The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1885-07-02
HIGH ROADS AND :3RA1LRoADs.
Gen. McCrady Contends for More and
Bettcr Country Roads.

O0~---~-S
To the Editor Ne,us md Courier:
We read in letter from Spartanburg,
published in the Ne,os and Courier a few
days ago, the statement that "the man
who lives to witness the completion of
the numerous and almost numberless
railways projected and chartered will see
that section cut up into very small
squares with transportation almost un.
paralleled." We almost daily read of
meetings throughout the State for the
purpose of subscribing to build more
railroads.
The prediction of the writer from
Spartanburg is undoubtedly true, pro-
vided the people can support the rail-
roads after they shall have built them,
but it called to mind the very able letter
from Mr.. John B. Cleveland, OF Spartan
burg, published last July, in which he
contended that the State has the consti-
tutional right to assume the railroad
debts of the counties, towns and cities.
and urged that it was right and proper
that it should do so. That Mr.. Cleve.
lands proposition is as serious as its
arguments are plausible, will be realized
when, in looking over the counties which
have providently, or improvidently,
burdened themselves with railroad debts,
we find that combined already they have
ffty.f representatives in the lower
house, and need only the representatives
fronl one OF two more counties, which
are now being pressed to incur railroad
Indebtedness, to have clear majority In
that branch of the Legislature. Does
not the question of railroad building,
then, lose its merely local interest and
become one of concern to the State at
large9 And if 80, are we sure that we
are not building more railroads than our
necessities demand and our circumstances
warrant?
Railroad legislation has received more
attention than most subjects of general
interest, but even in regard to it the
habit of local legislation has prevented
proper consideration. Ithas been treated
as if every suggestion for chartering a
railroad should be acted upon without
hesitation if the representatives from
the proposed neighborhood favored it,
and with the application for charter
the right to obtain subscriptions by
counties, townships and townsville sub
scriptions to be paid by taxation-has
commonly been demanded of late years,
and, considered as purely local matter,
has seldom been refused.
It is true that it has always been pro-.
vided in the charters that the question of
subscription or no subscription" should
be submitted to the people, but experience
has shown that while conforming to the
letter of such provisions, so that the
Courts have been unable to declare such
elections void, it has seldom happened
that the people affected have had the
question fairly presented to them, or
have even, in some instances, been made
aware of it until finding themselves
bound. Then has often followed a strug-
gle in the Courts to repudiate the bonds
issued upon such elections. This has
been the history Of county subscriptions
to railroads, not only in this State but
elsewhere, especially in the West, where
county subscriptions and bends have
been most obtained in aid of railroad
building. A glance at the reports of the
United States Courts and of our own
State will confirm the statement.
1t is now too well settled, both by our
Courts and those of the United States,
to ALLOW us to renew the question as to
the competency of counties to incur in.
debtedness and to issue bonds to be paid
by taxation for the purpose of building
railroads, but the wisdom of doing so is
still in each instance open to discussion,
a discussion to which the people of the
State generally, since Mr.. Cleveland's
suggestion, should give their fully atten.
tion.
Senator Butler, two years ago, very
wisely called the attention of our people
to the subject of their country roads and
endeavored to induce some action for
their improvement, but while the Legis.
lature is year by year authorizing taxa
ton for railroads nothing has been done
and little more thought of country roads.
In this we think there is great mistake,
and believing that there is limit which
should be observed in railroad extension
we would ask the consideration of some
facts, and venture to make some sugges.
tions in regard to it worthy, we think, of
the attention of our people.
Mr.. Poor, in the preface to his Rail.
road Manual for 1877-7S, pointed out
that the experience of the New England
States has demonstrated that to enable
railroads to be operated at profit a
population of at least $50 to mile of
railroad is necessary in this country, and
added that the history of the railroads
in the Western States had proved the
same thing. Yet Notwithstanding this
experience railroad building has gone far
beyond this proportion to population.
Except in the old Western States the
proportion of a mile of railroad to every
$50 inhabitants has been greatly exceed
ed. In those States the ratio is very
nearly mile to every 900 of population.
In the New England States there is q
mile to every 643.79 of population; in
the Middle Atlantic States u mile to
every 6575O; in the Southern Atlantic
States mile TO every 64S.59; in the old
Western and Southwestern States a milo
to every S99.SO. In this State the pro.
portion is mile to every 646.47.
We hear of the overtrading and over
production of our manufactures as the
cause of the depression of the times.
May not the overbuilding of railroads
have something, perhaps even more, to
do with it? Mr.. Poor, in his Manual
for 1884, tells US that few years ago
there was in public estimation no more
inviting field for railroad enterprise than
the State of Colorado. A vast system of
railroads covering the whole State was
constructed with great rapidity, involving
the nominal expenditure of $l0O, 900, 600,
almost the whole of which is now I'm.
productive. Is not this in itself an item
considerable enough to be appreciable in
the economic conditions of the country :?
In the great "Wabash swindle," as it is
now termed, it is estimated that there is
balance of s41, 100000 of bonds, to say
nothing of stock, for which only S206, 600
r. -