The Dallas weekly herald. [volume] (Dallas, Tex.) 1873-1885, 1875-09-04

fepit ~ Htlas fsrnh y iiond IL ihc
ttnef 6faenHior fninabH, ~ w,

lIEAt Hllt My attention mas htll /
nlled tn letter addressed lu you lY
senator Johnson, NJ your Slate, puh. .
isIod ln the Richmond WhlE giving
iis objection. ~ u bill hclutc the lat
'Ougrcas authorizing the uilcd Sllt'4
% aid IN constructing the Texas l'Hcila
q railway, on the thlrty.scuOnd phrnl-
81. nsn southern route ~ the Pdclllr.
senator JOlInsOn's objections are;
First. That Memphis IN not named
" the terminus of Tie road.
Second. That the gauge Is To be four
feet cight-and.a-half Inches, and not
live feet.
Third. That the Atlantic aud Pacif-
10 Railroad Company lOriglnHlly hu-
to construct line to the IA
cite on the thirty-iilth parallel) have
agreed TO connect its road with the
Texas and Pacific road ut II point Ia
Texas at least two hundred and MY
miles east of the Rio Grande the
western boundary of Texas; and
Fourth. BecnlIsG the bill was "pre-
sented 10y II Pennsylvania SENATOR nd'
vornted by commercial bodies IN ~.
Louis, prayed for by workmcn in Phil'
adelphiu, pctitioned for by citizens OF
Berks county, Pennsylvania" etc.
believing Senator Johnson To he,
what he says he is, IAN earnest friend
of IA genuine Southern Pacific road, ;"
and being DESTROYS that the fullest IN
vestigati0n shall be made into the mer.
its of the bill and the advantages OF
the Texas and Pacific railway ms n
southern route, | submit the following
statements covering the objections
named by the honorable Senator =
First. The eastern termini or start
ing points of the Texas and Pacific
railway, rs fixed by its charter and
named in the bill, are Shreveport and
TeXarkana, the two lines TO extend
westward, unite at Fort Worth, and
from thence extend to San Diego. The
bill also authorizes n branch from
Shreveport to New Orleans, and an
other from Shreveport to Nicksburg;
hut as there is Il road already con
structed from TeXarkana via Little
Rock to Memphis, and also to Column
bus, KY, the northern terminus of the
Mobile and Ohio road practically, both
of those points are rs much termini of
the Texas and Pacific railway us are
Vicksburg and New Orleans. You
will perceive, therefore, that under
this bill every Southern State border
ing on the Mississippi river has u direct
connection from its principal river
town with the Texas and Pacific road
Louisiana from New Orleans, Mis-
sissippi from Vickburg, Tennessee
from Memphis, and Kentucky from
Columbus; and what is little re-
81, l., 10, thnt tha irntl hasa
points to the point of connection with
the Texas and Pacific railway are in
each case almost an airline, and they
are almost equidistant from the west
ern terminus on the Pacific. Surely
more dist nctively Southern route
across the continent cannot be selected.
Second. The gauge objection: The
war OF gauges has been long and bitter,
and will probably never be settled sat
sfactorily to all. In constructing
trunk lines, original cost OF cOistruc-
ton and economy in operation as well
as the gauge of connecting lines should
determine the gauge to be selected.
Every connecting railroad west of the
Miss issippi river, constructed and I'M
der construction, is with one exception
of 4:St gauge, or less one, the Cairo
and Fulton, is feet. There can be no
question that between feet and ES4
the narrow gauge is the more econOm-
zeal, us there is no increase in the ca
pacity of trains corresponding to the
increased cost of wider entertainments
and cuts, longer ties, and heavier
equipment; and it was for these econ
omical reasons that the 4:S4 gauge was
. adopted.
The Senator is in error in assuming
that break ofgauge prevents the run
ming of through trains of cars, end ne
cessitates the breaking of bulk in
fret hit transportation; as the method
of changing trucks by II car "hoist' or
"liftu-such as we have in use in eX-
changing business at TeXarkana with
the Cairo and Fulton road, and such
as is used at Buffalo and Dunkirk, on
the Erie railway, and on several other
roads etfectually OvercOmes this APP
parent obstruction to through trans
pOrtation.
"The Imboden Car-lifter," an inven-
ton of General imhoden and manufac-
tured in your city, one of whit h UNI
derstand IL in successful operation at
the Danville and Petersburg railroad
junction, is another method of accom-
plishiug the same purpose.
General ImbOden claims, and | can
see no reason to doubt it, that the
trucks under train of thirty cars can
be changed by his "liip' Oh the transfer
boat while crossing the Mississippi
river; and in II letter descriptive of the
.lifterr he says, what is very true, that
"neither the wide lower Mississippi
nor break of gauge on its different
shores Enterprises any serious barrier to
railway transitu across the continent,
or between the. great and productive
neigh boring States that are only sep
arated by this great river" and ! do
not think there is n practical railroad
man in the South or North that will
question this statement.
The third objection, that the Atlantic
and Pacific railroad connection is what
he terms a consolidation of the two
ronds,u does not seem to I've well taken,
as there is no intention or desire on
either side, nor any authority in their
corporate acts, to consolidate the two
companies; and fail to see what reas-
enable objections can he made to the
Atlantic and Pacific Railway Company
abandoning the western end of its line,
as authorized in the thirty-fifth par
allel, and giving back to the Govern
ment 30, 900, 900 acres of reserved lands
that had been heretofore granted to
aid i'm its construction, and exchanging
the business tributary to its road with
the Texas and Pacific Railway Com
many OH the same terms as other con-
Meeting companies shall exchange
their business and this is what the bill
authorizes. st. Louis already has con-
nection with the Texas and Pacific rail-
way via the Iron Mountain and Cairo
and Fulton roads, and those roads will
insure it connection with dpy SOUTH
ern line that can be built across the
continent; and surely no southern in
terest will be injured by giving to the
people of Southwestern Missouri and
the Indian Territory direct connec-
ton with the Texas and Pacific rail-
way by the proposed Atlantic and Pa
cilic road connection. AS to the fourth
objection, that the bill was presented
in the Senate by Pennsylvania Sena-
tor, and advocated by commercial
bodies In st. Louis, and petitioned for
by workmen in the mines and manu-
factories of Pennsylvania, we can only
offset to this the fact that the legisla-
tive bodies in eight of the southern
States-Alabama, Texas, Mississippi,
Georgia, North Carolina, South Caro-
lima, Tennessee aud Florida - have
passed resolutions ipstructiug their
Senators and requesting their repre-
sentatives to vote aid to the Texas and
Pacific railway route to the Pacific I;
and the chambers of commerce, boards
of trade, or cotton exchanges Of New
Orleans, Memphis, Nashville, Louis
,,;lIa Anutisfa Richmond Atlanta Ma