uese, N.Y."
s" a,o h y, Of the song of Dir. WOOD
~. ossnc,stes was that the Richmond
a. "a d., road was about to pass into
az. anu .,nae ~ men who lived without the
900 So and therefore the State must hand IL
over to Gen. MALONE to prevent the lot
eipners from using 1t to the injury OF tne
State. .......-..... ..-....
The proposition is monstrous one, ana
Is utterly hostile to the introduction OF cap
ital into the State of Virginia. ANY man
who invests his money within the STATE OF
Virginia is entitled to the protection OF the
laws and to such participation IN us man
aoement rs the magnitude OF their lnter-
ests iustities. But these wise statesmen take
quite different view Of the relations OF
these capitalists to the State and the PEG.
ple. The Investments of the stranger tney
seem to regard as the property OF an alien
in time of war. They consider such prop
erty liable to confscation. They con-
tend that the privilege of looking after 1t
shall be denied to its owners on the ground
that they will assuredly use it to the In
Jury of the state-nay, the inevitable inter-
ence from the views Of these men is that it
is q crime to invest money in Virginia, the
treatment to which they propose to subject
the owners of the capital being in the line
of Acknowledgement and the deprivation OF
those owners of all control over their own
money. .., - .4.,,.., 49,
All that was necessary to justify the
measure of disqualification and spoliation
was to find out how much money stranger
had invested. General MAHoEE's detectives
only had to discover that SOMEBODY outside
the State had invested somewhere about
$500, 600 in the Richmond and Petersburg
railroad to warrant the State in transferring
the control of the road to Gen. MALONE
The investment of that sum suggested at
once suspicious of evil intentions against
the peace and prosperity of the Common
wealth. L1 .a.. a1.<
What monstrous proposition 3! We give
the leaders in the foray upon the property
of the strangers the credit of not believing
their own stories; but they contrive to de-
ceive the more simple and illogical, whose
votes they are glad to capture as the means
of capturing the coveted property.
Another abominable fallacy is the idea
that railroad owned by what Is called
Z" foreign capital" must be inimical to the
State through which it runs. The Virginia
politicians know nothing about modern
railroading. Let them travel and get out
| of the reach of the waters where they angle
| with pin-hooks, and they will learn that
! railroads irrigate and enrich the country
through which they pass, and that railroad
managers consider that their greatest thrift
and prosperity comes from the coun-
/ try bordering their lines; that the
neat farms and villages which line the
route for miles each side Of it give the
trains their best and largest business.
These are built up by railroad policies now
prevailing in all sections where railroads
are best understood and most successful;
and we are sorry to say we have in Flr-
glnia not one single example to which we
may refer for the truth OF this truthful
statement. Yet sapient eXpounders OF rail-
/ road interests in Virginia insist upon 1t
that it is only here in Virginia that in man.
acement OF railroads we can rely for the
| protection and the advancement of Flr-
ginia interests Such are the absurditles
advanced in the Legislature Of Virginia.
The enthusiastic member from Clarke
| (Mr. ARSETT) switched off upon patriotic
impulse, in which he seemed to regard the
war as still raging. He proposed to fall
back upon the James river line and en-
trench! He would not allow commerce to
cross the river. The railroads must there
stop, like pickets Of opposing lines look
ing at one another, a." cussing" little.
| This "curl" was made with an ardor
that threw out the perspiration; but we
doubt whether the gentleman had consid-
| cred it deliberately.
Virginia has been divided once-is it pro-
posed to cut her in two once more? Can
| any man talk of thus obstructing the COM
| mercc within the State upon line with
out seeing that an obstruction of that sort
cannot endure without division Of the
State? But the wonder is that any one
| could suppose break of the lines of trans
portation in the middle of the State can
have any existence save of the most ephem-
eral character. It would be so hostile to
intercourse, to commerce-nay, to civiliza-
ton itself-that our own people would rise
| up against it and end it.
Mr.. DANIEL, of Lynchburg, uttered the
| most sensible speech we have heard in the
Legislature for some time. He secuted the
idea Of trusting only to the control Of Vir-
ginians and Virginia stockholders. He
could not trust to such fortuitous circum-
stances. We could have no guarantee that
/ stock held in Virginia to-day would be so
| held tomorrow any more than we could
tell to-day the color of to-morrow's clouds.
| He believed that stock was held in Virginia
now only because it was not OF sufficient
value to induce capitalists to buy it. AS
soon as it became thus valuable it would
pass into the hands of northern capitalists.
Very Justly Mr.. DANIEL viewed the decla-
rations of the friends of the proposition to
wrest the Richmond and Petersburg road
from the hands Of the company that now
controlled it as hostile to the introduction
| of capital from abroad, while we had been
steadily, by daily publications, inviting it
to come in. When it comes. and the capt.
talists ask for objects of investment, we
recommend our railroads, and when the
/ mnnar l. ;nyasfaa oha1,ld ha ,,ao..