The Donaldsonville chief. [volume] (Donaldsonville, La.) 1871-current, 1877-06-16
A Railroad to Texas.
[N. d. Democrat. June In

A special from st. Louis to the
Democrat yesterday announced that
the suit of the Union Trust Company
of New York and Barring Bros. & Co.
of London, for the appointment of a
receiver for the ST. Louis Iron Noun
tain and Southern Railroad, hal been
decided, the court refusing to appoint
a receiver. The road therefore re-
mains under its present management.
A few days since the Louisville Cour-
ierJ0armdI reported Col. Sam Tate,
prominent railroad man, as saying
with reference to this case: "If the
suits now pending against Mr.. Allen.
(the President of the road) should be
decided against him, the Iron Noun
tain road will have to be run for its
local business. If he gains the suit
and retains the road, the roads which
centre in Memphis will build the road
now surveyed from Memphis by Du-
vall's and Pine Bluffs to jefferson,
Texas, and will operate it at just cost,
thus compelling the merchants of St.
Louis to try and control the Texas
trade, or they and their pet road, into
which they have never paid a dollar,
will be left out in the wet.''
The Democrat on the 18th instant,
in an article on the Texas trade. re-
ferred to the embarrassment of the
Iron Mountain road as indicative of
the fact that St. Louis was not the
proper and natural depot of the Texas,
South Arkansas and North Louisiana
trade, but that, taking advantage of
the interests or distress of her rivals,
by enterprise and capital, that city
had compelled the trade over q tor
tuous and unnatural route.
The Louisville and Memphis papers
have recognized this fact also, and if
Col. Tate's threat is carried out, now
that Mr.. Allen has gained his suit a
road will be built, as Indicated by
him, from Memphis via Duvall's and
Pine Bluffs to Jefferson, Texas. This
may be cheaper and more expedi-
tious line for the Texas and Arkansas
trade to flow over than the st. Louis,
Iron Mountain and Southern road,
but it will be only another channel to
draw the trade in question away from
New Orleans--its natural, best and
cheapest depot. We have noticed the
utterances of the press of both Mem
phis and Louisville on this subject,
and we can assure our people that
those cities mean business. What is
New Orleans going to do about it !?
Col. Tate said, in connection with his
remarks above quoted, pretty much
what the Democrat said on the 3rd
inst, i. e., that " Mr.. Allen has for
the past two years been forcing the
commerce of Central and Southern
Arkansas and Texas out of its natural
channel to st. Louis.
This has given the St. Louis mer-
chants the advantage of selling to
Arkansas and Texas at even higher
margins than other cities would have
asked.n New Orleans has now an
opportunity of forcing the trade of
Arkansas and Texas back into its nat
ural channel, of restoring her own
commercial supremacy. The cons true
zion of the New Orleans Pacific Rail
road will open the way to New Or.
Jeans for Texas, Arkansas and North
Louisiana, over which the present
volume of the commerce of those re-
gions may pass; and besides, it will
develop and build up the country
through which it may run, and thus
greatly enrich the whole State and
vastly increase the trade along its
line. Seventy per cent. of the bust
ness of many roads is local business
thus developed.
Will the citizens of New Orleans
subscribe money enough to so far adj
vance the construction of the work on
this great enterprise that its managers
may be able TO raise enough to com
plete it2 The answer to this question
involves in great measure the future
growth and prosperity Of the city.