The farmer and mechanic. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 18??-19??, 1909-09-07
MATTAMUSkEET
RA|LWAYExTENsION
Should Be Brought to
Washington
LESSONS IN OTHER STATES

austriM independence for Hyde
County, Freedom of Business From
Seldom Under the Matchmaking
lower of a Transportation Monopoly
BY FREDERICK BLOUNT WARREN
To the Editor: To Washington, N.
c., a community reputedly of 10, 00O
population, with a rich contiguous
country roundabout it, and to the
county of Hyde to the eastward, that
long has been denied the multiform
advantages derived from railroad
transportation, there is pending a
problem Of sufficient financial and in
dustrial Importance for me to beg the
use Of type-space in your columns,
because of your nearness to the peo-
pie and the considerable portion Of
the intelligent reading public that you
reach.
In person you have gone over the
ground through which residents Of
Washington, Hyde and Beaufort coun-
ties desire the extension Of the Malta
muskeet Railroad that this new line
may reach Washington,a competitive
center, or terminus, Of railroad trans
portatiOn interests, instead of having
the road end at Re1haven, where it
WOuIQ De upon Sucn rate
favors as the Norfolk and Southern
Railroad would grant it. 1 understand
thoroughly that there are elements en-
tering into a discussion of his ques-
ton bordering on the controversial:
yet j prefer to believe that com
munity jealousy" rather than per-
Sonal animosity, is the basic cause for
the stir that has been created about
the continued use of North Carolina
prison labor to build the Mattamus-
keet road through to Washington.
In other words, 1t seems plausible
that the opponents of the extension in
B%elhaven are inspired by the belief
that Washington viii profit at the ex-
pense of Belhaven through the extern
sion Of the Hyde county line. If ques-
tons other than this be involved, if
there are personal axes to grind I
do not know them, have made no eff
fort to learn about them-and do not
care about them. 1t is pertinent at
this ii to state that there is no de-
sire to antagoniZe the business inter-
ests of Mr.. John A. Wilkinson, of Bel
haven, for whom I have a very wide
respect. inspired by the fact that he is
a man, who, starting With fewer adj
vantages than many of those around
him in Eastern Carolina, has outdis-
tanced most of them in attainment,
and in the money rewards of attain
ment, through the application of his
u~nrelenting energy in varied lines OF
activity.
I believe that it is not open to ques-
ton when ] state that the problems Of
railroad transportation and of rate
making can be studied best in a large
city; likewise the evils of discrimina-
ton and the Ill effects to a community
as a result of the absence of conpeti-
ton. Philadelphia is a good amp
of it. New Orleans was a fine exam
pie; Baltimore, in a more limited
sense, was another. For the moment,
in outlining the m~onopolistic peril, 1t
makes little difference whether / cite
steamship or railroad transportation
as an example and since, recently, l
examined the New Orleans dock sys-
TEN l am going to mention that.
Wharves and docks in a seaport or
river-port city are the stomach
which digests a vast m and
it has been demonstrated that for the
commercial safety of a community
they should be municipality owned.
New Orleans owns five miles Of its
water front with a system OF Tree
wharves comprising an area of two
million square feet, while on two
miles of his distance, for storage pur-
poses, stand steel sheds eXcelled by
those of no other port in the United
States. And here is why New Orleans
was forced to BACK ITS GWN
WHARF FRONT-land that right
fully should have been its OWn-or Of
what. primarily, was its own.
New Orleans officials found a
few years back. that the river
front gradually was being alb
sorbed by private terminals. the
feet of which was to promote
nOnopOlisfic control and exploit
through traffic at the expense OF
local -nufacture and shippers
who often pleaded in vain for the
use OF the splendid modern ter
HninaIs which municipal gener-
OSity had made possible.
1t became all too evident tina IL
this tendency was not arrested
and Il halt called on the surrender