The Big Stone post. (Big Stone Gap, Va.) 1890-1892, 1891-10-16
What Next?


SiR.-Can it he possible that the City
Council does not understand that the use
of our streets is u valuable privilege; that
in giving part Of them upio private use,
or to q limited public use, they may in
fringc.cn the rights Of the public not
benefited thereby?
We are now paying a heavy lax to a
monopoly which has secured franchise
MS Il gift from former council, an cxor-
bitant price for water, which little fore
sight alone might have prevented, but for
whic at this line there is no remedy,
though other places having put them
selves in like predicamcnt after years Oh
endurance and then of controversy and
battling. have at length succeeded in
throwing off the yoke so quietly put upon
them.
But our water company seems now to be
less aggressive than cur Valley Street
Railway Company-and we grumblc less
Mt the charge of Is cents for mile ride,
chan at the L. & n charge of 4 cents per
asle: less at the high freight rates. be-
cause. il is said, crates will he reduced
when the traffic warrants it," To this
answer that ahe traffic will never warrant
ii. in the opinions Ok its officers, unless
some restriction or agreement is made by
which they will be forced to come down.
Each additional street given to their use,
each track laid with or without permission
eiyen the company, adds by so much toll
Strentgh as II monopoly, aud lengthcns
the time when the city will be able to con-
fro.. it, ne eventually it must do.
Our principal avenue was no sooner
graded than it yas torn up for railroad
track-laying and has been hardly passa-
bile since, excepting at street crossings;
no work has been done to ALLOW vehicles
to pass from one side Of the
avenue to the other, and travel has been
yirtually excluded from Wood Avenue
where track is laid. Nor do the city
grades appear to have been adopted ex-
oepting at the convenience of the COM
pany. If this were all, we might rest
content in that it is no worse. Apparently
our council had some misgivings that the
railroad should not control all our ave-
nucs, for we were told that il had refused
one Of them asked for, to make more
direct line between the two dcpots and that
the matter appeared ended, but atits next
meeting its scrupes were oycrrulcd, and
the company gained its cause, the rights
Af the people are given away without any
benefit accruing to them, and without
their having even an opportunity for pro
test.
Believing that such opportunity is still
open on the last advance made by the
company, / now protest against having
the use of one-liaf of our nes' long
promised and only road bridge practically
destroyed by the switch now being put in
;at the South end of the bridge. Admit
ting that for present uses the single road
way on the west side of the bridge is suffi-
cient, that when traffic is too great for
that to answer, the purpose apart will be
forced to the other side; the fact that it
will be forced-aDd no one viii want to
run the risk of driving over the two or
three railroad crossings unless forced to
do so--is sufficient reason for enjoning
the building Of the switch. Both sides of
4hc bridge i,elong to the public, and the
city has no right to allow one side to be
cut Off from public use or convenience
simply for the accommodation of Il pri-
Nate corporation.
And in order that the owners Oh the
streets, our citizens, may have some voice
in the disposition of their property, it is
suggested to the city fathers that before
they give away any more of our rights,
they submit to us such questions involv-
ing our rights through the columns OF the
Big Stone Posr, giving these most inter
,ested ut least hearing.
ENGINEER.