Savannah morning news. [volume] (Savannah) 1868-1887, 1881-03-23
The Proposed Lease Of the Georgia
Railroad

the stock and b0ndholders of the Central
and Georgia railroads, especially in your
issue Of the 18th inst, convey informa-
ton Of great moment for the considers-
ton OF all the parties concerned. The
reasons for the proposed combination
are 80 clearly explained and forcIbly
presented in your concise articles, that
we have all the elements given for the
solution of the problem. 1t also sug-
gests to Us the necessity for unitv in
Georgia in all measures that have in
view the material and political aggran-
diZement of our State. 1t is true that the
petty prejudices of the past, local and
personal, should be buried with slavery,
and that a. the way to progress has
been opened to US, we should follow it as
a united people, If we desire our State to
be in fact, as in name, the Empire
State of the South" 1t is not too much
to say, if the article is carefully read,
that it has an interest, direct or indirect,
for every Georgian, which centres in the
development of our seaports as the
common property of all. Georgians
must become conscious of the fact that.
If they do not build up Charleston. Sa-
vannah, Darien and Brunswick, trade
will pass Georgia by, and feed Pensacola
to the south of us, and Norfolk to the
North of US.
There is a tide in the affairs Of men.
Which taken at its food leads on to fortune"
This is now Georgia's opportunity;
which, if not improved. may be lost to
us forever A look at the map Of the
United States demonstrates that the
trade and commerce of Georgia must
find its out.go and Income over her
own roads and through her own seaports
and Charleston, or be carried to the Gulf
of Mexico, or to Virginia. There is no
third or middle course. This is the
question that we are all called upon TO
decide, and as a Georgian, citizen of
Savannah, and interested in the Central
Railroad, directly from its inception,
forty years ago, and maintaining that in
terest without the sacrifice of dollar of
it throughout all of the trials and darkest
hours of the road, ! endorse fully the
proposed combination as necessity for
the protection of the com mercial and
trade interests of the State, of Savannah,
and Of the road.
But that the combination may be
completely effected, the people of Sa-
vannah must construct lower harbor,
where ships of the largest tonnage can
certainly enter at all times. discharge
cargo, reload and go TO sea without delay.
The river Improvements of the past
sixty years, and now prosecuted, are es-
sential, and Congress should grant US
every dollar to perfect them. They are
subsidiary to the one great need of
lower and deeper harbor, if we mean
that Savannah shall be equal to the de-
mands of the railroad system having its
outlet on her wharves; which, if we are
in earnest, must be extended to Tybee.
The large commercial city of Bremen,
the second emigrant port, next to Liv-
erpool, of Europe, is situated on the
river Weser, fifty miles from its mouth.
Formerly. vessels of large size assembled
to Vezesack, thirteen miles below Bre-
men, of which it was the harbor, until
the accretions in the river which science
regulated by cost, did not remove, but
transferred the port % miles lower down
the river to Bremerhaven. 3S miles from
Bremen, with which it is connected by
rail, and where the largest vessels are
received; those drawing from 10 to IA
feet of water still ascending to Vezesack.
Yet Bremen holds her own, and will
| continue to do so as the commercial
centre on the Weser, because Vezesack
and Bremerhaven are only wharves for
the business done in Bremen. And so it
will be with Savannah-and to greater
advantage than with Bremen-as Savan-
nah is only IS miles from the mouth of
the river, with navigable river behind
it Of 200 miles into the interior. The
only objection have heard urged against
the extension of our wharves to Tybee
is ''that it would depreciate THE value
and profits of wharf property in front of
| the CITY," But such results cannot be
deduced from study of the growth of
commercial cities and the navigation in
connection with them. Their history
relates that these matters are controlled
by the law of demand and supply within
the scope of the city's commerce.; that
the greater the facilities offered to ship
ping became, the more tonnage of all
classes took advantage of them; and that
as it is rule of interest to take cargo on
board at the least cost, vessels will APP
| proach as near as they can to the point
| of shipment. We may, therefore, count
rather upon an increase of vessels at the
city wharveS, and an increased value for
| the wharveS. Nor can | see that the
projected Advancement for the grain
trade above the city will be injuriouslv
affected by our building lower harbor,
as the same class of tonnage engaged in
carrying grain will ascend to the eleva-
tos as before. In the new condition
of things for the Southern States result
| ing from the civil war, there can be no
longer the petty jealousies between
Charleston, Savannah and Brunswick
that existed with slavery. A larger field
is opened to our enterprise and our en-
ergy In the struggle of free labor, and to
succeed we must enter into those views
and combinations of free thought and
action that tend to our prosperity and
influence. Charleston and the seaports
of Georgia are so geographically related
to each other and to the internal improve
ments between them and the Mississippi
river, that they are bound in commercial
interests, and must fight, together, the
battle with the enterprises that would
turn trade from US and divert it away
from our coasts to the Gulf of Mexico
or to the capes of the Chesapeake.
Charleston is involved in our Georgia
railroad system now as well as ourselves,
and must share in its benefits as well
as we do. In few words, Charles
ton and our seaports must make COM
mon caase, in connection with our rail-
road system, against all attempts to di-
vert trade from our coast and as no one
port can do all the business, each must
fairly have its due share of it, and so
pool the profits in that manner.
In connection with this subject Incl
dentally, the thought has come to me more
than once, that the Masonic Fair and
Bazaar now in preparation may be so