The Wheeling intelligencer. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1903-1961, 1916-05-23
TUESDAY, MAY %, 1916.
THE WHEELING AND EASTERN RAILROAD

1t is. to say the least somewhat remarkable that the announcement,
OF me intention OF a number Oft HI leading manufacturers OF the Ohio Valley
by the announcement Of the Pennsylvania Railroad that it is their intention
q build a small spur railroad into the same section.
For Tor than thirty years it has been a dream OF the manufacturing
interests Of thisya valley TO get a direct railroad line from Wheeling into te
Connelsvile coal fields. Several times such a railroad has been nroiected
and ZACH time the project has been defeated. largely throueh tho activity Of
IN Pennsylvania Railroad Company. Once many years ago the proposition
IA not only projected. but millions of dollars spent upon it, The south
Penn Railroad would have trayersed the lower counties Of pennsylvania
come through Greene county. and reached Wheeling. The Pennsylvania
Railroad simply throtued that enterprise at IN cxponse q itself ~ nrobaby
have attempted 10 further the construction Of the railroad from Wheeling
through Greene county to the Monongahela rive Each lime This nroioct
has been undertaken. either the Pennsylvania OF the r. & O. or both OF
them would DOT up with the declaration that they were about to build this
railroad themselves and have been able o bring sufficient influence to bear
10 head OF the independent proposition.
Through all these years these two railroads have been imposing a tax
of some six or seven hundred thousand dollars per year upon the industries
of this valley n the excess rates which they have charged for coal and coke
carried from the Monongaheia Valley by the way Of Pittsburgh TO Wheeling
1t is not too much to say that the industries Of Wheeling and vicinity have
paid to the Pennsylvania and b & o Railroads in the past twenty years
excess freight rates as compared with their competitors in the Pittsburgh
territory. mor than enough "a build the Wheeling and Eastern Railroad
twice over Al last the manufacturers of this valley have determined that
this condition OF affairs shall cease
They have determined to have the railroad into the Greene county coal
fields built.
They have determined that they Will be no longer subject to transporta-
tn conditions that put them to a DISADVANTAGE In their great Industries
shall Ieshmatey expand into territory which properly belongs to it.
The mn who have undertaken the Wheeling and Eastern Railroad are
not railroad promoters. but they have their business and their denominations
Of lifetime IN the city o. Wheeling and this vicinity.
They have tho means to build this railroad and will build it, and ask only
hted in proportion to Themselves from the construction Of the railroad.
Too often in the past the people Of Wheeling and the people along the
route Of the proposed road in Marshall and Greene counties have been dc
ceved and deuded by the promise of the big corporations that year after
year have been milking this territory. The day for those promises is past
The projectors Of the Wheeling and Eastern do not propose 10 build merely
a spur line Of railroad 10 ship coal from IN pr two mines. They propose 10
build a wen equipped. uptodate. modern iow-sade road. reaching from one
river to the other
They propose to doubretrack the road. and make it the equivalen, Of any
other railroad in the United states.
These things viii mean much for Wheeling They Will mean much for
the entire territory which the road will tar. The citizens Of Wheeling and
roads now serving this section. but The Intelligence will be much mistaken
in their temper il they don't resent a continuance Of the dlatory bIufane and
destructive tactics that have prevented the construction OF this important
enterprise in Che past