| From the Charleston Mercury |
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| April 12, 1862 |
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| The Railroads and the War |
| A great deal o the suffering which the
people of the South have been forced to bear since the blockade began,
is the result rather of bad management than of actual scarcity. The
Confederacy abounds in the resources necessary to sustain a people in
time of war; nothing has been wanting but the tact to develop those
resources and to make them available for the whole county. The duty of
distributing the varied products of the several States, so that our
distant communities might extend mutual succor in the time of need,
seems to have been neglected altogether, or left to the tender
conscience of the extortioner and the speculator. The result is an
artificial scarcity of some of the necessaries of life, everywhere.
Thus, while in the Valley of the Mississippi, the supply of sugar far
exceeds the demand, in Charleston the same article almost keeps pace
with the luxuries, coffee and tea. By comparing other localities, a
similar disproportion of value will be found existing, to a greater or
less extent, in the case of flour, corn, bacon, salt, rice, etc. The
main difficulty in reducing the prices of such articles to a moderate
and equal standard, has consisted in the alleged lack of transportation.
The railroads to which the country looked for relief, have generally
been under the control of the Government for the purposes of military
transportation; and we fear that, in the effort to provide supplies for
the army, due regard has not been given to the wants of the people. It
may be true, indeed, that the facilities of the South for
inter-communication, have never been adequate to meet such an exigency
as the present; but we feel assured that our railroads might, by taxing
their capacities to the utmost, and by an intelligent and systematic
co-operation, do far more than they are now doing to lighten the
pressure of these hard times. |
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