Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1873-04-10

market, and in the prairie country where
corn was used for fuel.
Now, that State is helted with railroads.
Distance is measured not by miles, but by
hours. There, where products once failed to
pay for labor, the iron-horse is shrieking by
every farmhouse, and all is prosperity. Even
in Arizona, where the principal occupation is
digging ore, they are engaged in constructing
railroads. They find that with no other
means of transportation but ox-teams it does
not pay to carry even silver twelve hundred
miles to market
Construct this road, and what does it effect ?
1t will penetrate Caldwell county, where corn
sells for thirty cents per bushel-only seventy
miles distant; while here you are paying one
dollar per bushel, and at Rock Hill the price
is the same. If the road be constructed, corn
can he brought here for five cents, and can be
sold for fifty cents. Bacon, in this market,
is eleven and twelve cents. This road will
penetrate stock region, where bacon sells at
four, FIVE and six cents pound, and will cor
respondingly reduce the price in your own
market 1t is a question of cheapening the
cost of living reducing the price of your
daily bread.
In the matter of transporting cotton to
market, if you desire to ship to New York,
you send to Chester, at a cost Of seventy-fve
cents per bale; from Chester to Charlotte,
costing one dollar and twenty-five cents; from
Charlotte to New York, four dollars, making
a total of six dollars from Yorkville to New
York. Build this road, and the assurances
have already been made that when the road
is completed, cotton shall be shipped, by way
of Charlotte, on through freight list, at the
same rates as if shipped from Charlotte. This
will be saving of two dollars on each bale
AS the yearly product of the county is twenty
thousand bales, to ascertain if two dollars
saved on the freight of each bale will amount
in the aggregate to forty thousand dollars
does not require much display Of arithmetical
knowledge. Even a county school commits
sioner or member Of the Legislature, or even
member Of Congress, can solve this simple
problem.
You people of York county consume flour
larger amount in proportion to population
than any other county in the State. In fact
you seem to have forgotten the traditional
customs Of our ancestors, and thrown aside
corn bread as unfit for free citizens to eat
Well, what do you pay for flour? For com
mon article, from eigh to ten dollars per bar
rel. Tap the wheat-growipg sections Of West
ern North Carolina and Tennessee, and the
effect will be to cheaper the price of this great
staple, which, to consumers, is vital conside'
ration.
Another problem. The road will invite
our people to circulate. 1t will stimulate
them to 20 abroad, and tend to dissipate the
belief once so popular with some of our people
that South Carolina comprised the greater
part of the continent of North America. Il
will invite immigration. The laboring man
will be benefited by increase of wages. The
men of the North, the enterprising manufac
turers and 'town-builders, will be induced tc
come and live among you; but they will
never come so long as there are no facilities
for conveying the products of their factories
shops and foundries to market. The railroad
is the elder sister of manufactures.
If one reason, more potent than any other
can be found why South Carolina is behind
her sister States, it is that she is in the rear
guard in her railroad system. She has only
about eight hundred miles of railroad. Mass
achusetts has nineteen hundred miles, and
twice the population, with but one.ffth of the
territory. The first railroad ever built in the
United States, for the conveyance Of passen'
gers was constructed in South Carolina. and
| am tempted to say the enterprise ended
there. In all other sections roads are multi
plying rapidly. The great commercial cen
tres Of the East are connected with a perfect
system of railroads, and the proposed road,
connecting with the main arteries will give
this section the shortest connecting link with
the East, the North and the Northwest.
1t is alleged that portion of York coun-
ty-that portion in the vicinity of Rock Hill
is hostile to the road, though it is not believed
the hostility is unanimous. While the road
would be of great advantage to 1orkville, it
could not work any disadvantage to Rock
Hill and vicinity, and for the reason that
Rock Hill is on the line of the Charlotte, Go.
lumbia and Augusta road "a main line; and
if Rock Hill would suffer, certainly Chester
which is on the same line Of road, would be
similarly situated. Rock Hill is now at the
mercy of the Charlotte, Columbia and Angus
ta road in the matter of freights. Construct
this road-create competing line-and the
competition will reduce freight and passenger
charges. Rock Hill will profit by the reduc'
ton. The greatest good for the greatest mum:
Der is the true maxim, and the rule that should
prevail in all public works of Improvement
If Rock Hill wishes to bid for Yorkville trade
let them tap this road The proposed route
is on the line Of the largest productions in the
county and is centrally located, which are the
true arguments to determine the voters Of the
county.
On the twenty-third instant, Chester will
vote on the question of a subscription of one
hundred thousand dollars, and it is proposed
to ask York to respond in like amount The
minds of the voters are relieved by knowl'
ledge of the fact that the leading men in this
enterprise are gentlemen Of sagacity, and OF a
class of citizens who do not fail. The element
of good fortune follows a good enterprise.
Appearances indicate that four counties in
North Carolina will subscribe on an average
one hundred thousand dollars each, which.
with the proposed subscriptions of York and
Chester, will aggregate six hundred thousand
dollars. The length Of the road will be one
hundred and two miles, beginning at Chester,
twenty-five miles from Yorkville.
Estimates by competent engineers show
the average cost of narrow-gauge roads to be
not higher than seven thousand dollars per
mile, equipped with trains. With these
county subscriptions, aggregating six hun
dred thousand dollars, the road will be COM
pleted in two years, or less. There is but one
stream of consequence-Catawba river-to
bridge, and this the people of Lenoir pledge
themselves to do. AS showing the enthusi'
asm of these people, here is letter recently
received by the President of the Chester and