Litchfield enquirer., 1872-04-04

Thara is one subject which ouahk &o ra.
 easVe fhe immediate attention of every
 e;firsn of Bridgeport. We refer to the
 comrIairts made by people on the line of
 fhe Housatonic railroad of the tariff on
 freiQhts from this city. We published .
 dav or two ago acommunication on sscoa1"
 written by one of the leading citizens of
 Newtown. Weclip the followin from .
 LitehAeld correspondent of Waterbury
 paper: .......,,.
 tv cents 6 hundred for bringing freight
 from Bridgeport to Hawleyville (23 miles)
 for the Shepaug railraod company, while
 the last named road charges only thirteen pnilesl The Housetonic. by its action in this matter. will kill the Bridgeport trade on fhis part of Litchaeld county, for when the EAspaug's extension to the Danbury and Ec-=ak road is completed our trade in that city will be transferred to Norwalk all owing to the exorbitant high tariff on the Housatonic."
 The policy of the railroad in this matter is not only disastrous to the trade of Bridgeport but it is very short-sighted snd suicidal, looking at it from it's own standpoint. The present prosperity of the Housatonic road is very much due to to the growth of this city, one of it's ter mini and as Bridgeport prospers so will the road. 1t is equally certain that if the trade of Bridgeport is destroyed the road will suffer and therefore we say the policy of the road 90 far as it is managed in &C., eordance with the views entertained by these correspondents, is suicidal to it's best interests.
 Our citizens are deeply interested in this matter, especially our merchants and manufacturers who have business relations with the people of the Housatonic Valley. Hartford, Danbury, Norwalk and other places have been putting forth every ex- ertion to cut of this valley and divert its | trade from Bridgeport. Railroads have been projected and built by these wide | swake towns for that sole purpose while l Bridgeport has been looking solely to it's l cd portion of Fairfield to furnish us | room to expand-we propose to build bridges between other towns in the hopes 1 of securing few thousand or hundred l dollars worth of trade, and meanwhile we l have remained entirely quiet and allowed l other places to construct railroads which | were projected for the sole purpose of | cutting us of from the valuable trade of l the great Housatonic valley to which we l have c natural and legitimate claim be- 1 cause by our efforts almost alone the 1 Housatonic road was built which gave an outlet to that valley and and made its trade what it is. Not only so, but our citizens look on and permit without pro- test this very railroad to become by it's al- 1 legged exorbitant tariff, themeans of alien | ating the bulk of this trade from our doors | and driving it to other places. Our citi- gems should see to this matter at once be- 1 fore it becomes too late. We do not mean to be "croakers of evil portent," but it is Q subject of vast importance to every resi- dent of Bridgeport, and we warn our read CTS that unless some remedy is found for these complaints of our up country friends, ! the prosperity of Bridgeport will receive check which it will cost much labor and | energy to overcome.