| From the Raleigh Standard |
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| January 21, 1863 |
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| For the Standard |
| To the Presidents and Directors of the North Carolina
and Raleigh & Gaston Rail Road Companies |
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| Gentlemen, |
| I have some complaint to make, and desire
you to so enforce such rules as will secure transportation to those
who are in indigent circumstances. I see that the Express company have
precedence not only over private transportation for soldier's wives
and children, but of government stores for the benefit of those who
are in the service of our country. Look out and watch and be wide
awake, for if something is not done soon, other matters may
spring up. |
| Soldiers, their wives and children, will
demand at your hands what is due to the public, notwithstanding the
claims of the Express company and hordes of speculators. I see
freights of tobacco and other articles passing by Express that ought
not to be forwarded until those necessary should be discharged. Should
tobacco and other articles of luxury pass, while salt and breadstuffs,
of wheat and corn, as well as pork, &c., stand by? I trow not. |
| Speculators and their accomplices are as
usual, all anxious, and I do not wonder at this, it is their pleasure,
but our country is more than they, and if something is not done
wee will be in an awful predicament. My advice to the Rail Road
companies is to pay attention to their own business and leave
outsiders to attend to theirs. The public have a right to demand of
you a reciprocal courtesy, and you have no right to honor one man or
company more than another. The Rail Road was built for mutual benefit,
and the stockholders have no more right than the community, as they
procured their privileges from the public. |
| Two things must be considered; first, that
the government freights and transportation must be passed; and second,
that all others for domestic consumption for soldiers wives should
take precedence, so that speculators may stand back while the soldiers
and their families be preferred. Otherwise we may be lost in a
labyrinth of difficulties that we are not aware of. |
| J. N. Mc. |
| Raleigh, Jan. 1863 |
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