The semi-weekly messenger. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1897-1908, 1898-01-14
IF

u CSl AlEdAh66(0s - - "AOo ANS
xar upon all because of the ~incornpet-
<.nry or unfafthfu1 conduct of some of
ehe roads. The railroads have been i'm
Gre main a great blessing to North
Carolina and our country at large.
They have greatly Facilitated THE
growth and prosperity of states. and
have been h chief agent of advancing
civilization. They and the newspapers
nave acted together in the vast work
of development, and the rapid progress
owing to railroads han to amy other
agency
We were interested in a bit of fnfor-
nation that came under u eye re-
Gently. We recall the time when there
we're long trains of wagons drawn by
five or six horses that all the winter
n made constant trips between
Gulford and Orange and Person and
CasweH and Granville and Warren
counties in this state, and Petersburg
and Richmond, cities in Virginia. The
men who ran the wagons were of good
means, were farmers, and thus utilized
IN fall and winter months, sleeping
out in the coolest weather, suffering
much and, and in many cases, taking
violent colds and rheumatisms and
other diseases that cut short their
days The roads were simply most
xvretched, and stalping was a common
event The price from Petersburg to
Oxford, about 100 miles, was from $1.lO
I'D S1.25 per hundred pounds. 1t ram UP
Che cost of merchandising very great
Iy- 1T made the reception of needed
goods very uncertain, and they some
45mes came i'm bad condition. This APP
plies to all Through THAT fine section of
the state and elsewhere. 1T was all
six horses could do sometimes to bring
$500 or 5000 pounds from the Virginia
cities.
what has This to do with railroads?
Please ATTEND. The condition then
1910 and 1850, or earlier,-and
Che condition now was altogether diff
fsrent. This will he made plain
enough by some figures we will give.
Major CHARLES L. Hinton, THE high
tDIea1, admirable, efficient treasurer of
the state in the good old honest days
I'm North Carolina, when men of high
est character We're in office, made a
speech in March, 1S49. A correspond
emit Of The Henderson Gold Leaf sent
an extract from what Major Hinton
said, and it is Instructive. He was
speaking in behalf of the Raleigh and
Castor railroad, then not we'll equip
ped, but now in the very best man.
rrer. He was showing how the farm
ers along that roa had been greatly
benefited by it. To do this We have
She following figures and they may be
trusted, for no man was more careful
and S%crupulous la he in his state
xnents. He is presenting facts to show
how the tobacco growers of Granville
county, then the third Largest county
In the state, and one of the best, but
since useFessly sliced and dismembered
to make in part the small county of
Vance, were blessed and helped by
this railroad. He said:
I'm 1910 there was raised in Gran
willie 3,9SS, 1922 pounds of tobacco, which
reduced to h~ogSheads of 800 each,
makes 1853 hogsheads.
Before the establishing of The a
ton road SIPS per hundred or $1S.75 per
EOgShead was the usual price paid for
carrying ut TO Petersburg, the main
tobacco market for North Carolina.
$50 hogsheads at $1S.75 for
transportation cost ........... $49,S27
Same ait 60 cents or $3.50, present
railroad rate .................. 1850
Net saving ito the planters. $780, 72
I'm 1S47 there was carried from Hen
derSon, the principal depot in Gram
willie, 1902 hogsheads of tobacco; the
balance was deposited at other places
on the road or carried down the Roam
oke, upon which Granville county bor-
ders."
Now, if some one would obtain and
publish the present rates, very much
KOwer, no doubt, than they were in
1S49-nearIy a half century ago-ft
would be seen how very much
more the tobacco men are favored
TOW than then. And so are adj mer-
chants, traders, etc. Scrutinize the
figures. In 1910, when DIT cost nearly
$4,000 to transport a given amount of
tobacco, i'm eight or more years after
II cost but SIT, 000, or but little more
6han one-third. We doubt not THAT
he rates now would show that it costs
mot more than one-fourth to transport
the same weight of tobacco that it did
fifty years since under the old wagon,
horses n wore out the wagons soon.
We advise the farmers and mer-
chants and buyers to be very wary [
and 10 consider we'll before they lend
themselves to THE work destroying or
Crippling railroads the great carriers,