The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1885-07-02
Southern Atlantic States, as the same are
grouped in railroad statistics, are almost
Identical, as appears by this table:


Aggregate New York, New
Jersey, Pennsylvania, Dele
ware, Maryland, District Co.
lumbia, West Virginia. ,a4r5l1 lS,sOs
Aggregate Virginia. North Caro-
lima, South Carolina, Georgia,
Alabama, Florida, Mississippi,
Louisiana, Tennessee, Ken
,2ASS8 1sSo5
But the similarity in the conditions Of
the railroad problem in these two Sec
tions of the country ends here. For we
find that Mr.. Poor gives the net earnings
of the
Middle Atlantic group for 1888 sas.."."s1o7, ,259, ,2Ss
While in the Southern Atlantic group ,
The a'' railroads % in the former States
carried during the year 1888 OF pas a.. ,,- o,o
The railroads in the latter carried lss
The railroads in the former moved tons ,.- oo- 90.
of
The railroads in the latter noved."- 26,oso5S9
There is again almost identically the
same number of miles of railroad in
proportion to population in Connecticut
as in this State; there being in Connec.
ticut one mile to every CAT inhabitants
and in this State one to every 646. But
in Connecticut the railroads carried in
1883 10,6S4,374 passengers and moved
5,OO5 1853 tons of freight, while ours car.
ried 1,039,697 passengers and. moved
l 1.404 .624 tons. We must bear in mind
too the important fact that of the $685.
577 of the population of this State 604,-
332 are negroes, and but 391, ,245 of the
like industrious and thrifty people who
support the Northern and Western Rail.
roads. Do not these statistics show that
we have railroads enough in this State
already to do FIVE or ten times the busi-
ness which now offers? And ought we
to tax the people to build more when
those already built have not business
enough to DO? :,
It's urged that if we build more rail.
roads the population and business will
increase and furnish them with as many
passengers and as much freight as they
will be able to carry. But does expert
ence warrant such an expectation? This
was the theory upon which the vast
amount of capital was invested in the
new Western States, and in those States
there were exceptional grounds on which
to base such calculations. There was
the immense multitude of emigrants
seeking homes in the West, and a virgin
soil awaiting but their coming to yield
untold wealth in grain. But even in
that section there was limit to the profit
able building Of railroads, as is shown
in the case Of Colorado, Notwithstanding
her silver mines. In our case there are
no such conditions on which to base rail-
road speculation. We can expect no
sudden expansion of business, nor the
wonderful results which followed railroad
building in some of the newly settled
territories.
We must remember, too, that the capi'
tai sunk in Colorado was foreign capital,
voluntarily sent there on speculation,
seeking great gains, in the face of posi-
Bile loss. The capital We risk in these
new enterprises is to be drawn from our
own people, for the most part unwillingly,
by taxation. We, ourselves, are not
without some severe lessons in railroad
enterprises in this State. We have
already city, town and county debt in.
Cured for the building of railroads of
81, 1877 ,579, to wit: