| From the Southern Confederacy (Atlanta,
Ga.) |
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| March 9, 1862 |
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| To Our Railroads |
| Bacon is very high -- so high
that the poor who have to buy it with the wages of their daily labor,
or with the proceeds of farm products raised by their own toil, must
either do without or confine themselves to a very scanty allowance. It
will get higher and scarcer, and that very soon, unless we win back
Tennessee and Kentucky from the foul dominion of the Yankee army. |
| The best substitute for meat
that we know of, for people who labor, is molasses or syrup, and rice.
The crop of molasses in Louisiana last year was abundant -- almost
unprecedented; and it was largely bought b y many of our people to
supply the lack of meat. We know of many farmers going to New Orleans
and purchasing their own supplies, while our merchants here, in Macon,
Augusta, Columbus, &c., purchased very liberally to supply what
all sagacious men knew would be a very great demand for those
articles. Most of this stock was shipped up the Mississippi to
Memphis, and the greater portion of it is lying there now wasting and
spoiling in the weather because the Memphis & Charleston Railroad
cannot transport it. Its rolling stock -- its whole transporting
capacity -- is almost exclusively in the use of the Government; and if
it was not, it is impossible for the road to bring away from that
place the Georgia freight as fast as it arrives -- let alone
other freights. |
| There is now a million of
dollars worth of sugar and molasses, belonging to Georgians, lying at
Memphis -- much of it in the weather and wasting -- which cannot be
moved, and never will be, by the ordinary means of transportation. It
is in danger of being captured by the enemy. If it is not brought away
our people will suffer with hunger; for meat they have not and cannot
get, and bread will soon be scarce, if people have to live upon that
alone. |
| In view of these
circumstances, it seems to us that it is the duty of our railroads --
the Georgia, Macon & Western, Atlanta & West Point, Central,
South-Western and Western & Atlantic, &c -- to send all their
available rolling stock to Memphis at once, and bring away the immense
stores that are now lying there for Georgia. We think none of them, in
view of the facts which we have stated, should stickle upon questions
of etiquette, or the equitable adjustment of the expenses to each that
should govern in ordinary cases. The freight there is the staff of
life, almost, to thousands of Georgians; and the roads owe something
to the people of Georgia in this matter as a question of public duty.
We hope it will be done at once. |
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