| From the Macon (Ga.) Telegraph |
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| August 29, 1862 |
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| Railroad Convention |
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We have seen a circular issued by R. R. Cuyler, Esq.,
President of the Central Railroad and Banking Company, inviting a
meeting of all the Railroad Presidents and Superintendents in the
Confederate States at Columbia, S. C. on Thursday, September 4th, 1862,
for the purpose of considering the present condition of the roads and
rolling stock, and the means necessary to be adopted to keep them in
effective operation; also, to regulate the fares and freights to the
changed condition of the country, and for other purposes.
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It is to be hoped there will be a general attendance of
those interested, as the times demand that the railroads should be kept
in a condition to accommodate the Government and public in transporting
promptly troops and supplies from point to point as needed.
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Savannah News
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A very judicious movement. The war cut off our Railroads
from their usual recourse upon Northern workshops for motive power, and
rolling stock, which was very well. At the same time, it imposed upon
many of them more than double work, while it drew away from the machine
shops of the South a very large portion of the workmen to employment in
the Government shops and in the army service. All these things did not
work well together.
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It may be doubted whether, when the war broke out, there
were machinists enough to meet the ordinary civil wants of the country,
increased as they suddenly were y the stoppage of trade intercourse with
the North; but when to those were added the heavy demands of the
government for workmen in the Arsenals, Armories, Foundries and Machine
shops, and the numerous valuable machinists who volunteered to carry
muskets in the ranks, the destitution became at once vastly embarrassing
to the Railroads. For a year or more they have been running upon their
old supplies, but these are now giving out, and it is, with all who know
about the matter, a subject of considerable apprehension that the
railroads of the country may not be able much longer to fill with
efficiency and promptitude their vastly important functions in the
common defence. It is clear to our mind that the machinists in the army
ought to be detailed at once for work in the Railway machine shops; but
the supply so obtained will still be vastly deficient. The subject
presents a difficult as well as important problem.
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