Staunton spectator and vindicator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1896-1916, 1908-05-29
THE B. & o. FINED.

The Baltimore Il Ohio Railroad is
chatting under fine of $500 placed on
it by the Virginia Corporations Com
mission last week when it and the
Southern Railway were cited to show
cause why through train service was
not maintained between Lexington,
Va, and Baltimore, in accordance with
a previous order of the Commission.
The Baltimore Sun of the 22d and 23d,
prints articles on this subject to the
effect that Baltimore is barred from
the Valley owing to the fact that the
trains going through must be diverted
to the tracks of the Southern mt Stras-
burg and passengers must therefore go
through Washington to Baltimore,
giving Washington an undue advan-
tage. We are not advised as to the evil
dence before the Commission, but ii
found against the b. 4 o., and there
lies the rub.
The people of the Valley used to trade
with Baltimore largely, they were fond
of going there, there was a brotherly
feeling existing between them and
Baltimore which was hard to break,
growing out of the strong Southern
sentiment existing there during the
war. Virginians are loyal to their
friends, they stick to them as long as
they can be relied on. One day the b.
& O. Railway, which until then had
the Valley business in its pocket, threw
it away There are some wonderfully
little men in ailroads-narrow, grasp
ing, quilp like and stupid. They often
rise high in public estimation, high In
the estimation of their associates, and
always high in their own personal es-
TEEN. Having gone up like rocket
they come down like stick. Some OF
such men were decidedly in vogue dur
ing the B. & o. receivership some years
ago. That road for years leased that
portion of their Valley branch between
Strasburg and HarrisOnburg from the
Southern. True they paid an enor-
NOUS rental for it, but this might have
been modified and made easier. The
B. & o. made no attempt to do any
such thing, they simply walked into
court one fine day and almost without
giving the Southern notice OF their In
tention, dumped the road back on the
lessons. Possibly some there be VINO
remember the exciting times of switcf
locking, and Selling of material ano
rolling stock. Let that be as it may
this illadvised move cut Baltimore OF
from the upper Valley, and she has
never regained her hold, and never vii
under present railroad conditions.
There is another reason why Balti
more will have trouble regaining he
Valley friends. Political conditions
have changed there, SO that it is not 81
pleasant for our business people to Wis
it that city as it was once. 1t is useless
to remind the city of Baltimore that
has no Democratic newspaper, tina
the doctrine and the heresies of it
press are those of corporations, ant
{ Republicanism, stepped in mugwump
cry, and people here no longer lool
there for guidance, advice, consolation
or pleasant reading. Old things hav
, passed away and the new ones are for
: eign, strange, and often distasteful
The B. & o. Ry. is entirely to blam
for cutting a block out of our direc
, line to Baltimore. The change of pc
litical front has supplanted the swee
with the sour, and Baltimore seems n
longer a part of us, or our friend.