The farmer and mechanic. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 18??-19??, 1909-09-07

1c COiipAcIcIy fUOItIeu up"dt the
mercy of private corporations and
uaable 10 make way for new
agencies Of transportation by
land and water.
And New Orleans did call a
halt. 1t now stands definitely
committed to the policy of mu-
nicipal control of its remaining
front and by the alliance of its
dock board and a third utility,
the public bolt line, it is i'll a posi-
lion to extend equal facilities to
every railroad Or steamship line
which seeks to the City.
Baltimore, since the fire, has at
tempted a similar thing. It was not
prepared to make such a radical ad-
vance as New Orleans, for it had
urgent need Of revenues to be derived
from docks, yet it has built a six mil
lion dollar chain Of public piers" to
be let at rentals that will, for all time
to come, prevent extortion SO COM
mon in matters Of wharfage rates n
the ultimate transition to free wharf
age cannot be long delayed.
The case of the Mattamuskeet Rail-
road, if the Belhaven opponents OF
the roads to Washington
are victorious, places that new line in
just the position of New Orleans, just
the position that Baltimore-or
any other non-competitive NUM-
cipal center-occupied before they put
an end to the encroachments of
monopoly. Let the Mattamuskee Get
road end at Belhaven and the Nor
folk and Southern can make it such
Joint rates. a. it please, a advance
such rates to the point where ship
ment by its smaller connecting part
ner in the rate would be unprofitabIe
or, at least, where the Hyde county
patrons of the road would find the
rates so prohibitive that they would
send their products by boat to Wash
ington Or New Bern-points of rail
road coInpetition-for final shipment
to the buyer.
Ending at Belhaven, h Mattamus-
keet road will be a blind alley and
the citizens of Hyde who have been
looking forward to great agricultural,
and possibly industrial. development
are certain to discover that they have
gained little in their effort to estab-
lish agricultural and industrial in
dependence. Where there is but one
line of railroad or steamboat trans
portatiOn the industries of the COM
munity it serves are sure to enter upon
a stage of Serfdom and the
rate-maker OF the mOnOpOllstlc trans
%portation interest is the ruler over
public energy, public enterprise and
public thrift.
Governor Kitchin, whom I do not
know personally, and the men who
must decide with him the matter that
means so much for the future OF the
~long-neglected county of Hyde have a
very delicate subject on their hands
and the ansWer-should they refuse
to permit the extension of the road
is likely to play a very important par
in the political careers they have
marked out for Ihemselves in the fu-
ture. I saw it intinated in the Raj
eigh correspondence Of q Charlotte
newspaper a few days ago-on whose,
and how good, authority I do not
knnM-that the Governor and the
board are expected to refuse the per
NIT sought by the builders of the Mat
tamuskeet road for h use of the
States Prison labor or the
Hyde's voting population and that of
Beaufort county, combined, contain no
ena to the future political aspira-
tons Of a politician but the refusal
to let a ~long-isolated people who be-
1ieNed themselves to be on the verge
of attaining the eed and indie
pendence that adequate transporter
ton and jpst rates afford, avoid the
clutches of a railroad-the Norfolk
and Southern, that aims and hopes TO
dominate the transportation OF a big
section of Carolina-would lay those
State officials responsible for =" re-
flIsal open to a very ugly SUSPICION
a suspicion that might not be tustl4ied
under any construction of the inside
reasons for the refusal. yet SO strong
that the public could not eXpel 1T, all
at once, from mind.
have noticed with interest for
years your efforts to wipe out the
existing rate and timetable discri1n-
nations against North Carolina COM
munities through the vigorous use of
your newspapers influence and often
your fights have included the
painful and disgusting problem of
having to make lukewarm Corpora
ton Commission members perform
- l,4;1o fn~ (which tbnr n ~ mold Ivy
the citizens of North CarOlina-al-
woys a disgusting duty to make public
officials play straight and render the
service they are pledged. before being
elected to office, to perform.
T have read along with you and
worked in Philadelphia-for Phila-
lephia-against similar commercial
eNilsl in your lei to make the Duke