Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1878-05-16
For the Yorkville Enquirer
THE YORK COUNTY BONDS.

LII previous dTIlCic, uISou tho ihPot-
tance of cordially supporting the Marrow
Gauge Railroad, because it had reduced
freights to just minimum, and had COM
PEELED other roads to like reduction and
had thereby conferred upon the counties of
York and Chester benefits that even my
figures could only partially demonstrate.
Some persons may say that they are in favor
of the road and want to keep it agoing but
are opposed to paying interest on the bonds
which built it, If any body could advocate
such an argument as this, he is not an honest
man. 1t might be smart practice to buy a
useful article on credit and enjoy its use for a
number of years, and when payment is de-
manded, for the debtor to say, my agent
was net authorized to buy the article for me,
and 1 won't pay you for it." l AN not sufi-
ciently versed in legal ethics to say what
would be the decision of court in such a
case; but if am correctly informed, every
court before which these bond cases have
gone, has said that they must be paid.
But every citizen of the county who favors
the road and wants to keep it, is also in favor
of paying these bonds. If they are repu.
dated, the road will be sold to pay for build.
ing it. 1t is well-known fact that there is
some 100000 or $4,000 of York and Ches-
ter county bonds pledged as security to some
iron company, to pay for the rails in use. If
these bonds are discredited, then the road it.
self will be taken in payment. 1t is now al
most the only road in the State owned and
operated by our own people. When sold,
some foreign capitalist, like the Southern Sc.
curity Company, which already owns half
the roads in the State, will certainly buy it,
because we are not able. When that corpo-
ration, or the Charlotte, Columbia and Au-
gusta Railroad gets it, their great enemy to
high freights will be under their control, and
on our next cotton crop after the sale, We will
be paying IS per bale freight, to New York,
and $3.50 per ton for guano, as we were four
years ago. May be, as matter of spite for the
loss the road has occasioned them in the last
three years, they will double these rates upon
communities having no other outlet by rail.
say for one, as a farmer interested in my
own welfare and that of my neighbors, let US
hold on to what we have got, when it pays US
about three times as much as it is costing US.
In few years, we will cease paying even this
little, which, every year, grows less and less,
but we will still have the property for our
selves or our children.
I am told that the United States Court in
Charleston, has also given judgment against
the county upon these bonds. suppose the
county has the costs to pay. If could bring
myself to the view of some who oppose pay
ment, should feel discouraged to prolong
contest, that, every time, everywhere, and by
every court, results in the one answer, "these
bonds are binding upon the people of York
county, and must be paid" l had rather
pay my share without costs, than to continue
what seems to me useless agitation, and
heavy per centage of costs for every trial.
And am not bondhoder, Mr.. Editor, nor
never have owned one. / profess, however,
to own some common sense, and as long as |
retain the possession of that cheap commodi.
ty, do not think my opinion will be altered
about this matter. do not believe the sen.
sibe, thinking people Of York county are
going to be longer misled by the clamor of
small faction of disappointed individuals and
Northern railroad speculators, who are every
day heaping costs upon the county, to accom-
plish selfish designs. We are old enough to