The Morristown gazette. [volume] (Morristown, Tenn.) 1867-1920, 1874-09-23
RAILROAD MATTERS.
ABOUT Mr. MA WARD AND HIS
ASSUMPTION AS TO THROUGH
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1
ASSUMPTION AS TO THROUGH
FRELGHTS
President Wilson, Vice President
Jaques and Congressman Maynard, all
assume that the people are opposing the
Railroad carrying through freights. This
assumption is, as we termed it last week,
contemptib1y frivolous and silly, and is
very far from being true. No one is OPP
posed to the road carrying through
freights. The objection is that the road
officials discriminate in favor of the pro-
duce from other States, and against our
own people, and carry through freights
at nearly one half they do local freights.
! Mr Wilson, in his remarks, says they
carry through freights at $3.50, and To-
cal freights at $3.50 per ton, or forty
cents less. This statement is disingenu-
Gus and deceptive The local freights
may have averaged So. 80 per ton, but
sometimes the produce or merchandise
was only carried twenty-five, sometimes
fifty, and sometimes hundred or more
miles, while the through freight is al
ways carried two hundred and forty
miles, the length of the road. To show
the great difference in the charges on
through and local freights, we will give
an example. $500 s-r.- f '.
We have the freight list now before us
for carrying grain. From Jonesboro' to
Atlanta is 80 miles. Freight from there
is carried on our road 210 miles. The
freight on grain from Jonesboro' to At
lanta is a cents per 100 pounds, or So
per ton. Now, as our road carries this
freight two-thirds of the way, they no
doubt get two-thirds of the pay This
would give our road So. 86S per ton for
carrying grain 210 miles, whereas they
carry through freight 24O miles for So
80, which is nearly one-half less, for the
through freight is carried 80 miles fur
ther. This is the way in which money
is extorted from the pockets of our far
mers. Our road has no competition, and
our railroad officials play the despot.
They starve the purses of our farmers to
fill their own to their utmost capacity.
1t is fair to presume that the railroad
don't carry through fIeights at loss. If,
then, they make money on through
freight, at $3.50 per ton, what must they
make on local freight at nearly or quite
So. The dividends to the officers of the
road are very large, for they own very
nearly all the stock in the road, or by
far the larger portion of it.
Some time ago the officials of the road
depressed the price of stock and bought
in large quantities of it at from twenty
five to thirty-three and a third cents to
the dollar. AS the shares remain at 800, !
when a dividend is declared of six per
cent, these officials receive eighteen per |
cent. at least on the stock so purchased! |
If to this you add their large salaries, /
they doubtless receive about twenty-five |
per cent!!i If they-as they say they
dO-wish to aid in the development of |
the agricultural resources of the coun- |
try, why do they not reduce the freight |
on our produce, and still grow rich? |
Let live as as well as live. Capt. jacques, |
in his report, introduces a long extract |
from the report of John P King, of |
Georgia, to show that the same COM |
plants are made in that State about ex-
cessive charges on local freights. Capt. |
jacques might have saved himself some
time and trOuble'if he had simply stated |
that great complaints exist throughout
the United States, East, West, North
and South, against the excessive charges
on local freights.- By this means rail |
road rings are becoming immensely rich,
while the people-and particularly the
farmers-are becoming impoverished.