Frostburg mining journal., 1883-11-24
HAS 1T PAID?
ASlight Retrospect Linked with "A Few
Facts and Prospects.

W VI p'A NNN'Shbs - i'N 80
gotten the gigantic struggle made
several years ago by the Georges Greek
and Cumberland railroad company
for name and place among the great
industrial activities of the county.
Nor is it likely that the immense an
tagonisms which the valiant enter
prise encountered at every vital step
of its march and which it at length
overcome, will be difficult to recall to
the memory of thousands who viewed
the contest with divergent sympathles
Among the spectators were men with
out dollar at stake who denounced
the investment in the road us one
which would not only prove unproii-
table, but was in itself "A presumptu-
ous and revolutionary interference
with an established order Of affairs.
The fact that in any issue of the pro-
ject the people of this county had all
to make and nothing to lose went for
naught with the super-royal loyalists
of the old regime. Even as late as
last year, when our entire trade had
just emerged from the paralysis of II
long suspension, it was stated with
something of cxultant confidence
"the new road is failure"
The same hardihood of comment
does not prevail to-day.
But it is easy to recall unpleasant
incidents. In this case it is easier to
remind an otherwise forgetful and
unthinking people of the results, past
and prospective, of the enterprise
which they encouraged or discour-
aged, as the case may have been.
1t. is safe to estimate the net earn
ings of the new road for this year to
this week at eighty thousand dollars,
or eight per- cent. upon its capital
stock. This conjecture allows moth
ing for the carriage of passengers or
other than coal freight. 1t is more
than likely, therefore, that those who
actually put their money in the road
will be satisfactorily compensated for
the first fair years work the enter
prise has enjoyed.
Has it paid the coal companies 9TH
er than those Immediately interested
A reduction of one-third from former
freight rates from Homecoming to
Cumberland, instituted by this road
and imposed upon the Cumberland
and Pennsylvania railroad by the OBJ
ject and force of competition, saved
indirectly to two Homecoming compa-
nies this year at least thirty-liye
thousand dollars, and to two Frost
burg companies, inaccessible to the
new line, at least twenty thousand
dollars! Other companies, who in
vested neither money or patronage in
the new road, shared similar fortune.
In this connection it should be
stated as fact not generally known
that the Georges Greek and Cumber-
land railroad company practically en-
forced the reduction of canal tolls
from fifty to forty cents per toni
saving to the companies so far this
year of sixty thousand dollars!
Has it paid the people, that vast
mass who put nothing in it, some Of
whom predicted that most distressing
Of all financial transgrcssions-"it it
wont pay" This is an important
question and one that should be an
swered carefully ana clearly. The
tenet that whatever confcrs aAyant-
age upon the operating or developing
agencies of IL community is shared by
the community itself, is accepted us
conclusively established. In this ease
there are u number of considerations
going to show that the new road, with
its endowment of one million dollars,
is an actual giH to the people of this
county! Let us see:
Under the auspices of former freight
tariffs it is extremely doubtful wheth-
er, at the beginning of the current
season, our operators could have en-
tered the market at all. Even at
existing rates the largest producer in
the region was forced to take the
crumbs from around swept platter.
In the event stated, instead of an out
put of over two millions, fraction Of
one million tons would fill the years
record. The squeezing out of weak
companies and enforcement of still
lower wages, both tributary to Che
impoverishment of the people, would
have certainly followed. Hence, to
get at the idea properly, it must be
n1mitta1 thot +bo co,.;,,,., =, l:a..A. 4