The Valley Virginian. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1865-1895, 1881-03-10
Baltimore and the South.

tion, at Big Lick or Salem, with the Atlantic, Mis-
sissippi and Ohio Road, and the purchase of this
latter improvement by the friends of the Shen-
City to the danger which menaces her Southern
trade. At recent meeting of the Merchants
and Manufacturers Association of that CITY.
Mr.. ]. R. Bland read very able article on
the subject, discussing it in all of lis phases.
and arriving at the conclusion expressed in
the following sentences: "Let us, by one
stroke, solve the question for all time, by at
once completing the Virginia Midland Rail
road. 1t will require only ia miles of new
road TO make it great through line. The
charter has been obtained, the route surveyed
and the right of way given to the company
By C ,mpleting the Virginia Midland Railroad,
Baltimore would then occupy, as a cotton
market, the same relative position to large
Southern territory that it does now to the
West as grain market"
The american, commenting on this report
saws ga glance at the railroad systems of
Virginia and the Carolinas will convince the
most skeptical that Baltimore is already prac-
tically shut out from some of the most profita-
BILE markets of the South by the discrimina-
tions which the railroads have made in favor
of Norfolk, Richmond and West Point and
that with the extension of the Chesapeake
and Ohio to deep water at Newport News,
and the completion of the Shenandoah Valley
Road to Salem and its operation in connection
with the Atlantic, Mississippi and Ohio, the
process of strangling our Southern trade will
be still further accelerated. 1t must not be
inferred. of course from this exhibit that there
is now, or likely to be in the immediate future,
any actual decline in the volume OF our trade;
but what we are losing is equally important,
namely the priceless opportunity to extend our
trade to just the degree that the present COM
binations against US are successful in attract
ing to other ports the trade that might be ours
What we need is, first of all, through line to
the South operated in sympathy with Baltl-
more interests, so as, on the one hand, to pro-
! tect our merchants against unfair discrimlna-
tions in outgoing freights and, on the other
hand, to secure to this market the cotton and
on the seaboard. There is nothing of which
Baltimore stands so greatly in need now as
Investigation of her imports and exports !;
and it cannot be doubted that if any consider
able portion of the cotton of the Carolinas and
| Georgia, that now finds an outlet via the
Richmond and Danville at West Point, and
via the Atlantic, Mississippi and Ohio at Nor
folk, could be secured to this port, it would
materially increase the inducements to steam
ship lines to come here for cargoes. And what
is true of our railway connections is equally
true OF our water communications. Unless a
vigorous effort is made to increase our steam
ship accommodations, the New York mer-
chants are sure to rob us of the little that is
left of our coast trade with the Carolinas."
Had Baltimore and the Baltimore and Ohio
Railroad Company given the Valley Railroad
extension south of Staunton that considera-
ton which the improvement should have COM
manded, the relation of that city to the trade
of the South would be different to what it is
and the impending threat to her Southern
commerce would not now exist. A great op-
portunity was lost in not completing the Val
| ley road to Salem years ago. Had it been
DONE the proprietary relations of the Atlantic,
Mississippi and Ohio road would not, in all
probability, be what they are. Instead of
scouting the Shenandoah Valley Railroad pro-
tject as "myth," and looking at it as real
entity, with overwhelming physical facts to
give it importance, the Valley Railroad enter
prise had been pushed forward to its compile
ton, the whole Southern system of railroads
might have been made tributary to the growth
and wealth of Baltimore. Now, when the
field has been occupied, and the occupancy
fortified with almost impregnable intrench-
ments. by an unfriendly and powerful COM
peting interest, the magnitude of the mistake
| is made apparent, and the necessity for re-
| trievement, fpossible, becomes pressing. We
have more than once, in discussing this sub
ject, and urging active, earnest efforts to COM
plete the Valley Railroad, called attention to
the probability of the very condition of things
which now exists. Delay and hesitancy were
the response, and now instead of commanding
the situation, dangerous and aggressive ri
val has captured the field, and Baltimore,
brought to her senses only when it is too late
to recover the lost ground-which, if main
tanned, would have been of far greater benefit
to her than the harvest gathered from her en-
tire western ramifcations, for there is no COM
parison between the cotton trade of the South
and the grain trade of the West. The one
would not only have fed her machinery and
built up her industries, but have increased her
foreign trade, while the other can only serve
to benefit her shipping interest.
| 1t is estimated that there WERE at least
LA, 900 strangers in Washington on inaugu-
| ration day, and it is stated that ample ac-
| commodatiors were afforded for the immense
throng. The city had Oh its holiday attire.
From one end of Pennsylvania avenue to
the other flags fluttered to the breeze pri-
vate and business houses were beautifully
decorated with the emblems of the Nations
power and glory. and in every face was re-
Elected JOY and gladness at the approach OF
the hour when one citizen President should
quietly surrender the highest Office in the
world and step back into the ranks of the
masses, and another citizen should come
out from the masses and quietly assume
more than regal power and authority, 1t
was beautiful exemplication of our system
of government and the dignity Of the SOW
ereign power of our free institutions. The
sovereigns, through the forms of law, had
invited one whom they had exalted, back
into their ranks, and commissioned another
from their number to go forward and take
hold of the helm to guide the Ship of State.
1t was a grand and inspiring sight, illus
trating the harmonious working of a gov
eminent of the people, for the people and
by the people.
The train on the Baltimore & Potomac Rail-
road on which ex-President HAYES and his