Shepherdstown register. [volume] (Shepherdstown, Va. [W. Va.]) 1849-1955, 1879-09-06
ALL ALONG THE LINE.

as to the practice OF railroad companies
carrying freights through from the
West at less rates of charges than from
many points East of the Allegheny
mountains, adjacent to the seaboard
centres, thereby greatly reducing the
value of manufactures and land by sub
jectiOg their products to extra and uu-
just charges TO compensate for " hat
they claim to be short charges on
through freights. There is nothing
better calculated to sharpen the wits,
ard create the resistance of a people,
than to over-tax them; this has and is
being done in bold, reckless and def
ant way by the trunk railroad compa-
MES; and no argument or appeal to their
sense of justice is heeded-nothing but
competition or the stern mandates of
law can stay or change their unjust
practice of discriminating in their char
yes on the products of the eastern man
nfacturer and farmer. When all reas-
enable appeals from the injured parties
are disregarded, then they are justified
in resorting 10 extreme measures to pro-
tect themselves. Legislative commit
tees have been appointed by several
States 20 investigate and eXpostulate
with these soulless corporations, but in
most cases tritiDg and senseless subter-
tuges and prevarications have been re-
sorted to by these companies to battle
and defeat the correction of these gross
injustices, until .he people of the East
are becoming thoroughly aroused, and
are manitesting determination to put
stop to these outrages upon justice,
and the great injury discrimination is
iuflicting upon them by reducing the
value OF their property and its products.
Below we copy extracts from Eastern
and Southern papers =
(From the Charleston, S. c., News and
Courier.l
The fight against discrimination in rail-
road freights is assuming gigantic pro-
portions, and from Maine to Texas there
are indications ola coming struggle be-
tween the people and the corporations,
which is likely 10 shake the nation from
centre TO circumference. The local grieV-
ances are various, sometimes apparently
Numerically opposite. But the argu-
ment by which all the complaints are
supported Is that ifit pays TO carry freight
given distance for given price, then
it pays 10 carry it Il shorter distance for a
proportionately less price. If it don't
pay, don't carry it,. TO do so is an unjust
discrimination against the shippers for Il
shorter distance, and must be stopped.
From the N y. Commercial Bulletin.
The EAST ABOUT TO WAGE WAR IN
EARNEST WITH THE RAILROAD.-It has be-
come the settled policy of the trunk rail-
roads TO carry the eXportable surplus of
Western products without regard TO profit
ard 10 charge the consequent deficiencies
upon the traffic within their respective
States. The effect has been TO crush out
the vitality Of agriculture in the line of
Atlantic States from Maine TO Virginia,
and also 10 impose very serious burthens
upon the manufactures of chat large sec
ton OF the country. Similar disCrimina-
tons are applied TO the carriage of mcr-
chandise, with the effect of steadily divert
ing trade to Western centres by wholly
artificial process. BY these means, capt.
tai, labor, industry and prosperity are
driven from the section where they had
previously settled through the force of
natural advantages, and this set of States
is arbitrarily oppressed while the other
is artificially nurtured.
The West ought to be able 70 under
stand how far a policy of this unjust and
ruinous nature is likely to be endured.
Its own Granger laws, however ill-cOn-
ceived in respect to the remedies they
provided, We're directed against similar
Determinations practiced by Western
roads as between local and through"
traffic but, in our case, the injustice and the
evils resulting from such inequalities are
infinitely greater than were those against
which the Granger legislation was aimed.
We are following the Granger precedent;
but we hope to improve upon their meth
odS of remedy. The West may rest as
sured that, so far Is this State is concern
ed, the people will take no rest until Il
remedy for these wrongs has been found;
and, from all signs, the neighboring States
are fast awakening to like resoluteness
of temper.
In view of these facts, it is not too early
TO consider what may be the effect of the
trunk railroads being deprived of the
power to recOup themselves out of their
State traffic for their utterly inadequate
charges for CARRYING Western products.
We may depend upon it that, if the Leg
islatures of New ork, Pennsylvania and
Maryland impose limitations Oh rates for
carriage within their respective limits,
the four great trunk lines will quickly
change their schedules for Western
freight. And it is exactly the probable
itv of such change that ii concerns the
West and all dependent upon it to consid-
er. There can be no doubt that the large
and rapid development which has occur
red, during late years, in the Western
State and Territories is due chiefly, if not
entirely, to the nominal rates ut which
the roads, Western as we'll rs Eastern,
nave carried their products to the seat
board. Their cultivation and settlement
depend upon arbitrary Determinations in
their favor which can be continued for
no longer than while other States are
willing TO be taxed for the boon thus con-
fsrred. What would be their condition
suppoSing legislation should take it out
of the power of the railroads to afford to
do this gratuitous service for them? They
would wither and collapse like Il muSh-
room. Nor Is iJ n question affecting sole
ly the more remote States of the West. 1t
concerns al parts of that section, though,
of course, in a lesser degree those situa-
ted near the seaboard. \ difference of 10
cents or even cents per busheli in the
charge for carrying grain from the West
ern farm to the Atlantic port would rem
der Improbable millions of acres of West
ern lands, and would drive out ofcultiva-