| From the Selma Morning Reporter |
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| May 11, 1864 |
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| So. Independence Without Railroads |
| Our contemporary of the
Augusta Chronicle and Sentinel says a few words in behalf of the
railroads of the Confederacy, which we think are well-timed and just.
Few, indeed, have considered how essential to the success of our cause
are the railroads. As that journal says, a people contending as we are
with an enemy whose means of transporting troops equal anything known
in modern times, must labor under a great disadvantage if they can
command only those facilities for the movement of troops which were
employed before the era of railroads. Without railroads we could not
have won one important victory in this war, and without these the hope
of prosecuting this war to a successful termination would be
chimerical indeed. By means of the railroad Gen. Johnston was able to
effect that juncture with Gen. Beauregard which resulted in the first
victory at Manassas. By means of the iron track Gen. Longstreet made
that union of his troops with Gen. Bragg which enabled our armies to
triumph at Chickamauga. It was the rapid concentration of our forces
at Savannah immediately after the Port Royal disaster which deterred
the enemy from striking that important city at a time when the assault
might have been successful. But it is unnecessary to specify
particulars. Every page of the history of this war shows the
connection of railroads with our triumphs. |
| If these things be so, it is
surely the dictate of sound policy to guard most carefully against any
legislation which may impair the efficiency of this right arm of
power. When the late Congress passed a bill levying a tax upon
railroads five times as onerous as the tax on real estate, negroes and
other substantial interests of the country, they committed themselves
to a policy most suicidal as well as arbitrary. If the measure is
insisted upon by their successors, who are now convened at Richmond,
it will simply be impossible to preserve for many months longer even
the present efficiency of this means of transportation. The
stockholders will not only lose, under the law of February 17th, every
dollar of their income from their investments, but they must make a
serious infringement upon the capital to meet the levy. How they are,
in addition, to find funds for repairing at the present exorbitant
prices, the constant waste to which these roads are subjected, is a
question which must be solved by the solons who made the law. They
will find it a more economical arrangement to surrender the roads for
the time being to the Confederate Government. When this is done they
will soon cease to be of any benefit to the country. |
| Our ????? since the war, have
la?? ????? constantly in?? ????? ??assments. Iron, the great staple of
their support, has been very scarce and high -- indeed it has been
simply impossible to procure it in such quantities as the exigencies
of the roads demand. They are all suffering at the present time,
severely, for the want of this article. Then again there are portions
of locomotive machinery which cannot be obtained in the Confederacy,
and which have not been supplied from abroad in quantities at all
equal to the demand. Besides this, labor has been so scarce that even
when the material has not been wholly wanting, the skill to use it
effectively has not always been within reach. But notwithstanding
these and other embarrassments which might be mentioned, our railroads
have performed their duty well. They have transported troops for the
Government at a cost largely reduced, have rarely, if in any case,
more than doubled their charges for transportation, though they have
had to pay for everything which they have consumed prices varying from
five hundred to five thousand per cent. above the rates of peace. |
| Surely after such behavior
these institutions deserve better treatment than they have received at
the hands of the Government. They may well remonstrate at the
oppressive and unwise discrimination which has been made against them.
They may, with all propriety, warn those who are charged with the
guardianship of all the interests of the country that the legislation
which undermines their efficiency will recoil with terrible effect
upon that treasury which they are proposing to supply with their life
blood. |
|