From the Chronicle & Sentinel (Augusta,
Ga.) |
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January 11, 1865 |
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The War Footing of Railroads |
The Presidents of the railroads in Virginia have prepared
a statement relative to the expenses of conducting them at war
prices, in which we find some valuable statistics. In the matter of
wages paid to their employees, it appears that an average advance of
eight hundred per cent on peace rates has been found necessary,
except in negro hire, which has been advanced about four hundred per
cent. In other expenses, the advance has been much greater; and in
addition to this, the great scarcity of labor, the high price of
oils, tallow etc. and the daily deterioration of the machinery, has
to be contended with. In the depreciation of their property from
these and similar causes, one of the principal companies of the
State estimate their annual loss at $700,000, and in this do not
include the losses of bridges, machinery and railroad, caused by the
contending armies, which is over $1,000,000. Notwithstanding this
fact, the tolls are only ten times, and the fares only five times
what they were before the war. Reducing the fare to an article of
indispensable necessity to railroad companies, it is shown that
where a passenger who paid four dollars before the war and twenty
dollars now, might now pay his fare for two pounds of tallow -- or
its value in money. In the matter of the surplus revenues and the
large dividends declared, this pamphlet says that it is from the
impossibility of expending this surplus in making proper repairs to
the roads and stock -- the material for repairs not being in the
country -- and that all this must inevitably be met by the
stockholders at some future day. The President, in view of these
facts, deprecate hostile legislation, State or Confederate, and
says: |
"From these facts, it follows that unless our railroads
are sustained by enlightened and liberal legislation and action of
our public authorities, State and Confederate, instead of being
made, without defence or advocacy, the object of constant and blind
denunciation and of hostile class legislation, they inevitably must
be broken down, and be lost to the contrary and to our military
operations, for all history and experience proves that their
attempted maintenance and operation by Government officials will
inevitably only hasten, with greatly increased expense, their final
ruin. They are now in the control and management of those whose
personal interest in their maintenance and efficiency is far
greater, and whose justice, liberality, and patriotism are certainly
no less than those of any Government officer." |
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