The Abbeville messenger. (Abbeville, S.C.) 1884-1887, 1885-04-01
Will il. Pay?

do pay the community through which they
run. Follow the Atlanta and Charlotte
a. l.. II. T.. What wnnLcrrul drv,ln;mrnt we
see there. Furnishing towns now dot that
section OF our state, which was formerly Civ
EN- ur mainly to Improbable forests, the habi-
tatinn of wild animals. The busy hum of in
dustry and its rapidly developing Resources
mark 1t as Il section soon to earn the title of
the garden spot of the State.
LaurcnS, but lately in :h. depths uf de
spond is raising its head amongst The most
prog rcssivc and live towns in the up-c"untry,
it has rail road approaches from two, and soon
will have from tnur directions. Our neigh
Dor, cutcrprising little Grccuwood, Formerly
but n waySidc station on the e.. and G.. K. r.,
under the stimulus of another trunk road, has
become an important commercial centre. and
warns MS in no indistinct terms that unlcss We
wake up, we will he aroused at no distant day
to the consciousness that onr glory has d. par
ted and that VIC mist take Il back seat.
The "Rail Road World' is thoroughly
aroused aud it requires no prophet nor the son
of IL prophet to see that ere long the mnuntnins
must be pierced and direct communication cs-
tablishci with the great North West. These
are three bases Inr IL movement of this
kind, Abbcviilc, GrcCnvillc and Anderson.
The town selected must Of necessity reap i'll
cstimable advantage from the cnt crprise.
The great North West will pour of its wealth
produce and cmigrunts into the tort unatr town
for distribution. We now have IL chance,
probably the last and only one we will ever
have to secure the coveted prize. Are we
prepared to throw away the opportunity? 4
| move has nlI cadv been made to select another
route. and it seems that onr only hone is a
prompt and decided action upon the PROPOSE
ton Submitted by the c., E. q nnd G.. cumpa-
ny. Let us not by any act If ours or want of
effort throw away this grand opportunity. 1t
may be said to be certain that this road { the
C., &. &. and G. rail roadl will not be built
through Abbeville unlessewc act and Tat
quickly. 1t may not conisi il we do act ,}}ut wo
1ca.safHnpt suffer if we act, and if we ali we may be-
c%onsoled irHAtc consequences that we did
all we could.
What will be our condition if another route
be chosen. We may be said now to he cut off
from the three rich valleys of our county By
rail roads and a fourth i'll contemplation from
Due West to the s. v. R. r., which leaves us
the Commercial Centre of ms isolated II system
of red hills, rs ever fell to the lot of any one
town with no adequate means of competing
with the numerous wayside stations which
will girdlc us us on every side, and every one
of which will draw from our present trade.
For trade will go to the most favored locations.
Our most entcrpl Using business men will fol-
low the trade and our property must deprccinte
to an unlimited extent. 1t will then be fruit
less Tor us to appeal to the Georgia Central or
any other system for relief, with our dimin-
ished trade { scarcely enough now to support
one branch road } We will then be too poor an
object TO their respect or attentions:
We must have another rail road to sustain onr
commercial superiority. We may find that
the issue now is the c., G. G.. and C.. rail road
or none.
We arc asked to take the initiative in n vote
Of per cent. Of the assessed value of our
property III bonds payable in 20 years, not in
one year as some seem to havo been led to
suppose. BY n tax annually of five mills on
the dollar that is of five dollars Oh the one
thousand dollars, with the license tax and the
street tax, we can pay the necessary expenses
of our town government AMI extinguish the
bonded debt with accrued interest in fifteen
years and have a surplus in the treasury.
This can easily be verified by calculation.
We can certainly afford to pay the the half of
one per cent. or 3 cents on tho hundred dollars
worth of property every year for fifteen years,
rather than submit to the loss of trade and
the unlimited decline in the value of our prop
erty. which must he our lot five do not get an
in Il few nccessarics of life by each individual
would more than pay his tax, but our benefits
do not stop here. The completion of the road
will naturally be followed by building of hous-
es and other improvements which will add to
the taxable property of the town, and every
dollar so added will lessen the burden of Ia xa-
ton. The rail road property alone will exceed
in value 100000, within the town limits, from
which we will realize n town tax of $3.50, sr
that we can readily see that the improvements
will help largely to shorten the :iine in which
we are to he taxed.
Our bonds too will not be q total loss to us.
One half of them are to be returned to us in
stock and the other half in second mortgage
ably expect an income after five years, which
will be applied to the sinking fund, and thus
pay off the bonds probably within l2 years
from the time they were issued. If We fail to
get the road the bonds will be returned to ns
for they cannot otherwise be used under the
conditions on which they are voted. The
amount proposed to be voted along the line Of
road will be II margin for the protection of
capitalists in Charleston who are expected to
put their money in the enterprise. Unless
this margin is provided capitalists cannot in
reason be expected to take hold Of the matter, .
We are not in n position to delay nor dictate
terms. The road to lis is q
"EEKDCRssITy.