Memphis daily appeal. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1847-1886, 1871-02-28
AFRICA ON Hi CARS.
Tbs Mississippi Legislature and the Regu-
latl0a Of Railroad Ghargss-A Hard
Subject to Deal Vita.

The bin introduced in the Legislature
of Mississippi by Mr., Landrum. the eX-
cellent representative of L3Wndes, which
proposes to regulate freight charges On
railways, involves questions as difficult
Of proper solution, as that which Prssi-
dent Wicks discussed most sensibly be-
fore a committee OF the same laW-makiug
body. The questions of negro social
rights On railways, and of the possibility
of defining a fixed and just system Of
freight charges, engage the attention Of
many legislative bodies and of railroad
agents and Owuers.
h SOCIAL QUESTION.
The late Lord Lyndhurst, in the British
Parliament, in the ~plsnitude of years and
senatorial wisdom, and with all the
sOlemnity becoming his judicial hOnOrs
and experience as a statesman, declared
that there existed al aiienism of Ian
guage and Of blood" between Ger
tain peoples which rendered their
homogeneous fusion an chronological i'm
possibility. "The Irish" said the vener-
able Lord Chancellor, are aliens in Ian
gusge, in creed, and in blood " from the
British. He prOnounced difficulties grow
ing out Of differences of race, even az
these affect Irishmen and Englishmen,
insuperable and incurable. II this be
true Of two races of white men, as shown
in ths exodus Of Irishmsn from Ireland
that they may escape contact with Eng
lishmen, how utterly impossible any So
cial or political fusion of white and black
races, utterly dissimilar in all their phys
ical and moral characteristics. The truth
of Lord Lyndhurst's assertion is illustrate
ed to-day, even in New York, where Irish
distiuctIyeness Of character and hsbitudes
Of thought and action is maintain
ed, and yet Northern statesmen re-
fuse TO recognize the more i~nsuperabI6
difficulties involved in these relations
of negro and Caucasian, which lawyers
at Jackson, Mississippi, seek in vain to
solve. Palpably enough, any statute de-
to cOnbravane natural laws will
prove worse, as happens in England and
Ireland, than imperative, and IL is a
Of Craftsmanship that avs which
not be executed should never be
enacted. Therefore, the wisdom Of Gov
Acorn, who would suffer these
social questions presented by railroad
managers to regulate themselves.
THROUGH M WAY FREIGHTs.
Last year the Erie road carried I,069, Dds
through freight, which paid g. O59,-
79I, while the wsy-freight carried in
lie same time was 4.0jS, 635 tons, from
through passengers were 253, 325, paying
y, 006, 823; way passengers, 3,l86, AZ in
number, paid S2,2l2,044 10 thus appears
hat the whole burden of main
this great road rests upon
.Ocsl, or way" business. Despite all
Efforts and vast expenditures used IN
controlling through freight and travel,
here results no adequate remuneration,
md it ls believed by many thoughtful
men who have carefully Investigated this
question that if the Erie and other roads
would abandon the struggle for through
.rafic, and cOnhne their attention to the
Encouragement Of local business, the rail-
'Oads, and surely the States and people
hat build them, would be enriched as
hey are nov plundered to pay losses on
through freight and travel. The facts
with reference to the Erie road per-
ain to all Others. The entire burden Of
maintenance of railways, as now managed,
alls upon way traffic and travel, and the
points, as shown in the fortunes
# Mobile and st. Louis as affected by
he Iron Mountain and Mobile and Ohio
Dads, are enriched, as LOWndes and
counties Of Mississippi are
impoverished, Louisville and New Or
cans are the benehci8ries of McComb's
hrougn rates, and losses sustained are
made up by heavy charges imposed upon
he people Of Mississippi, who were first
heavily taxed to build the road, and are
low robbed to enrich remote cities and
he railroad owners, and the people are
creed to send the products of their in
.ustry to markets a preferable by
ystsms of charges and schedules that
all rival railroad lines and cities.
The farmer Is suffered to have no choice
f markets.
FATAL CONSEQUENCES.
The entire burden of maintaining these
Dads falls upon the people who built
hem and gave them their franchises, In
Eastern Mississippi and along the Mis-
ippt Central there is, as along the Erie
DAD in the heart Of New York, an utter
rOstration of agricultural and mechan-
cal industry. IT the people make corn,
T wheat, or bacon, or peanuts
nything save cOttOn-such are
normOus freight charges that mar
are practically inaccessible. It I
ssults that farmers abandon the !
~; lands the richest, and in a climate
be most attractive on the globe, are
~bandOned, and farmers go West that
hey may dwell near the termini of the
reat through lines Of railways. Missis-
.ppi to-day Is undergoing the sure pro-
9ss Of depopulatiOn and decay that has J
efalien the interior districts Of New
'Ork because OF the wars Of Fisks, Van
and Edgar ThOmpsons struQ- 4
ling for the control Of through freiehts y
I'D travel, gained at the cost Of the farm
rs ana MeEenauLa OF the interior
Ohio begins to complain 7
{ evils here defined like the peo-
ie Of central New York. EVERYWHERE
10 system Of railroad management ard :
,mpetition is denounced as fatal to the
5st interests of the country, and we are
Ipecially well pleased that one Of the )
intelligent members of the Legisla- }
IRE Of Mississippi has undertaken the a
SIX Of edsottng q radical reform. ),
H.
THE ALABAMA LEGISLATURE,
The Alabama House Of representative. s
a msjority Of between twenty-five
ID thirty Democrats, passed a resolution, y
a vote Of IS 20 II, on Friday, the path, =
cogniziDg the validity of the s., 600. GOO y
sn 20 the Alabama and Chattanooga p
Company, and also authorizing 8
q directing the Treasurer TO ascertain y
9 amount Of bonds loaned TO and IN NJ
rsed for said company, and to pay the
on the same whenever the. c0n-
are presented by bona 6ds holders.
70 Legislature intends to preserve che
edit Of their state and carry forward !