Weekly commercial herald. (Vicksburg, Miss.) 1884-18??, 1886-05-21
THE W
Vloksburg Being Placed Upon an
Equal Footing with other South
ern Cities.

ern Cities.
u Is an acknowledged fact that
Vicksburg, geographically speaking,
occupies one of the most desira BILE sites
as a commercial center for WHOLESALE
trade in the Mississippi Valley. Sit
uated as II is at the base Of the great
and well-wateFed YszOO delta, which Is
traversed for hundreds of miles by
naVlgable streams, upon which are
continually plying our local ste ,mers;
aud on the western boundary Of the
fertile and well-improved farming dis
trict of the great Louisiana bottom;
contiguous to land accessible by the
Vicksburg, Shreveport & Pacific rail-
road) the populous farming dis
tricts of North Louisiana, together
with the thickly settled and
fertile fields north and south on The
Mississippi Valley railroad, as well as
the country for hundreds Of miles to
the east of us on the line Of the great
Queen Il Crescent route, all of which
are tributary to our business, we
should, with proper and equal facili.
ties, be able to cope with any of the
southern or western cities in securing
the major portion of the trade of all
this fertile field contiguous to us.
This, however, has'in a measure in the
past been denied US and given to
other cities north and south Of us,
and we have been forced to re-
main passive or helpless while
Memphis, st. Louis and New Orleans
have enjoyed the trade which, by right
of location, should have been ours.
They have come to our very thresholds
yes, have passed beyond our city
from either direction and have taken
this trade where we could not touch it
The cause Of this was The discrimina-
ton against US as in favor of these
other points in freight rates.
On the river, Memphis and New Or
leans were the favored points, as they
were by rail on all the trunk lines.
Realizing that something had to be
done, our board Of trade, about two
months since, called a meeting and
framed a petition to the manage
ment of the Anchor Line of
steamers, at st. Louis, and the
Mississippi Valley railroad at Men,
phis, making a plain exhibit of the
discrepancy against VlCksburg,, and
asking that our city be granted a tariff
commensurate with its position be-
tween Memphis and New Orleans, and
on the same scale as those cities. In
reply the management of these two
great lines cheerfully conceded all
that was asked. On May 5th another
meeting of the Board OF Trade was
held, and the President, Mr.. George w
Hutcheson. waa instructed to indite 4
a letter to the President of the Board
of management Of the Cincinnati, New
Orleans & Texas railroad, Commonly
known as the Queen & Crescent route,
setting forth the facts that other line;
had reduced their tariff rates to Vicks
burg, and that the Queen u Crescent
was discriminating against Vicksburg
by giving Memphis the same rates tt
points east of Meridian that were
given Vicksburg merchants, although
the distance from Memphis is two
hundred miles further than from
Vicksburg to these points. The letter
also contained tables of rates, showing
that Memphis has a tariff from Kansas
City and st. Louis varying from Is tc
40 per cent lower than from those
points to Vicksburg, and to points
east of Meridian, which effectuallJ
estopped Vicksburg from competition
1t Was asked that this discrimination
be abated and the tariff so equalized as
to give V~icksburg an equal chance
with Memphis or New Orleans for THU
trade. In answer to this letter, Presi
dent Bond sent the following