Wilmington journal. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1844-1895, 1874-02-13
From the Raleigh Exa miner.
COnsOlidatioN-C ST Gauee


North Carolina, and the commercial
progress and prosperity of Whining
ton, it has been the singular good for
tune of the JOURNAL and this writer to
have differed, perhaps in no single in
stance, since the war. The writer is
essentially, and in all respects, North
Caroiinian and he has recognized in
the JOURNAL the only paper of its par
material advance and development of
the State.
In the issue now about to be pre-.
scented (for the article of the JOURNAL
is significant of something of greater
moment than mere dropping in
friend" accidently " at our elbow
difference of opinion and policy may
arise, from the fact that the JOURNAL
has local interest to serve, while the
Examiner has no limit for its railroad
policy, save the confines of the State.
But there ought not to arise differ
ence on the question now under con-
sideration, and there will not, unless
the Journal shall seek to defeat the
great consolidation measure for in
the event of the failure of that great
scheme, the Examiner would Wiling
ly see the Carolina Central, or any
other corporation, not hostile to the
best interests of the State, take pos
session of and complete the Western
North Carolina railroad to the Tennes-
see line
Bnt it is to the interest of the State,
and OF all cur people, that the great
consolidation measure succeed not
only because it gives us a perfect and
the only system of North Carolina road
possible, but because this great
scheme, if successful, promises to
work the State out of her present en-
barrassing and accommodating public
debt.
Perfect this great consolidation
! measure i'll the Legislature. and it is
within the power of financial skill and
! ability, aided by our successful rail-
road men, to take up the burden OF our
/; State debt and carry it without ever
calling on the taxpayers Of the State
, for cent wherewith to pay interest or
principal.
Now this IS something 70 think Of.
| In addition to working ont the re-
| Ill mption Of our State debt thus. to the
| great relief and exceeding Joy of Our
| people, we get North Carolina rail
| road systei.. from Beaufort Harbor to
/ the Tennessee i'll one direction, and
! from AsLev;lle to the Georgia line, via
| DUcktown, in another direction.
| The JOURNAL, in common with the
| general public, misappreh9 or to-
| tally fails to appreciate the matter Of
| the gauge. This is something that
will and must regulate itself according
| to the wants and requirements of inter
oil -, - To- II
| ton on the subject is q species of
fogyis.n that appropriately belongs to
past age; that era, for instance, in
which the imaginary wants OF our
commerce induced the JOURNALS own
people to make the Wilmington and
| Manchester railroad gauge three
gauge of the Weldon road connecting
! Herewith at Wilmington.
| Surely, the Journal, with its expe-
rience of the break in these two roads.
right at its own door, does not desire
our legislators and people to go back
| to the spirit of those days i'll which
men fondly, but fogyishly, imagined
that the way to build up Southern
| gauge, all railroad communication be-
and west of North Carolina the
road BET pre- the war was made wider,
by three and a half inches, than the
roads north of Us.
As to the third paragraph in the
JOURNAL above, which treats Of the
gauge, that paper is correct as to the
| gauges of the roads i'll the States
named, but the JOURNAL fails to tell
its readers that Old Fort, the present
terminus of the Western North Caro-
lima road, is long way from the four
feet eight and a-half gauges of Ken
lucky; and the prospect of ever con-
Meeting our North Carolina roads with
the roads of that State IS still mere
remote in the distant future. And if
all the roads will ultimately come to
the four feet eight a-haif gauge, as the
JOURNAL argues, where is the reason
for preventing any road, even our
North Carolina system, from accomo-
dating itself to the temporary necessi-
ty of conforming to the gauges of
meet? We expect to connect with the
and years, before we can hope to reach
Kentucky, we expect to tap the valley
of the Mississippi at Memphis, and
the lap of Wilmington and Beaufort,
instead Of allowing al to go to Nor
folk, Baltimore and New York, as is
now the case
The JOURNAL must he aware that
| cars loaded at Memphis and beyond,
go through to Norfolk over a line of
| roads having gauge of five feet. We
may complete the Western extension
to Paint Rock, but unless We have n
road to correspond with the Tennessee
roads, ears sealed at Memphis will go
on through to Norfolk and Richmond
as they now do, rather than break bulk,
reload and switch off in this direction,
for the mere fun of going to Whining
ton or Beaufort.
The JOURNAL must know this. Gen.
Malone so fully appreciates the adj
vantage of his five feet line Of road
from Norfolk to Bristol, that he has
taken good care thus far to defeat the
completion of the Western extension,
knowing as he does that common sense
and business foresight will dictate the
construction of road of the same
gauge is his,-one that can tap the
East Tennessee and Georgia road, as
he does at Bristol.
The suggestion thrown out by the
JOURNAL that stock In the Carolina
Central Railway will be issued to the
old stockholders in the Wilmington,
Charlotte and Rutherford Railroad,
equal in amount to the stock they
owned in the former company, looks
very much like bait iHtended for the
old stockholders in the Western North
Carolina Railroad; and taken in con-
nection with the persistent opposition
consolidation has met with in the
house, at the hands of Colonel Bennett,
of Arson, there appears to be man
uJenaert in this thing.
Is it the purpose of the JOURNAL,
speaking by authority Of the Caroti7ae