Staunton vindicator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1860-1896, 1891-10-30
HOW THE RAILROADS CAN MAKE
FRIENDS.

secures to it the largest number OF friends
spread over the largest section of country.
In many cases, and wesay it with pleasure,
the roads do strive to develop the country.
They make favorable rates for the products
of large manufacturing plants and natural
ly they make friends of the owners of those
plants. But however powerful the friends
thus made may be they are few and far be-
tween. The road, while it makes friend
the good will of the hundreds whose farms
furnish the material which the plant con-
sumes. Take the proposed beet-sugar fac
tory in Staunton as an instance. Hardly
any corporation would be so blind to its
interest as not to give favorable rates
to new and great industry like this
which has in it the promise of large
freight traffic to be accommodated. But
the railroad should not lose sight OF the
fact that the farmers who will furnish the
heets are also deserving of low freight
rates. 1t is they who will be out of pocket
by high tariff of charges over the roads.
They will get precisely the same price for
their beets delivered at the factory that the
sugar they contain will justify, whether
they have to pay high tariff OF a low tariff
to get them there. 1t is important there
fore that if the Ches apeake & Ohio and the
Baltimore & Ohio roads propose to encour-
age the culture of bets along their lines,
they should make low tariff to the farmer
1ybn aJtalrpc To TllCQ thpOo IF fhpy
would really help to develop the country
which lies along their lines they must fol
low the wise liberality of the Western roads
and favor the farm as well as the factory
In the Northwest and in California this
policy has been adopted in this matter OF
raising supplies for beet-sugar factories.
and the result has been that all the beet
sugar made in this country is made in that
quarter. With the Staunton enterprise it
may be safely said that six hundred tons
per day of new freight-a freight never
before transported in Virginia-will be
added to the traffic. A high charge per ton
on this will be heavy charge On the farm
er's pocket who raises the beets, and induce
him to look upon the road that collects 1t
with about as friendly an eye as he does the
tax gatherer. But with low rate, the road
not only aids in developing a new industry
but places itself in the position in the
farmers eyes Of being friendly co-opera
tor in disposing Of his crops. and creates
in his mind feeling that it is in alliance
with him. is something III 1t he must neither
attack nor permit to lie attacked.
And this applies to the N orfolk Il Yves
tern as well as to the two rods we have
named. 1t Las an imme use territory suit
alb to the culture of beets, and it Will find
at near future day that there are great
and profitable possibilities for it in this in,
dustry. This new enterprise started il
Staunton, should, we think, turn the atten
ton of this railroad corporation to the ne
cessity of reaching city whose spirit OF
enterprise give assurance that in the fu-
ture it will be a profitable station to every
road that touches it. 1t has long been {.
mystery to us why the Norfolk & Western
has never built spur to Stanton. It cal
reach here from Stuart's Draft in this
county, by building short spur of only
nine miles, through the most fruitful sec
ton of the most fertile part of the Valley.
By looking at a map of its road we see that
in Southwestern Virginia it has built nu-
merous spurs Of similar length, to coal and
iron mines, in order to secure their carry
trade which carrying trade does not secure
a single passenger. Such spur built to
Staunton would give them a carrying trade
of hay, wheat and corn to the South, and a
passenger traffic to the South which would
exceed the transportation derived from It's
short spurs in the Southwest MANY fold. In
the matter of travel to the South the, great
stream which now goes to Charlottesville
and turns Of to the Richmond & Danville
system there, would be secured to the Nor
folk & Western system at its Staunton sta
ton. In no city in Virginia would it get
so favorable conditions of entrance as the
Staunton Development Co. offers it here
That the Norfolk & Western must come to
Staunton at some day. is as certain as the
fact that there is only nine miles of road to
build to bring it here. That road will be
built from Staunton through Highland and
Pendleton counties tomeet the Davis system
in Randolph, and there be in connection
with the great Northwest through the Cam
den system, is as certain and inevitable as
was the fact that when the Chesapeake &
Ohio road reached StauntOn it had to 90 to
the Ohio river. 1t is one of those situa-
tions in the great problem of railroad trans
portation where the strong pressure Of the
surrounding conditions will force the build
ing the road. The Norfolk & Western
cannot therefore afford to pass Staunton
twelve miles away, as it does now, any
more than it could afford to pass Lynch
burg twelve miles away.
But we did not commence this article
with the view of writing about railroad
building, and what we have said of the
Norfolk & Western drifted into it rather
from the manifest situation which ey.
lists, than from anv intention to make sug-
gestions to lt-eAcept in the matter of
beets. What we want to say to the rail
roads in Virginia, and particularly to those
in which we feel deep and friendly inter
est-those running through our own section
of the States that it is important for them
to make friends Of the people of the State.
and that in no way can they do this better
than to give them that cooperation which
is given by railroads tOlthe people in the