| From the New Orleans Times Picayune |
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| February 16, 1862 |
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| Confederate States Railroads |
| It should be a source of
sincere gratification to all who are at heart in favor of establishing
the independence of the Confederate States on its truest and most
permanent basis, when they witness a vigorous movement on the part of
the influential and enterprising men and the capitalists of the
nation, in the direction of internal improvements. |
| On the 6th inst., there
assembled at Richmond a convention representing the principal railroad
companies of the South, and among the members were several
superintendents and other railroad officers. The chief object of the
meeting was to concert measures to secure a supply of material for the
railroads in these States. The convention sat three days, Mr. Goodman,
of the Mississippi Central, being the President, and Mr. Talcott, of
the Richmond & Danville, the Secretary. |
| The convention adopted, after
due discussion, a plan, which is, in substance, as follows: It divides
the railroads in the Confederate States into four districts, the
assumption being that it would be otherwise impossible for such a vast
number of interests to work together advantageously. The railroads in
Virginia constitute one division; those east of the Savannah river and
south of Weldon, another; those south of Knoxville, east of the
Tombigbee and west of the Savannah river, another; and those west of
Chattanooga and the Tombigbee, east of the Mississippi and south of
Kentucky, the fourth. |
| In each of these geographical
divisions or districts a central rolling mill is to be located,
supplied with the necessary machine shops and foundries, the capital
requisite to put and keep which in operation is to be subscribed by
the roads in the respective districts. The affairs of these mills arte
to be managed by a Board of Directors in each division, consisting of
the Presidents of the roads, and they are to locate the mills to the
best advantage of the roads concerned, to fix the price of material
and transportation, and to elect and appoint a General Superintendent
of the works, fixing the capital necessary to carry out the plan, and
the manner of paying in the same. It was determined that each road
should contribute to this end all the old material it can spare. |
| In the event that the roads
constituting either division should fail or decline to establish
mills, as provided in the first part of this scheme, the roads are to
be pledged, if it shall be found necessary, to make advances to those
individuals or associations who will undertake to establish the same,
upon this basis: that any person or association who may establish and
put in operation, within eight months after the 1st January, 1862, a
manufactory of railroad supplies which shall be approved by the
companies, they will contract to purchase of such manufacturer
annually, during the war now existing, and for a term of three years
after the close of the war, such supplies as he shall manufacture, to
the extent of the requirements of the several companies, for repairs,
consumption and equipment, for the period named, at a price not
greater, during the continuance of the war, than 50 per cent. upon the
rates current for articles of like quality on the 1st July, 1860; and
after the war, not greater than 30 per cent. on the actual cost of
transportation of similar articles at the time of purchase, exclusive
of import duties. |
| In addition, the
companies agree to make loans at 6 per cent. interest, to individuals
who may establish such manufactories as shall be approved of, to an
extent of not less than fifty, nor more than seventy-five per cent. a
mile of each of said roads, for a term not to exceed three years. The
amount so loaned to each individual is to be determined by the roads,
but not to exceed in the aggregate the limitation above named.
Manufactories so established, it is understood, are to give the
preference to the roads that have loaned their capital. |
| The Presidents of the
companies represented in the convention, pledged themselves to call
together their respective boards, and to secure the earliest possible
action in regard to the plan adopted by the convention. |
| There were several resolutions
adopted by this body, of which the following may perhaps be considered
the most important: |
| Resolved, That in the
opinion of this meeting it is of great importance to the defence of
the Confederacy that every facility should be extended to the
development of the mineral wealth of the Confederate States; and as a
large proportion of this wealth is now owned by alien enemies, an
earnest application be made to the Confederate Congress to pass a law
confiscating and selling the interests in the property so owned by
alien enemies in the various mines of minerals, which will enable
Southern operators to work the same. |
| We are pleased to see in the
list of railroad companies represented in this convention that there
was one, at least, of those located in our sister State of Texas. Just
now, we cannot buy consider the work of developing, as promptly, as
early and as fully as possible, the immense latent resources of that
State, as the most important enterprise in the way of internal
improvements, in which not only the capitalists and property holders,
the merchants and traders, the whole people, indeed, of this
Confederacy, but the General Government and those of the several
States can possibly engage. For the supply of all the common
necessaries of life, and for which we have hitherto been dependent
upon the North and West, and for the military defence of the nation,
in a very great degree, we may depend upon what Texas can easily and
abundantly produce, if but the proper and feasible media of
intercommunication between her and the other States of the Confederacy
were established. |
| This is a subject on which we
have more than once dwelt at some length and with some particularity.
It is an important one, and we shall doubtless have frequently to
recur to it again. |
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