The Valley Virginian. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1865-1895, 1875-09-09


! with management having all its interest and
3sympathies in st. Louis and east Of it, and
8With a gauge designed to answer its trade, to
1.-THE roads connecting it at ST. Louis with New
+ York, Boston and Philadelphia.
I Mr.. Bond, indeed, who now lives In Texas,
and who is an agent Of this scheme, and its
amanaecr, protests that there will be branch
4of the proposed San Diego and st. Louis Rail-
&road which will leave the main stem at the
4l04th meridian and run east i'll the direction
aof Vicksburg to a place call TeXarcana, which
His in swamp one hundred and seventy-five
: miles west of Vicksburg. He assures us also
aof fact of which we already had melanchol-
( lily knowledge that all the roads but one in the
! Southwestern region beyond the Mississippi
have the four-fceteig Observation-Disclosures gauge.
4 [ will acquit this Mr.. Bond of any design to
mock us with this piece OF information. True
1t is, and pity it is, tits true, that lie and his
Friends have left but one road in that great re-
Agion to southern gauge. But this fact makes
Hit all the more necessary that we should not
3allow ourselves to be robbed of the only rail
#road whose gauge we can yet control. So far
3from its being a reason for our relinquishing
the gauge OF this Southern Pacific Railroad, it
81 is the very reason why we should hold to it
with desperate and determined tenacity.
We cannot afford to allow the character and
control of this Pacific railroad to be changed
)4from southern to northern. It was intended
Ito be connected with our southern railroads
: lin order that it might build up their trade and
Mthe trade of the cities and States which had
our roads at an enormous cost til
treasures. The debt OF Virginia arising
from subscriptions to her railroads was in
&creased largely on the faith of the trade which
! Twas expected to be derived by these roads
their connection west of the Mississippi
with the great southern road to the Pacific,
(which was to be a fountain Of wealth and pros
4perity to them. We cannot afford to be
E#switched off from this great road at the 10th
meridian, seven hundred and fifty miles west
&of the Mississippi, and also compelled either
there or at some point east of there, to trans
{fcr to our own roads of wider GAUGE .nch
8freight and cars as we can capture from Mcssrs.
's'cs'tt and Pierce, While running them off to
uSt. Louis.
We have a right to insist that this
&Southern Pacific Railroad shall be so in good
faith and facts southern in it's terminus; SOUTH
crn in its interests, sympathes and the views
= and objects OF its management; southern in
fits gauge and direct railroad connections, and
3 southern in all the advantages that in these
= and other respects, it can possibly give to ON
southern railroads, cities. merchants and States,
hin competing for its trade. If this great rail.
8road must needs be built for the personal i'll
Hterests OF railroad jobbcrs, spectators and adj
vent,lrers: and they must needs be let to fasten
sspcrsonal avarice and greed could desire, and
&if we must needs submit to this condition OF
eAhaving the road at all, We cannot afford to &C
&fartler, and permit these parasites for the sake
saof greater personal gains, and more certain
&pcrsonal speculatons, to hand over Our road
tzand its expected trade to the contro! of great
&&railroad operators at the North, who can AFFORD
ITO pay these jobbers heavier largesses for theil
&sAdpe and talent than we can afford or are dis
q posed to pay them.
"a The stupendous pecuniary interest which ON
lsoutherll railroads, cities and States have IN
HcOntrolling the terminus and the gauge of the
@Southern Pacific Railroad, forbids the thought
&Of permitting any ri these jobbers to make
skHsale Of that terminus and that gauge to great
@northern railroad corporations having the west
@ern focus of their roatls at St. Louis.
IA Virginia has a line of railroad, measuring
#four hundred and fifty miles, running from
"a Bristol to Norfolk and Richmond. She has
Ffssanother great road running from Dan7lle
s3through LynchburS to Alexandra. Aud she
ssSsbas still other important roads running from
81 Danvillc to Richmond, from Weldon to Peters.
sabnrg, Richmond, Fredericksburg, and Alex
cambria; and from Weldon to Portsmouth,
81 All OF these roads, as vel as the great Ches-
Saapeake and Ohio, if its western terminus be
5Lousville, are all vitality interested in securing
Isl close connections with the Southern Pacific
Il road; and the President of any of them,
saGeneral Malone for instance, did not oppose
AWith all his might the surrender of our control
Ssof it, by allowing its terminus and gauge to be
&sold by jobbers to great railroad interests of
a1the North concentrating at st. Louis-insteal
aaof admiring him as do, should despise him
Vas false to his duty and invoke the curses of
&our people upon his head.
u For one, honor Senator Johnston for call
cling public attention to this schame of selling
Aout our control of the terminus ard gauge OF
sSaour Southern Pacific Railroad. 1 honor him
Mthe more, because he has shown that Virginia
Vat least has Senator superior to the bland
Aisllnents and brides of the great northern and
Slwestern rail- Dad kings who have their habitat
Hin the lobbies of the national capital. [ am
&prond that he has demonstrated in his repre-
SENTATIVE person, that though we are poor in
5adeed, yet are we unpurchasable.
This is too important a question to be
sAdwarfed into any sort of connection with a
senatorial contest have been authoritatvely
q informed that Senator Johnston was averse on
&grounds OF Gelcacy to writing his late letter on
&this subject for publication, and that it was
fssdrawn from him by distinguished member
&of the Senate Of Virginia, who is expected to-
&vote for another gentleman in the approach
#ng election Of United States Senator. l am
3therefore entitled to believe. as fully do be-
&lieyc, that his letter was written for the pur-
Tposc OF placing this great subject before the
SSsouthern public in its real light, and warning
Estates, of the danger which threatened, Of the
4 Southern Pacific Railroad line, being so organ
fixed and constructed rs to divert all its advanta
a4ges to the powerful railroad corporations and
4citics Of the North which it is intended to-
Slnect at st. Louis.
Il 1t is not question whether the Mississippi
Driver can be bridged at Vicksburg and Menu
Sphs, for. with or without a bridge, we are eli-
TITLED to have this railroad as our oun. There isl
Ia positive certainty, that the great river can be-
biidged at Vicksburg; and on the principle that
HALL things are possible to modern engineering,
|alt may be assumed with safety that it can also
be bridged at Memphis. | scorn AID repudi-|
Sate the HlsillanimOus concession made by some
sfof our Virginia editors, that the South must
AsHbmit to go off to st. Louis in search of fea-
Visible terminus for her Southern Pacific Rail-
4road.
Nor is this question whether the five-feetI
Ngauge is intrinsically better or worse, than the
Observation-Disclosures gauge, for, no
8.aatter which Is best, what we have Il right to
Slequre is, that the gaugelof1the Southern Pacif-
Hic road shall be the same as that OF our sOutli-
germ system of roads whose trade it is intended
to renoyate and build up.
n Nor ia this question whether there will,|
&or will not, be roads connecting with the South-
4 fern Pacific at the 104th meridian, and runningl
ato ore or more southern points on the MIS-
SsissiEpi, for what we have right to demand|
Ills that the management and the organizations
Aof the Southern Pacific Railroad shall be ones
aand the same from San Diego, on the Pacific,l
3tO Vickch,rr or Mn,n phic ~, +l,o M;,,;,,;,,>;