The daily dispatch. [volume] (Richmond [Va.]) 1850-1884, 1875-03-31
r,e North Carolina Gauge.

The North Carolina Gange.
In all sincerity we will ask our Petersburg
Incorporates, Does North Carolins sdttef
auy Injury from the change of gauge or Tue
Airline railroad from Richmond 10 Az
lants?
There vasa break at Charlotte where the
North Carolina Asa inch gauge met the
3 foot gauge from the South. mat oFesk
has been transferred 10 Greensboro. mat
T. all. North Carolina still has one break OF
sau-c. That's all. bow, then, Is North
Car lima ipjurcd'
But it is proposed to change the gauge
from Greensboro TO The North Carolina coast,
and thus to give North Carolina the beneflS
OF an urb-oken gauge from the Cult to her
Sea coast. Will not tha. be an advantage:
], is a very sincere question. and simple
ans yer would be more satisfactory than one
snopped in prejudice and weighed down by
tSlk about foreign corporations that is not
german TO the matter.
We assert that the simple statement IN
VOWED in our questions conclusirely sho"
tina, North Carolina will be benefited, and
30. injured, by the change of gauge.
4. may be answered that the people OF
North Carolina are the best judges in the
matter, and that their consent TO the change
should he obtained. Now, in our opinion,
thc people of North Carolina have not
sooken on the subject. North Carolinians
were rot the movers in the procurement oil
the iniunltions which so lorg kept this city
under the disadvantage Of two breaks with
Ghcir vcxa!ious and expensive delays. They
seriously obstructed the commerce OF this
city with tie South. Oh, no; the Nor,h
Carollnians had nothing to do with them,
and the 1.re-up on the change which finally
sook place under the company's charter aiber
j. was relieved by the Supreme Court was
caused BY fuel furnished from without the
State.
/, would be so patent folly for the
ptiersburgers to say that their town
gained by the distractions so long put
IL the way of the commerce OF this
city that, we take it, nobody in that town
editor or othcr-wll make such an asscr"
tion. All the trade that was switched of ut
Greensboro eastwardly went to Baltimore
or New York. 1t may be asserted that
some OF II went to the Carolina seaports. We
hope it cid. We should be glad TO hear tba,
], did. If so, more will reach them by the
unhroken gauge. But we can safely say that
more Of it ever reached Petersburg. Then,
what interest bad Petersburg in keeping
Che double distractions in our way!
Under the change Petersburg achieves
direct interest. She has an unbroken gauge
60 the Gulf and to New Orleans. Even if
we are wrong about her getting nothing
Srom Charlotte heretofore, we can say that
she got 1t under the disadvantage OF one
break Of gauge. Now she has an uabroken
qoAqe and a shorter route to Western South
Carolina and the Gulf than she erer had be-
fore. Will any body have the bardihood to
say that she is not benefited by it:
The truth is, this gauge-business is one of
che simplest questions. 1t is better for
North Carolna, it is better for Petersburg
It is nueh better for us. There can be no
{sDCl Icdsou III ecu III oPpooiioh " 'b>
change Of gauge in behalf of North Carolina
or Petersburg. The interest which was to
hc propitiated by obstructing the Richmond
ca:rtacroe was an interest that could not and
would not do anything for the good of Pc
tc:shurg or Of any of the North Carolina
cities.
We desire to be in harmony with them all.
We would not aid or abet any arrangement
o. railways that would be detrimental to any
OF them merely for that object. And we are
glad to kno,o-we speak both sincerely and
pos.ively-that the change of gauge in
North Carolina that has taken place, and that
which is intended, cannot possibly fail to be
advantageous to the North Carolina cities, to
Petersburg, and TO Richmond. There is not
the shade OF shadow OF a reason for oppo-
stion 10 it from Petersburg.