Richmond dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1884-1903, 1888-01-31
virginia and Carolina Railroads.&c.
pIy 90 Roscoe"

To the EditOr Of the Dispatch:
A letter in your issue of the 10Th
signed "Roscoe" makes an attack upon
the Senate Committee on Roads for re-
porting favorably bill to extend the
time for the completion of the Virginia
and Carolina railroad two years.
Thawriter is evidently of the race who
spend their time complaining of imaSl-
nary evils. Certain it is that the grounds
OF his complaints, as stated by him, are
without Just foundation. he states as
fact that the object of the company is
neither to complete the road themselves
nor permit charter to be granted to
other parties who could and would do so.
And as evidence of this statement he al
leges that no work has been done upon
the road since the Legislature granted a
two wears extension in 1886, and that the
company has sold controlling interest
10 a competing parallel road-the Allan
tic Coast Line-whose sole object IN
buying was to prevent the COM
pletion Of the Virginia and Carolina.
The truth is that within five months af-
ter the said act of Assembly extending
the charter, the city of Petersburg filed
bill attacking the organization OF the
company and the stock which had been
issued by it. Their writ was issued the
l6th/of August, 1886. They got an or
der of reference to a commissioner the
9TH of December, 1886, and yet the city
of Petersburg did not introduce its first
witness before the commissioner until
the 10Th Of December, 1887, and the
city has not closed its evidence yet If
the case goes to the Court of Appeals, as
il will almost certainly do. more than
the two years heretofore granted by the
Legislature as an extension will have
been consumed by the action OF the city
OF Petersburg. 1t is to supply the time
so wasted that a further extension is
made necessary, as the charter will ex-
pire the LIST day of January, 1889.
Ii has been proved in this suit, and no
evidence TO the contrary has been nitro
duced, that the corporators did not sell
majority OF the stock TO persons into
rested in the Coast Line, and that the
purchasers of what was sold are not
inimical TO the completion of the Yir-
ginia and Carolina. but if the road is
sold under the mortgage held by Peters
burg, as she asks, the stock held by
these purchasers will be wiped out, and
the purchasers will take the road unen-
numbered of mortgages. The amend
meDts which were proposed to the bill,
it was plainly shown. will be an obstacle
in the way Of completing the road, and
the committee properly determined that
the corporators, VINO had put in at least
$4,000 in money, and who were con-
trollers Of tue Richmond. Fredericks-
burg and Potomac road, OF which this
is but an extension, had given Il
sufficient guarantee that the work
would be completed. especially as they
only asked for two.years within which 10
do it. Roscoe" labors under the delu-
sion that Petersburg. Dinwiddie, Bruins
wick, and Mecklenburg are suffering un-
der great wrong because the road has
not been completed. He ignores the
fact that the corporators OF this road
we're the frat people who ever undertook
TO construct such line, and that they
have lot received any assistance from
the people along the line IN the way
of money, and that the money put
Ia by the city Of Petersburg was