| Executive Department |
| Milledgeville, Georgia
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| November 5th, 1863
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| To the Senate and House of
Representatives:
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| *****
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| WESTERN & ATLANTIC RAILROAD
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| The report of the Superintendent of the
State Road shows that $1,650,000 has been paid into the Treasury of
the State from the incomes of the Road, during the last fiscal, and
that there was due from the Confederate Government on the 30th of
September, 1863, $427,586.75 as a set-off against $577,864.76 due
the 30th of September, 1862, showing the net earnings of the Road to
have been nearly one and a half millions of dollars for the year.
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| This would of course be subject to
reasonable deduction for the wear of rolling stock and to the track,
which has not been kept in as good condition as usual, on account of
the impossibility of procuring supplies of material essential in
making repairs.
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| As a great proportion of the property
transported over the road, other than Government freights, belongs
to speculators, I have felt it my duty to order the freights raised
from time to time, so as to keep them nearly as high as the freights
on other roads. This enables the State to raise, by the use of the
road, a considerable amount of revenue in a manner less burdensome
to the people of this State than it could be done in any other way,
and to transport freights necessary for the support of the poor
without charge. And as the price of nearly every kind of property
has increased immensely in the market, it is right that the freights
for transporting it be increased in a just proportion. There is no
justice in requiring the road to transport a barrel of flour, a
hogshead of sugar, or a ton of iron at the old rates, paid in
currency, when either is worth in the market in the same currency
ten times the old rates to the producer.
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| To enable us to continue to run the
road, if the war should last for a year or two longer, it will be
necessary to import, by some means, such supplies as are indispensable
in making repairs. On account of the position which the road
occupies as a main trunk, with so many roads diverging from it at
each end, the drafts made upon its rolling stock, for military use
on other roads, in sudden emergencies, has been greater than upon
any other road in the Confederacy. Our rolling stock has not only
been greatly injured when under military orders, but we have lost
about two hundred cars and a number of valuable engines, when upon
other roads, by the interception of the enemy.
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| The State Road is not singular in
needing repairs. No other Road in the Confederacy called upon to
make equal sacrifices of its rolling stock in the service of the
country, is believed to be in better condition.
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| After the death of Major John S.
Rowland, its late hones and upright superintendent, Dr. George D.
Phillips, whose high character is well known to the people of
Georgia, has been appointed Superintendent of this great State work.
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| *****
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| Joseph E. Brown
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