Frostburg mining journal. [volume] (Frostburg, Md.) 1871-1913, 1881-03-12
AN IMPORTANT DOCUMENT

Greek and Cumberland railroad com
pany to the Maryland Board of Pub
lie Works, very recently forwarded tc
Annapolis, has reached us and We
take the liberty of giving it publicity
It is a paper of more than usua
force, whether as setting forth the
nature OF the obstruction which bars
the completion of the new road to the
canal, or denies connection enabling
access thereto, as also in its appeal fol
relief in the premises. These pre-.
sensations, stripped of legal verbiage
and concisely stated, will be found
interesting to every reader really in
terested in the welfare of the region
1t will be remembered no doubt
that by the terms of the settlement
between the State and Baltimore and
Ohio railroad company, formulated
in and effected by the Act of 1873,
the latter was explicitly bound among
other things by certain considerations
allowed by the State, "to permit any
railroad company now or hereafter
incorporated to connect its railroad
with the B. & 0. railroad or railroads
at or near or west of Cumberland; to
receive from such connecting roads
certain freights and transport them to
the canal" etc.
By this settlement the Baltimore
and Ohio railroad company was re-
lieved of large debt to the State. 1t
might be said the agreement was es-
teemed one of vast mutual advan-
tage, retrospective in the one case and
prospective in the other, and received
and endorsed alike by stockholders
and the peoples representatives.
The people themselves, however,
witness the spectacle presented of the
party of the first part, having sought
and, under conditions agreed as in
dispensable to equity, obtained certain
releases, mo'o repudiating its contract
with the State-the first time it is
asked to carry it out
We have not the time to elaborate
this topic further than to speak of COL
lateral results Of this gigantic breach
Of faith. The cars and other OBJ
structions which stand in the way Of
the new road in Cumberland, morally,
if not technically, a defiance of the
sovereignty of the State, symbolic
an implacable determination to con-
tinue in this region the rule of the
monopolists, and the sway of restric-
ton and destruction. From Georges
Greek the depression flows to Cum
berland and the canal, impoverishing
the boatmen and robbing a great
State highway of its need Of traffic.
The day-dreams, fondly cherished, by
the enterprising operator and indus
trious miner of syear of unsurpassed
activity, vanish into thin air as the
boa tightens its coils and strangles the
first, possibly the last hope of compe-
titive transportation.
Will the people ever awake to a
true conception of their rights and
interests in the industrial destiny of
this region =?
If our very liberal allowance of
population to Garrett in 1870 else
where stated may be taken as author
itative, it is very certain that, so far
as the number CT inhabitants affects
the erection of new counties, our
neighboring establishment lacked the
constitutional requirement of 10000
by majority of several hundred.
When the JOURNAL used to thun-
der "new county" in the ears of these
Georges Creek people, some Cumber-
land newspaper would occasionally
rise and remark that there wasn't
sufficient territory, and threaten us
with an unfavorable survey.
In Garrett, however, they survey
ed, which wasn't necessary, and
didn't count, which a0as necessary.
Here, we desired TO assume a suffi-
cheney of territory and count the
people, although squarely and honest
ly, we were willing to rest our claims
upon an exact determination of each
matter in the proper way. With the
duty of surveying and counting
equally incumbent, it was little I'M
gracious, therefore, in the Legislature
to take CARROTS word concerning
population, and decline entertaining
our assurances concerning territory.
If we had been listened to as we
deserved many people, then opposed