Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1894-02-26
A BIG FIGHT BEGUN
Interesting Contest in the Virginia
Legislature.
Result of the Application for a Char
ter to Incorporate the Richmond
and Manassas Railroad.
Of The Evening Star.


RICHMOND. Va, Feb "a, 1894.
The application for a charter to incor-
porate the Richmond and Manassas rail-
| road has precipitated big fight before the
legislature. The bill has not as yet come
UP for discussion In either house, but the
committee on roads of the lower house. after
q bitter struggle before II, participated in
by the advocates and opponents Of the
measure, finally decided to report 1t favor
ably. The measure has hung fire in the
senate committee. and there is some danger
of an adverse report upon it. The merits
Of the bill were argued at length before
that committee on Friday.
Mr.. Eppa Hunton. jr. one of the incor-
porators of the proposed road, and a men,
Der of the house from Fauquier county,
made an exhaustive argument in behalf of
the proposed road on a high plane He took
the ground that ii has been the honored
custom of Virginia to admit new railroads
within her borders unless there was some
specific reason why the road should not be
constructed.
Senator Mushbach of Alexandria, who is
opposed to granting the charter for the new
road. piled the speaker with numerous
questions, which he answered with readi-
ness and good humor, and to the apparent
satisfaction of the members.
Mr.. Frank Ried of Alexandria opposed
the road in behalf of the citizens of Alex
jure the trade of that city.
Mr.. Gustavus Millhiser. a wealthy mer-
chant of this city, advocated the road, as
1t would be advantageous to the commercial
interests of Richmond.
Senator Little of Fredericksburg opposed
the measure on the grounds that II would
injure the Richmond. Frederlcksburg and
Potomac railroad. The senate committee
continued these hearings today.
1t is now evident that the fight over this
road is between the Pennsylvania railroad
and the Baltimore and Ohio. the r. F. and
p. of course. siding with the former. 1t is
admitted that the object of the Richmond
and Manassas road is to allow the Balti-
more and Ohio to come into Richmond,
thus making direct southern connections,
which ends the "Pensy's'' monopoly. The
Richmond, Fredericksburg and Potomac in
terests in the state are antagonizing the
proposed new road for all it Is worth.
The great difficulty In the way of the peo-
pie who are advocating the new road is
that the state owns large interest in the
Richmond, Fredericksburg and Potomac.
This obstacle will probably oe overcome
by the incorporators of the Richmond and
Manassas agreeing to purchase the states
interest in the former road, bill to that
effect having already been introduced in
the house.
The object of the Baltimore and Ohio is
to connect with this proposed road at Ma
nassas by means of the branch which they
are now constructing. The men who are
advocating the road admit this. When Mr..
ing his speech Friday, he replied that he
did not doubt that this was the intention of
the Baltimore and Ohio people, and in fact,
he hoped 1t was so.
A bill was offered in the legislature on
Friday last which, 1t is said, is intended to
kill the proposed Richmond and Manassas
road. The title of this bill is ''to incor-
pOrate the Southern Railway and Electric
Company" The incorporates are authoriz-
ed to construct and operate an electric rail-
way from Richmond to some point on tie
Potomac river between Alexandria and
Great Falls. The incorpora tors are T. N.
Kendler, A. Pizzini, jr., G. d. Patch, NJ. B.
Ramos, Hill Montague, W. G. Trueman, NJ
L. Dawson and J. w. Gordon. Capt Piz-
zini, when asked by The Star correspondent
about the proposed road. said that he knew
very little about the matter, but should
the road be built, he would be very glad to
take stock In the company. He further
stated that several gentlemen approached
him as to the feasibility of such a road, ard
he told them it could be run by electricity
If the proper number of relay stations
were established.
Capt. Pizzini was formerly manager Of
the electric railway in this city.
A noticeable fact about this application
for charter is that the incorporators
named in the bill are men of comparatively
no means. With the exception of Capt
Pizzini, the incorporators have not a dollar
which they could afford to invest in such
an enterprise. Each one of them Is very
rettcent about the matter; in fact, one of
the men named made tour of the news
paper offices just before the bill was in
troduced, and asked that only the title of
the measure be reported when it appeared,