NP, MT 8/29A/1862

From the Macon (Ga.) Telegraph
 
August 29, 1862
 
Railroad Convention
   We have seen a circular issued by R. R. Cuyler, Esq., President of the Central Railroad and Banking Company, inviting a meeting of all the Railroad Presidents and Superintendents in the Confederate States at Columbia, S. C. on Thursday, September 4th, 1862, for the purpose of considering the present condition of the roads and rolling stock, and the means necessary to be adopted to keep them in effective operation; also, to regulate the fares and freights to the changed condition of the country, and for other purposes.
   It is to be hoped there will be a general attendance of those interested, as the times demand that the railroads should be kept in a condition to accommodate the Government and public in transporting promptly troops and supplies from point to point as needed.
Savannah News
   A very judicious movement. The war cut off our Railroads from their usual recourse upon Northern workshops for motive power, and rolling stock, which was very well. At the same time, it imposed upon many of them more than double work, while it drew away from the machine shops of the South a very large portion of the workmen to employment in the Government shops and in the army service. All these things did not work well together.
   It may be doubted whether, when the war broke out, there were machinists enough to meet the ordinary civil wants of the country, increased as they suddenly were y the stoppage of trade intercourse with the North; but when to those were added the heavy demands of the government for workmen in the Arsenals, Armories, Foundries and Machine shops, and the numerous valuable machinists who volunteered to carry muskets in the ranks, the destitution became at once vastly embarrassing to the Railroads. For a year or more they have been running upon their old supplies, but these are now giving out, and it is, with all who know about the matter, a subject of considerable apprehension that the railroads of the country may not be able much longer to fill with efficiency and promptitude their vastly important functions in the common defence. It is clear to our mind that the machinists in the army ought to be detailed at once for work in the Railway machine shops; but the supply so obtained will still be vastly deficient. The subject presents a difficult as well as important problem.

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