| From the Daily South Carolinian
(Columbia, S. C.) |
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| February 26, 1864 |
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| To the Superintendent and Directors of the
South Carolina Railroad |
| There are abuses practiced
upon the public by your employees having charge of the cars, which it
is proper for you to be made acquainted with, in order to have them
corrected. The one of which complaint is now made is the injury
inflicted upon travelers by the conductors and engineers upon your
trains refusing to take in passengers, at the regularly appointed
stations, when every sign and intimation is given to them of the
desire of the traveler to be taken on board the car. A case of this
kind occurred at Fort Motte Station on yesterday, and it is not the
first which has taken place there, and is doubtless only a specimen of
similar abuses practiced at other places. A traveler, after riding a
long distance, arrived at the station and waited several hours the
arrival of the cars. As soon as they appeared, he placed himself, with
his baggage at the edge of the track, and made the usual signs to the
engineer and conductor, and called aloud to them that he desired to
get on board. They saw him, but heeded him not, and passed by as
though the citizens of the State had no rights in the premises which
it was their duty to regard. We know not why were the engineer and
conductors on the occasion, but their names can be ascertained, and
will be ascertained, if the conduct is not rebuked, and this wrong
which they are practicing upon our people be not put a stop to; and we
appeal to you, gentlemen, as having the authority to do so. Your
company have been endowed with large privileges by the Legislature.
They have the authority conferred on them of laying heavy taxes on our
people for transportation on your road, which ensures greatly to their
profit, and your own private wealth; and this to the exclusion of any
other individual or company who may desire to build a road alongside
of yours. Think you that this monopoly and these high and valuable
privileges were given to you for nothing? Or do you not know
that they were conferred on you in consideration of services
which your company were to render, looking to the convenience and
interest of the public? These constitute your duties to the public and
their claims upon your, which the rudeness and caprices of your
engineers and conductors cannot forego. After you had appointed your
stations for receiving travelers, and invited our people to meet you
there, when traveling twelve, twenty or thirty miles to reach the
station, what right have your engineers and conductors rudely to pass
them by, leaving them to seek their homes again, twelve, twenty, or,
perchance, thirty miles, in inclement weather. Indeed, what right have
they thus to act in any weather or for any distance? Suppose, when
your company applied to the Legislature for a charter, that they had
announced to those honorable bodies that they intended to remit the
interests and the accommodation of your people to the capricious whims
of their conductors and engineers; that it was to be left to them
whether a traveler was to be taken on board or to be contemptuously
left standing with his baggage on the road-side; think you, gentlemen,
that their petition would have been granted? I tell you nay; and
nobody knows better than those petitioners that witch such a purpose
announced, the representatives of the people would have thrust their
petition from their hands. Good faith, then, on the part of the
company, calls upon them to interpose promptly, and punish those
officials who violate this fair understanding which they have entered
into with our citizens. It will not do for those officials to urge the
hackneyed excuse that the "cars were behind time." Its not
the fault of the traveler, who is at the station at the appointed
hour, by invitation of the company, that the company's cars were
"behind time." It is his right and their duty to stop and
take him on board; especially, too, when this being "behind
time" is so often occasioned by time lost through dilatorizing
in taking in wood and water, and many other acts of indolence,
which frequently detain the cars. In bringing this grievance to the
public attention, I desire no notoriety, but merely that it might be
corrected, which, gentlemen, I'm persuaded you will promptly do. I,
however, avoid no responsibility, and, therefore, leave my name with
the printer. In the meantime, understand that I am |
| One Of The People |
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| St. Matthew, February 20, 1864 |
| P. S. Since writing the above, it has
been ascertained that in consequence of the cars not stopping at the
Fort Motte Station, only a part of the mail was left at the
post office there, and, further, that several passengers who desired
to get out of the cars at that depot were not allowed to do so, but
carried to Kingsville, and there left to get back to Fort Motte as
best they could. On their return there, at a late hour, they found
their conveyances had left the depot, and their alternatives were,
either to pass the night of severe cold in the comfortless passenger
room, or foot their way home, leaving their baggage behind. Surely, a
conductor and engineer who will act with such little regard to the
rights and comfort of travelers deserve the severest censure of those
who have authority over them. |
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