The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1878-04-04
SAVANNAH VALLEY RAILROAD.

Col. Latimer, President of the Sayan-
nah Valley Railroad, has called meet
ing of the corpofators of this Road to
convene at Lowndesville on the 9Th day
of May next at 10 o'clock a. M. It is in
tended to push matters vigorously for the
organization of the company and the
completion of this railroad. Fourteen
miles of the Greenwood & Augusta Rail
road has been graded at an average cost
ofabout Eve hundred dollars per mile,
and it is expected to have the grading
completed during the present year en- the
whole line. This rapid advance of the
Greenwood &eAugusta Road has inspired
q fresh courage in the friends of the sa-
vannah Valley enterprise, which will
take solid direction at the Lowndesville
meeting. ~
Our people havelong fslt the necessity
for a competing line of road to the Green
Vile & Columbia Road, and we hope the
Savannah Valley project may furnish
the long wished for and greatly needed
competition. 1t would give stimulus and
life to our town, would develop our
County, ard would enhance the value Of
ourjproperty many times beyond what it
is now, or may reasonably be expected
to reach by any other means than addi-
tional railroad facilities, Our people
need this rail,nad as link, in the system
which proper enterprise and diligence
npon their part may yet build mp. The
completion of this link would greatly
increase the prospect of completing the
Blue Ridge Railroad, and with these two
roads, with the G. & G. B. B., our town
would Immediately become railroad
center of no small importance, and the
completion of other intersecting and di-
yerging lines would then become q SIM
pie matter of time. Anderson is by nat
ural location and climate most desirable
County to live in, and has well improved
the advantages given it in many ways.
It's population is one of the most indus
trious and intelligentin the State; its in
Auence is probably greater than that
of any other County in the State; it is
favored with as many colleges and high
schools as any. County of the same popu-
lation in the State; it is the Banner
County of South Carolina in politics,
temperance and the grange. In manu-
factures it is not as far down on the list
as most other counties, and yet we have
, but single railroad, whosey sway is de-
spotic; aud by which our Development
/, has been checked and our commerce, to
great extent, dissipated.
These things ought not so to be. Our
: people should rise with the public spirit
and enthusiasm which characterizes them
in other matters and end this railroad
monopoly, which, like vice, clamps our
prosperity, depriYes US of commercial
growth and makes Us tributary, as g pet-
pie, to the towns of other counties. We
should remember that in order to retain
our advanced position, we must keep
pace with the age of Improvement in
which We live. IF we remain content
with the things of to-day, we will be be-
hind our neigh5ors on tomorrow. We
will gradually be absorbed by the pro-
crossing towns, and will pass as town
and as q County into mmercialinsignifi-
canoe. This does not only apply to the
towns, but our agriculture will be les
profitable than that of our neighbors, for
they, living upon or near the lines of
competing railroads, will have ready sale
and good. markets for their produce,
while our farmers will be compelled to
wagon and camp cr pay tribute to the
monopoly of . single railroad. The re-
suit Of this will be to enhance the value
of lands in surrounding counties, and to
decrease their value in this County. Our
people then should devote their atten-
ton to securing the Savannah Valley
Railroad as the cheapest, quickest and
most direct relief that c&n be obtained
against the monopoly which now afiicss
us, and threatens to continue its oppres-
sions for ell time to come unless checked
by wholesome competition.