Wilmington daily commercial., 1873-03-26
A Tempest In n Teapot.

To he Editor of the Commercial
Our citizens were thrown into excitement yes
terday by rumor that the Wilmington 4 Read
ing r. r. Co, was trying to.bridge the Christiana
bslo,o the city and put in thrty-fve feet drdiD.
The met nurses for this gen tie stream immediat-
ly took the alarm, and as usual, with more zeal
than judgement, began to offer their remon-
strances to our people for signature.
reflection would have saved them trouble
and expense To suppose the Wilmington d
Reading was attempting to build a railroad
through our city Eastward from French st.. af-
ter the City Council, the citizens and two II. r.
Cos, had failed to get such authority, and then
to suppose 1t was going to bridge the Ohristiana
and possibly the Brandywine also, 30 as to get
on the South side below the city, is to pay a
higher compliment to its financial ability, than
its engineering skill.
The simple truth is that the Wilmington &
Reading Company desire to CROSS the Christiana
eatirely dbOUe ute City. with the same size draw
that the Wilmington Western road
featuring sites on the South Side
and possibly to extend to New Castle, when the
new iron works are built there. There is nothing
very frightful in this, one would think, to tile
citizens OF Wilmington, but l very much fear
that the whole movement against the Whining
ton q Reading is fraught with greater danger to
them, inasmuch as ii is probably part of an
attempt Of one or two great railroad corpora
tions to crush the Wilmington Reading out Of
existence, and am apprehensiye that some of
our wealthy citizens are being used as :" cats
paws " in the matter.
A few facts may 2better explain About
month ago some Of our iron men were informed
that pig iron could not be sent as usual by the
Wilmington & Reading, from BirdsbOro, but
must 20 down to Philadelphia, and come thence
to Wilmington. For the last ten days, hardly a
carload of coal has been left at Birdsboro for
Wi mington when near 200 tons per day had been
previously left 1t must now come around by
Philadelphia also. Now why The answer is
simply because the Wilmington IL Reading re-
fused 10 ddUdnoe the freight on coal 10 Whining
ton to punish them for this, the freight on the
two great round about Railroads is temporarily
reduced, to draw our coal men into the trap, into
which fear some of them have fallen, thus giu-
ing a combination against the true and lasting
interests of our people and our manufacturers
Let our people only give aid to the Whining
ton & Reading for little while. until the
Berks Co., r. II. opens us up TO the Lehigh re-
gion, which think it will do Notwithstanding
the bitter opposition Of the Philadelphia d Read
ing Il. II. and then, II eur Schuylkill coal cannot
be left at Birdsboro, at fair rates OF freight, we
can get better coal direct from this Lehigh,
with the fair prices that competition always
brings.
Let the people consider that nearly 100, 900
tons of coal of all kinds is burned here annually;
an advance of so ots per ton, means $50, 900, and
il those down the Delaware Il. II. use as
much more, now or in the future, they can see
what they must pay il they suffer the Whining
ton 4 Reading to be crushed out.
In conclusion, therefore, l will say, that
think our people have much greater reason to
fear % or a so cent drd,o per ton, from their
pockets, than from any prospect OF 35 IT. draw
over the Christiana below Wilmington. L. B..
WIMI NaToN, March 26, 1873.