New Orleans Republican. [volume] (New Orleans, La) 1867-1878, 1874-06-28
NEW ORLEANS, SUNDAY, JUNE 2s 1874.
Hew Are we q Get a Railway COmmuni-
catfon with Texase

Hsw Are We e Get Railway Communi.
cation with Texase
This important question is one that now
forces itself upon the consideration of every
man of business in Louisiana as well as in
Texas
The charter # the New Orleans, Mobile
and Texas Railroad Company expires by
limitation on the first day of next month.
Its right to construct, own and operate
railroad west oftne Mississippi river ceases
at that time, and Louisiana can not in JUS
tice to herself Nvive that right except in
the hands of sale, reliable and enterprising
men.
For five yearswe have been deceived and
disappointed by corporation claiming to
be child Of Alabama and an heir OF Louis
| lana, which has received aid from this State
to the extent of$4, 900, and has issued
its own bonds to the amount of 81 ,25C, 600,
all of which has been frittered away, or in
classic language, "placed where it will do
most goOd.'
These bonds, b the extent of $l1 ,375, 900.
were executed Or donated or guaranteed
for the purpose Of constructing railways to
Houston and Shreveport. How have they
been used! Haze the trustees in whose
| hands they were eplaced been true to their
trust and faithful in the performance Of
their duty! Letfgures answer. We have
sixty-seven milesof track laid west of the
Mississippi river and about 100 miles of
embankment partially completed beyond.
| The estimates tr this work amount to
about $l,65O,OO0, The work is stopped.
The company is hnkrupt.
The New Orlea,s, Mobile and Chattanoo-
| ga Railroad ComRny, a child of Alabama,
born in 1866, was adopted by the State of
Louisiana in 1868 which changed its name
to the New Orleae, Mobile and Texas Rail
road Company, al endowed it with cub
sidy of 100000 and also a promise to
indorse its second mortgage bonds to the
extent of $l2, ,50eler mile for eli completed
road, and gave,ss pap, her other bonds
for 81, SOC, 900 fOrstock, which has turned
out to be WORTHLESS; and, with all this, we
are informed the ailroad company is owing
to its constructor, laborers and for materi-
ais $40, 200, paynent of which it is seeking
to void by hiding behind it's aliases.
Let US have no Aore of this sort of thing!
We want a railroa and not debt. We
want railroad farly and honestly built,
not made with hnds that are not paid.
j And how to accomplish this great necessity
the citizens of Ner Orleans are called upon
to consider. 1t isan enterprise our neces
sites demand. w can no longer afford to
be idle in this mater. We can no longer
hope that capitalists will come from other
cities and do for u what we should have
long since done fM ourselves. Their inter-
ests are not our interests. Our want of
transportation is filing their warehouses
and markets with the products of our own
soil and the regions round about us, that
should be brought here and from here dis
tributed throughout the great food and
cotton markets of the world.
The merchants Of New Orleans are
asleep, dreaming Of hard times, suffering
Nightmares of ruin, and wake up only to
figure on crops that will not be made and
values that are lost. They all say that
they want this road; admit readily that it
is the only enterprise that tan arrest the
downward tendency OF our commercial in
terests, and express willinmess to assist
in its construction with evry means in
their power, money excepta. And here
lies the great fault. 1t is moi so much the
want Of money as it is the lex Of energy
and will to propose and to prform.
Let good men, men whose bsiness habits
qualify them for the task-anI certainly if
they Will only stand forth W have such
men-whose moral worth laces them
above the suspicion of dishaesty; men
whose interests are largely astake, and
whose future welfare dependsin a great
measure upon success, take TIN matter in
hand, organize company ant see to it,
that all the lawful means are usd to force
the property of the New OrleaB, Mobile
and Texas Railroad Company has no
tranchises) into fair and equitate sale.
Such company, in due time, ,jroperly
empowered, might issue its bond fe Sc, 900
per mile, considered sufficient to amplete
the roand, from Westwego to HOuton and
from vermilionville to Shreveport Then
treaty of mutual benefit might be fected
with the Illinois Central Railroad CQpany,
the interests of which corporatn are
identical with our own, and whose reenues
would be largely advanced by the oening
up OF this route as tributary to to line
they now operate between this CIV and
Chicago, which interest it is reasonat to
suppose would induce them to Horse
those bonds and become the trusts for
their proper issuance and delivery. nch
bonds bearing eight per cent interest wpld
SO indorsed and placed become at ace
securities that the surplus money of be
world would seek at if net quite nearls a
par value.
There is no reason why this plan, or sde
plan akin to it, should not be at once inn
purated, and the attempt made not onlyo
insure the completion OF this road, bute
save the State, at least in part, the la4
subsidies and Endorsements it has alreaf
made for this purpose.
Several cheese factories in the Mohawe
valley have commenced the manufacture 4
butter in q limited way, in conjunction
with cheese making. Milk that's delivered
at the factories in the evening is skinned
the following morning for butter. Tht
makers claim that milk can not be made
into cheese without more or less butter
| ..A.I-oI out cf Il and Uasfad in fhl