The daily dispatch. [volume] (Richmond [Va.]) 1850-1884, 1874-08-19
The Gauge Question.

4. n ~
Question involving the we,f,re Of the peof,e
Of Richmond relating to General -M ALONE
express first Ivy attacking the Dispatch a'u
then BIZ assailing its opinions on every other
subject. The Vhfg viii bear as otit'in the
statement that it has not succeeded IN us
sfrateov. That is a natural sortof strategy.
witness the cat-bird, BIO y it seeks to carry
one away from its nest. Rumor says the
cat.bird's nest ism the Wing Office.
But all this aside. What about the gauge?
The Wing charges upon us general enmi'yto
the Atlantic. Mississippi and Ohio, and that
We advocated the change OF gauge on the
Danvllle road to s'cut this city off from con-
nection ,c,M the Atlantic, Mississippi anc
OHIO road.' Fudge! How cool, after Cen
eral MALONE has expressly" cut US OIL, ano
does so little for us in any way, to excla'm
against the SCOUTING ca " Of his ROAD from
Richmond!
But what is the question:
Tbere he two roads: 1st. The Atlantic,
Mississippi and Ohio runs from br'siol
to the sea, to the two sharks which lie
at tbe sea with open mouths TO eulp down
all he brings to iced them with. "a. Inc
D,nyiIe road, which extends from Rich
mond 10 Danville.
Now. then, the question With Richmond
was: Shall the gauge of the DanVille road
be changed in order to protect Richmond
against the road from Alexandra pld Lynch
burg to Danyie, or sbM we continue 10
submit to the breaks between Washington
and Charlotte, N. g., ola Richmond, which
are runous to the trade OF Richmond! NO
TWO intelligent and unprecedented minds
could differ as to the answer. That was
change the gauge. The people OF Richmond
so decided.
What O. lection to the change could there
be? Was the motive for opposing the
change stronger than the motive for favor
ing 1t?
The DanviIlc road was Richmond road.
The Atlantic, Mississippi and Ohio ran fifty
miles from Richmond on its way to the sea,
and it was ascertaipcd by an average of the
business of three months that the Atlantic,
Mississippi aud Ohio delivered to the Dan
vile road for Richmond seven tons of freight
and secea and half passengers. Was
the loss of this business sufficient to induce
us to give up the measure for the protection
of our larger interests so seriously assailed
at Danvile? 1t would lay any man liable
to the imputaton Of insinceritJ who should
say that it was.
The people of Richmond decided that the
interests to be protected by 4 change Of
pauge overwhelmed the interests opposed
to that change. Their decision was wise
and lust. Thi. was the decision Of the DIS.
patch decision which should be judged
upon its merits irrespective of any feeling OF
hostility to MALONE or his road. But it
suits his partisans 10 say otherwise.
The poor tribute that is made to Rich
mond by the Atlantic, Mississippi and OHIO,
compared with that made by the Dinville
road to the business of this city, determined
the minds of the people Of Richmond TO say
that if it was necessary that they should
have an unbroken gauge in either direction,
it was vastly more important that it should
be towards Charlotte, \. C., than towards
Bristol. From Charlotte we got grell
DEAL from Bristol seven tons, and seven and
a bali passengers per dsy! /
The fact was the Danyiie road gave to the
Atlantic, Mississippi and Ohio five times as
much freight rs that road gave to the Dan
vile coming towards Richmond. The drum
mers Of the allies were in the South solicit
ing freights for the sea TO debouch at Burke
vile. Had not this more to do with the
efforts against the permission to change the
gauge from Greensboro to Richmond than
anything else?
Richmond is the largest town in Virgil
nia-largcr than the other eight largest ia
ia the State put togcttcr-aad between
Richmond and the Atlantic, Mississippi and
Ohio, by all odds, it is the best for Virginia
as well as Richmond that VIC should give the
or eference to Richmond.
Here it is, fcllow.citizenS. This is what
the people of Richmond have done. This is
what we have doue. This is what the Wing,
printed in Richmond, complains of. 1t is
surprising that anybody living in Virginia
should complain OF us, when it Is known
that Richmond can do more with commerce
than any other town in Virginia, and when
it is known that what passes Richmond on
the Atlantic, Mississippi and Ohio goes into
the sen to the great corporations there with
open mouths to receive it without doing any
good to Lynchburg, to Petersburg, or to Nor.
folk.
We think more of Richmond and of Vir-
yinia than we do of the Atlantic, Mississippi
and Ohio, as now managed and as we are
devoted first to Virginia, next to Richmond,
we shall continue to oppose the management
Of TINT road as destructive to the Interests OF
both until that management is made unob-
jcctionable.
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Sorry Figure-Harmony OF the Towns
We are obliged to the Wing for publish
ing what the correspondent of the Lynch.
| burg Republican bad to say of the DIS
| patch. We could not afford room for such