The Aberdeen examiner. [volume] (Aberdeen, Miss.) 1866-current, 1883-05-10
Reply TO EAST Mississippi DEM
Ocrats"
THE PEOPLE AND THE RAIL ROADS.

1
Clarion who signs himself "East Mis-
sissippi Democrat" and to whom we
are indebted for kind personal allu-
sions, says:
at is a notorious fact that at least
some railroads in this State are not
operated in the interest of the people,
and that they are now in the enjoy
ment of prosperity, which was taken
from private citizens, and given to
them in the interest of the people,
that is to promote the general good,
but as used by said railroads it is
Promoting the general harm and in
jury"
Now, we may have been very un-
fortunate in our research, but as far
as faithful inquiry has carried us we
have not been able to find an instance
in our State where railroad is self
supporting so far as its dependence
upon Mississippi freights is concerned.
We believe that the proposition is
capable of demonstration that if all
the money received by our various
railroads for freight and passage with
in the bounds of the State-on en-
ports and imports-was added togeth-
er, it would not near pay the running
expenses of those roads within our
bounds and four per cent, interest on
the investment in road bed and
equipment in our territory; and that
if they were cut off from the profits
they derive from"through freight and
passage" they would be compelled to
either cease operations or double
local rates.
Theis correspondent makes a great
mistake if he supposes for an instant
that capitalists put their money in
railroads for the benefit of the public |
at large, or for any ones benefit
except their own; and in granting
them charters or other franchises the
question that we have to ask ourselves
is as practical and selfish in its natnre
as the demand made by the capitalists
or railroad builders upon the State:
They ask for a charter, or in other
words for the people to surrender
certain rights and prerogatives in
consideration of their undertaking to
open new avepue to market; and it
is for the people to say whether the
benefit to accrue from the building
of the new road is fair equivalent
for the surrender. You see it is a
selfish, practical business transaction
all around, and we do not know of a
single one of these transactions in
which the people Immediately CON
cerned, in Mississippi, have not come
oat ahead of the capitalists.
The hourishing market towns of
Corinth, Tupelo, Okolona, West Point,
Meridian and Enterprise, on the main
line of the M. & O. r.. r., were to a
great extent creations of that road, to
say nothing of numerous lively inter
mediate villages; and many of the
farmers who now haul their cotton
from convenient distances to them,
have distinct recollections of the days
when they trudged beside their wag
ons through muddy roads over the
long stretches that interviewed be-
tween their farms and Aberdeen and
Columbus on the Tombigbee; Mem
phis on the Mississippi, and Eastport
and other landings on the Tennessee.
But for the war that road would
many years ago have enriched every
thrifty land owner within the sphere
of its influence, and but for that road
we would have been at least gener
alton longer than we have been, in
recovering from the terrible effects Of
the war.
"Render unto Caesar the things
which are Caesars" and in summing
up the case let every man who lives
convenient to line of rail road com
pare his condition with that of his
fellow farmer who is differently situa-
ted, and he will realize that he is
doubly blessed in the possession of
advantages and facilities that he never
Adequately appreciated and that he
would be miserable if deprived of
after having once enjoyed.
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THERE were severe frosts in Nlr-
pinia and Pennsylvania on the night