THE
"\
EASTERN AND WESTERN
TRANSPORTATION COMPANY.
. TO THE MEMBERS
OF THE
43d GONG-RESS
OF THE
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA:
THE SENATE BILL No. 1,350, NOW BEFORE YOU,
SOLVES THE VEXED QUESTION,
3
CHEAP INTERNATIONAL TRANSPORTATION."
CHARLESTON, S. C.
WALKER, EVANS & COGSWELL, PRINTERS,
No8. 3 Broad and 109 East Bay Streets.
1874.
T ZEE IB
EASTERN AND WESTERN
TRANSPORTATION COMPANY.
TO THE MEMBERS
OF THE
4=3:d COE"GBBSS
OF THE
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA:
o
The Senate Bill No, l,35y, now before you solves the
Yexed Question,
"CHEAP INTERNATIONAL TRANSPORTATION."
NATIONAL TRANSPORTATION is a business requiring
much good judgment, tact, energy and prudent economy, with a
comprehensive realization of the wants of the country. The first
care of those undertaking the duty of providing this great neces¬
sity should be, to so organize the kind of transportation required,
as to involve the least possible necessary outlay of capital,
commensurate with the nearest approximation to a perfect sys¬
tem, under the circumstances incidental to the route, distances,
&c. Liberality in conduct, is not necessarily to be deprecated
in this business, for the more the travel increases, just so surely
will the traffic, for the one brings about the other. The route
here indicated, when the severe frosts of winter set in, would
invite travellers and business men, coming or going to buy
coffee, sugar, &c., from the tropics; cotton, rice, phosphates,
lumber, naval stores, &c, for Northern and European con¬
sumption ; "grain, provisions, &c., from the trans-Mississippi
i
4
portions of this great country, Foot Point its natural;
Port Foyal, from its very location, being first the best port and
roads (during the entire year) upon the entire Atlantic
coast of the States ; secondly it is the nearest one to the Missis¬
sippi Fiver, (by an air line 560 miles to Memphis;) it is the
shortest, cheapest and best practicable route to the Pacific coast,
from Ocean to Ocean, by all the projected Pacific Failroads,
junction with the Northern Pacific Failroad at Moorehead
on the Fed Fiver of the north, down the east bank of
river towards Sioux City, Omaha and Kansas City, the entire
length of road would be to Port Foyal but 1,592 miles, while
from Moorehead City to Breckenbridge. on the St. Paul and
Pacific Failroad,the distance is 100 miles, Breckenbridge to St.
Paul, Minnesota, 217 miles, St. Paul to Chicago 409 miles, Chi¬
cago to New York 898 miles, the total distance from the Fed
Fiver of the north at Moorehead to New York being 1,624
miles, or a difference in mileage of more than 32 miles in favor
of the Missouri Yalley and Port Foyal Foute ; thatthisisso
it is only requisite for any one wishing to prove the fact, to re¬
fer to the best maps to be had, with Appleton's Failway Guide,
giving the mileage over the best roads between New York and
Breckenbridge. From Moorehead to New York by the straight-
est possible lines drawn so as to clear the Lakes, the dis¬
tance is almost to the mile 1,330 miles, while to Port Foyal
it is by the straightest drawn line 1,330 miles. Now every mile
south of the Northern Pacific, increases the advantage of the
southern route, until in Alabama, in Fayette or Marion County,
just below the 34th degree line, 35 miles east of the Mississippi
State line, we strike an air line route forming a junction with the
Southern Pacific Failroad at Texarkana, making the connec¬
tion from San Diego to Fort Yuma 160 miles, Fort Yuma to
Franklin 531 miles, Franklin to Fort Worth 560 miles, Fort
Worth to Texarkana 226 miles, Texarkana to Fayette (Ala¬
bama) 380 miles, Fayette to Foot Point, Port Foyal, South
Carolina 438 miles, a total railroad distance from the Pacific
Ocean at San Diego of 2,295 miles to .Port Foyal, while the
comparative distances by other routes from ocean to ocean
are :
Now York to Paget Sound via Northern Pacific ...3,546 miles.
Now York to San Francisco via Union and Pacific...3,383 miles.
5
Mark. New York to San Diego via Texas and Pacific,
(Southern Pacific.) 2,920 miles.
Difference in favor of the Southern and Texas
Pacific route as compared with the Northern
Pacific 626 miles.
As compared with the Union Pacific 463 miles.
But the Southern Pacific, Texarkana and Port
Royal route reduces the necessary railway car¬
riage 625 miles.
Over the shortest of the routes cited, shorter than ,
the Union and Pacific 1,088 miles.
Than the Northern Pacific 1,251 miles.
From Southampton, England, via Fayal, (Azores)
a noble harbor, Bermuda to Foot Point, the dis¬
tance is 3,600 miles, making the passage from
there to the Pacific ocean by our route 5,900 miles.
Yia the Southern Pacific and New York the
ocean route is 3,100, and the Union Pacific
Railroad and connections 3,383, makes the
passage 6,483 miles.
Omaha to New York by proposed double track
National Railroad, 1,500 miles, to cost $175,000,000
These figures cannot, nor the saving of land carriage be
denied; for a thousand miles west, there need not be a single
grade of a 125 feet to the mile, and but for the necessity of
constructing a short line, 50 feet could be the maximum grade
required. A line of railroad running directly south from
Chicago via Paducah, on the Ohio, intersecting the line in Fay¬
ette or Jefferson County, Alabama, affords that city and the
State of Illinois a short and economical outlet to the ocean at
Port' Royal, the distance being but one thousand miles. St.
Louis to Paducah, &c. to Port Royal 800 miles, the Ohio river
at Paducah 650 ; everything considered, there is no country in
the world where a system of roads can be constructed and
maintained at less cost, than the routes herein designated. All
the minerals, coal, timber, food, &c., on the routes in different
localities, every way convenient. The right of way can be
secured at a nominal cost; and if there ever was a country,
that needed to be traversed by a great busy live thoroughfare,
it is that which we proposed to open one through.
6
The States of Missouri, Kansas and Iowa, taking the census
report of 1870, as the index of their yield, Missouri that year
produced Indian Corn, 91,990,000 bushels, value $41,766,00;
Wheat, 6,750,000 bushels, value $6,142,500; Oats, 5,525,000
bushels, value $2,044,250; Hay, 522,000 tons, value $6,820,246;
Tobacco, 19,610,000 pounds, value $1,823,730; Hogs, 2,200,000,
value $9,548,000; Beef Cattle, 731,000, value $17,882,706 ; Horses,
483,000, value $30,723,630. Kansas returned in 1870, Corn,
16,685,000 bushels, value $9,677,300; Wheat, 2,343,000 bushels,
value $2,014,980; Oats, 3,688,000 bushels, value $1,475,200;
Hay, 529,000 tons, value $3,798,220 ; Hogs, 304,800, value $2,706,
000; Beef Cattle 345,000, value $9,967,104; Horses, 156,000,
value $11,255,400. Iowa returned 1870, Corn, 93,415,000 bush¬
els, value $31,761,100; Wheat, 20,445,000 bushels, value $15,947,
100; Oats, 16,340,000, bushels, value $4,902,00; Hay, 1,600,
000, value $12,330,000; Hogs, 3,100,000, value $22,165,000 ; Beef
Cattle, 814,000, value $19,597,345; Horses, 570,000, value
$40,583,960; the average cash price for Corn that year in
Missouri was 43f0 cents; Wheat 91 cents; Oats 37 cents; Hay
$12 80 per ton; Tobacco 9^ cents per lb; Hogs, average prico
$4^; in Iowa Corn averaged 34 cents; Wheat 78 cents; Oats
30 cents; Hay $8 per ton; Hogs $7^. Since the census of
1870, prices materially declined, and during the winter of 1873
there was a perfect glut of Breadstuff's, Provisions, Hay and
everything else that the farmers of the Mississippi and Mis¬
souri valleys produced ; there being no transportation to the
ocean markets, where the demand for export was only limited,
by the deficiency of ocean transportation. But for the partial
failure of the corn crop of the past season, prices would have
been nominal; that something must be done at an early day,
to remedy this miserable condition of things you must realize.
Besides the distressing waste incidental to the unnecessary
transportation of the grain, provisions, stock, &c., required to
produce the following enormous crops of cotton during the
past eight yoars, under greater difficulties of adverse seasons,
disorganized society, with money at extreme rates, from 12 to
36 per cent, per annum, there has been a consuming impost
laid upon many million bales of cotton, that was drawn from
the South and West, transported at cost to the producer from
four to five dollars to Norfolk, Philadelphia, New York, &c.
7
1865-66—-the crop of cotton and the old stock that was
brought to market and sold by the 1st September, 1866, was
2,193,987 bales—price, July, 25c.; December, 32c.
1866-67—2,019,774 bales—price, July, 23c.; December, 14c.
1867-68—2,593,993 bales—price, July, 29c.; December, 23c.
1868-69—2,439,039 bales—price, July, 32c.; December, 221c.
1869-70—3,154,940 bales—price, July, 181c.; December,141c.
1870-71—4,352,317 bales—price, July, 191c.; December, 19c»
1871-72—2,974,351 bales—price, July 21c.; December, 19c.
1872-73—3,930,508 bales—price, November, 14c.
Referring back for 47 years, I find the prices of what we now
class low middling taken from the market reports at Charleston,
Savannah, Mobile, New Orleans, Augusta, up to Christmas,
1860, for 33 years the average price was 9 7-10 cents per pound.
The ratio of increase from 1825 to 1860 was wonderful—price 71
cents. In 1826 the crop is stated at 720,027 bales, the weight of
which bales did not exceed 300 to 330 lbs., if that much—in
other words, the crop of that year was about 425,000, (460 lb.)
bales. In 1860, the crop marketed was 4,669,770 bales, price
10 cents. Here was an increase of just about eleven hundred
per cent., or an average yearly increase of upwards 125,000
bales. During that period the lowest prices paid for good cot¬
ton was 5 cents per lb. in 1843 and 1844, and 51 cents in 1847
and 1848. Mark, during 15 years the prices paid in v market—
ruled from 5 cents to 9 cents per lb., the latter price was always,
prior to the late war, considered a fairly remunerative
rate, and there is no reason now but what that staple can be
grown to advantage at 8 to 10 cents per lb., but for the loss of
labor squandered, the extravagant prices that an extravagant and
viciously wasteful transportation has compelled us to pay for
enormous quantities of corn, wheat, &c., absolutely necessary to
the producing and harvestingof a cotton crop; the best farmers in
the cotton belt proper, fully realize that the average cost to them
of raising their own corn is 75 cents to $1 per bushel, and that
the crop being not as sure a one as cotton, where the labor has
to be paid for, it becomes hazardous speculation. It requires
very nearly 40 bushels of corn to support the laborer and ani¬
mal power required to produce and harvest three bales of cot¬
ton—a moderate crop east of the Mississippi exceeds 3,200,000
bales. Hero then is 64,000,000 of one kind of grain needed by the
8
South to make the great textile fibre crop of the country, pre¬
suming that we have annually had to buy, only one-third to the
corn used, say twenty million bushels, and that the cost inciden¬
tal to the route from Kansas City and St. Louis to Chicago,
thence to New York, thence to Charleston and Savannah,
another shipment into the interior, sums up 30 cents extra per
bushel. Here is one item lost to the country of six million of
dollars every year, aggregating upwards of $48,000,000 from
January, 1866, to January, 1874—add to this amount the
$68,000,000 that the Southern cotton was made to pay the gov¬
ernment, and you have $116,000,000 that our people should now
have had as banking capital. Ours is- the most productive
country in the world, but no nation can carry on this reckless
policy any long period and not find itself bankrupt. The un¬
fortunate legislatures of the South have injudiciously destroyed
the public character and credit of a majority of the Cotton
States; the result is that money is very scarce, and while United
States obligations are sought after on the most complimentary
terms, but few of the Southern promises to pay will realize 50
cents on the dollar. With anything like an encouragement
from the National Legislature, the very gloomy and depressed
condition of the Cotton States could be rectified. With moder¬
ate opportunities, and economical transportation facilities, the
Cotton States, can be made to produce regularly six or eight
million bales of cotton, at a cost per pound, not exceeding ten
cents. •>
The grand total sales in eight years, ending 1st January,
1874, aggregates more than twenty-seven million bale§, aver¬
aging in the-Southern markets $90 75 per bale, equal to two
thousand four hundred and fifty-seven million dollars, ($2,457,-
000,000) and more. Besides supplying the home consumption
to the amount of 1,200,000 bales per annum, we exported, in
1871, at 14\\c.t 1,459,715,086 pounds, the custoins value of which
was $216,889,570, equal to 700,000,000 bushels of Corn, at 80c.
and upwards. The Cotton is not the only industry at the
South—wo have made a fair share of wheat, corn, tobacco, sugar,
rice; cut a groat deal of timbor and lumber; made a large
amount of naval storos, phosphates; raised in the States of
Kentucky and Tennessee, especially, horses, cattle, hogs, &c.,
which, with other items, will make eight or ten hundred mil-
9
lions, or an amount tending to four thousand millions, during
the eight years. Money always fetches a rate from 12 to 36
per cent, per annum. Can it be wondered at that, after these
herculean achievements, the people, finding that certain pau¬
perism is their doom, are sad and depressed, and immense
valuable bodies of lands are reverting to the States, because the
owners can not continue to pay the enormous taxes? With
mines of wealth at their very doors, they have not the means
nor the credit to raise the money necessary for the develop¬
ment of the mines. They go on wearily tilling the half im¬
poverished land, feeling that they have nothing to live for, that
the fruit is not for their support, but for the stranger and
foreigner. With these facts glaring in our sight, the distressed
sighs that come up from the usually cheerful agriculturist and
mechanic, who want fair, honest employment, to support -the
old and feeble, the weak and young, so dependent, am I not fully
authorized to call your attentiop to the subject so important
to the national economy, the reducing the cost of transportation
on corn from Kansas City to Port Royal, will add that much to
the enormous product of Missouri and Iowa in Indian corn
alone, equal to ten or fifteen millions each year ?
Foot Point, on the main land, 20 miles from Savannah, (xa.,
100 miles from Augusta, 75 miles to Charleston, is altogether
the best harbor, and is the most desirable terminus for a great
system of railroad and steamship transportation on the coast of
the United States.
Foot Point and New York—the first having the advantage
of economy and room, there will be in ocean freight no differ¬
ence. Ratio cost of freight per 100 miles, at 89 cents per ton,
(rail,) estimated cost last year by the Pennsylvania Railroad,
(see report.)
Distances by the Shortest Practicable Routes, Rail and Ocean.
Foot Point, Port Royal Sound, South Carolina, to Southamp¬
ton, England, via Bermuda and Fayal, Azores...3,600 miles.
To Suez Canal, Egypt 5,800
To Havana, Cuba 600
To Rio de Janeiro, Brazil 3,700
To Leavenworth City, Kansas, ($8.83 per ton,) 992
To Kansas City, Missouri, ($8.62 per ton,) 968
10
To St. Louis, Missouri, ($7.12 per ton,) 800 miles.
To Chicago, Illinois, ($8.90 per ton,) 1,000
To Cairo, Illinois, ($5.79 per ton,) 650
To Louisville, Kentucky 758
Baltimore, Maryland, to Southampton, (good freight
$10.04 per ton) 3,350
To Sues Canal, Egypt 5,700
To Havana, Cuba 1,200
To Rio de Janeiro 4,300
To Leavenworth City, Kan., ($11.42 per ton) 1,285
To Kansas City, Mo., ($11.19 per ton) 1,257
To St. Louis, Mo., ($8.74 per ton) 982
To Chicago, 111., ($7.88 per ton) 885
To Cairo, 111., ($8.67 per ton) 970
To.Louisville, Ky . 777
Norfolk to Memphis, [possible,] ($8 01 per ton) 900
New York to Southampton 3,000
New York to Suez Canal 5,800
New York to Havana 1,300
New York to Rio de Janeiro 4,480
New York to Leavenworth City, ($12.35 per ton)...1,388
New York to Kansas City, ($12.13 per ton) 1,362
New York to St. Louis, ($9.68 per ton) 1,087
New York to Chicago, 111 898
Now York to Cairo, 111 1,100
New York to Louisville, Ky 934
New Orleans to Southampton 4,800
New Orleans to Suez Canal 6,000
New Orleans to Havana 600
New Orleans to Rio de Janeiro 4,400
New Orleans to Leavenworth City 816
New Orleans to Kansas City 790
New Orleans to St. Louis 744
New Orleans to Chicago 850
Now Orleans to Cairo 475
New Orleans to Louisville 753
New Orleans to Port Royal, S. C 575
Foot Point, Port Royal, to Washington, D. C 525
Foot Point to New York 720
\
11
If you will examine into, and carefully study out, the merits
of the following Senate bill now before the Select Committee
on Transportation Routes to the Seaboard, you will readily rec¬
ognize the importance of the undertaking to the whole coun¬
try. The bill was submitted last May to the National Agricul¬
tural Congress, which has some two hundred societies as its
members, representing twenty-five States, the bill met with the
unanimous approval of that national body.
^ BILL
TO INCOEPOBATE THE EASTERN AND WESTERN
TRANSPORTATION COMPANY.
(Offered in United States Senate, January 18, 1873.)
Section 1. Be it enacted by the Senate and House
of Representatives of the United States of America
in Congress assembled, That Winborn Lawton, J. L.
Pearce, David Maybank, and Edward H. Prioleau,
of South Carolina and New York, and all persons
who shall or may be associated with them or their
successors,are hereby created into a body corporate
and politic, in deed and in law, by the name, style
and title of " The Eastern and Western Transporta¬
tion Company," and by that name shall have per¬
petual succession, shall be able to sue and be sued,
plead and be impleaded, defend and be defended, in
all the courts of law and equity within the United
States of America, and shall make and have a com¬
mon seal.
12
Sec. 2, That the Company is authorized and em¬
powered to organize with an executive hoard of offi¬
cers, namely, a President, Vice-President and six
managing Directors, with authority to direct and
manage the business of the Company until an election
herein provided for, shall have taken place. Upon
the completion of the survey of the projected road,
books shall be opened in New York, St. Louis, Mem¬
phis, Charleston and Savannah, for subscription to
three hundred thousand shares of the stock of the
Company; this shall be the capital; each share shall
be one hundred dollars, to be paid in such instal¬
ments as the Company shall think necessary. Stock¬
holders failing to pay such instalments as shall
become due, on the requisition of the Company, shall,
after one year from the time of such requisition, for¬
feit the stock and such instalments as may have been
paid thereon to the Company. After a majority of
the shares have been subscribed for and a cash instal¬
ment paid in upon each share, the Executive Board
shall name five of the stockholders, who shall hold
an election for a President, a Vice-President, and six
managing Directors, to serve the Company for two
years, with authority to fill any vacancy occurring in
their board by death or resignation; the place at
which the election shall be held to be advertised in
the New York and St. Louis papers thirty days pre¬
vious to the day of election. No stockholder shall
be liable for the debts of the Company exceeding the
par value of the shares held by him ©rN in his name
on the books of the Company.
Sec. 3. That the Company is authorized and em¬
powered to carry on, conduct, and perform such
13
business, from time to time, as may be incidental and
incumbent to that of common carriers and transpor¬
tation agents by land and by water, to construct, fur¬
nish, maintain and enjov a railroad, with all its
appurtenances, from Port Royal Harbor, South Caro¬
lina, to Leavenworth, Kansas, the States of South
Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, Tennessee,
Arkansas, Missouri and Kansas, affording such right
of way, privileges and immunities as may be within
their legislative jurisdiction, the route to be the most
direct practicable via Macon, Georgia, and Memphis,
Tennessee. >
Sec. 4. That the Company is authorized and em¬
powered to own real estate in fee simple; to buy and
sell or lease the same; to work mines, to obtain fuel
and freight; to sell the product of the mines and
timber land ; to build, buy and own vessels and docks,
as well as to use and enjoy them in business as com¬
mon carriers ; to borrow money and negotiate loans
upon bond and mortgage, not exceeding two-thirds
the value of its property.
Sec. 5. That the Company is authorized and em¬
powered to enact and put in force such by-laws, rules
and regulations for its government, and'the manage¬
ment of its business, as the exigencies of its affairs
may from time to time necessitate.
St. Louis, Mo., Freights.
Memphis and Yicksburg river rates lower. Eastern rail rates
will be advanced to-day 5 cents on flour and 10 cents on grain.
The cotton rate will be 75 cents to New York and 80 cents to
Boston on compressed, and uncompressed 20 per cent. more.
by river to Memphis. Yicksburg. New Orleans.
Boat. Barge.
Flour, per bbl 40 50 50 50
Pork, per bbl 60 75 75 75
Whiskoy, per bbl 1 25 1 50 1 25 —
Corn and Oats, per 100 lbs 22} 25 25 25
Hay, por 100 lbs — — 30 30
Bacon and Lard, por 100 lbs.... 22} 25 25 25
Way points—20c. on flour. 10c. on pound freight higher.
14
by rail—east.
iV. Y.
Bos. Prov.
Phil.
Bait.
Flour, per bbl
81 20
1 30 1
40
1 10
1 00
Grain, per 100 lbs
60
65
70
55
50
Cotton, compressed
90
95 1
00
80
75
Uncompressed, 20 per cent. more.
south. Flour. Fork. Grain. Bacon,
Lard.
Hay.
New Orleans 70 I
10
371
43
54
Mobile 75 1
15
38
45
Mflrrmhifl . .......65
98
35
40
to interior southern points, via green
line.
Bacon.
Grain.
Flour.
Loose
100 lbs. f 100.
!
! bbl.
Meat.
Nashville, Tenn
8 30
25
50
341
Chattanooga, Tenn
69
51
l
04
791
Atlanta and Rome, Ga
84
63
l
27
961
Augusta, Ga
90
75
I
50
1 031
Columbia, S. C
95
80
I
60
1 091
Charlotte, N. C..
95
80
l
60
1 091
Yorkville, S. C
95
80
l
60
1 09
Seneca City, S. C
95
80
l
60
1 09
Greenville, S. C
1 04
851
l
70
1 301
Spartanburg, S. C
1 10
891
l
78
1 351
Wilmington, N. C., Charles¬
ton, S. C., Port Royal, S.C.,
Savannah, Ga., Jessup, Ga.,
and Brunswick, Ga
75
70
l
40
86
Macon, West Point and Co¬
lumbus, Ga., Opelika,
Union Springs and Eufau-
la, Ala
85
62
l
25
98
Clayton, Ala
1 01
74
l
59
85
Troy, Ala
1 13
80
l
61
87
Montgomery, Selma, Elmore,
Calera, Birmingham and
Decatur, Ala
70
50
l
00
81
Fort Gaines, Ga . ....
96
74
l
47
1 101
Goorgotown, Ga
95
72
l
45
1 091
In Georgia—Fort Valley,
Amoricus, Albany, Cuth-
bort and Geneva
1 14
82
l
74
1 31
All Stations on the Atlantic
and Gulf Railroad
1 20
1 00
2
00
1 38
All points on Apalachicola,
Chattahoochee and Flint
Rivers, south of Columbus,
except Fort Gainos and
Georgetown '
1 06
82
1 68
15
[St. Louis Republican.]
Corn sales: East St. Louis track, 1 car new mixed at 51c.; 1
car No. 2 at 52c.; 3 cars new and No. 2 white mixed at 51c.; 5
cars new do. at 51 Jc.; 1 car do. at 50£c.; 1 car choice do. at 52c.,
(worth now in Savannah, Ga., wholesale, $1.10;) 7 cars new mix¬
ed in Advance Elevator, 50c., &c., &c. (Quoted wholesale in
Atlanta, Ga., at 85c.) Hay receipts large and market very dull.
Sales on the track this side: 1 car Timothy at $15; 5 cars do.
$16; 1 do. $17; delivered, 6 cars mixed, $12, (quoted wholesale
in Savannah, Ga., $29 per ton;) (quoted in Atlanta, Ga., whole¬
sale, $30 per ton;) (quoted in Augusta, Ga., yellow and mixed,
88@90c. wholesale.) (Choice Timothy $35 per ton ; Western
mixed $30 to $33 per ton.)
Charleston, S. C., January 10th, 1874.
Corn—Western No. 2, wholesale, none in market; would sell
at 96c. Hay—Good Timothy $28 per ton.
[Prom Chicago Times, January 5tb, 1874.]
(Highest quotation for Corn, 54c.)
(Highest quotation for prime Hay, $15 50.)
Railroad Freights—There was a fair demand for railroad
transportation on last Saturday, and the tariff continued to rule
firm as follows:
1
3D
» 2
O <3 ®
(3 O
c3
CHICAGO TO
£ £
o M
S • £
© — *
a
'3
s
M
. -*-»
— Xt ft.
t- — •
13
«
Boston, Massachusetts,
65
$1.30
65
75
New York,
60
1.20
60
70
Philadelphia, Harrisburg and Baltimore..
55
1.10
55
65
Albany
55
1.10
55
65
Washington, D. C
55
1.10
55
65
Pittsburgh, Stubenville, Bridgeport, Ohio,
and Bellaire
35
70
35
40
Wilmington, Bel
55
1.10
55
65
Wilmington, N. C
80
1.45
• • •
• • •
Savannah, Ga
80
1.59
• •
• • •
Charleston, S. C
82
1.64
• • •
• •
Petersburg and Richmond
70
1.40
70
• •
Norfolk
63
1.40
■ • •
• • •
Buffalo and Suspension Bridge
35
70
35
40
Toronto, Ontario
30
60
30
35
16
Lumber and shingles are taken at fourth class rates, and sash,
doors and blinds are 5c. over fourth class. The minimum weight
per car in the shipment has been set at 20,000 lbs. Two dollars
per car are charged for all cars sent to Elevator to be loaded
with grain.
Maximum cost of and description of the projected Eastern and
Western Transportation Company's Railroad from Foot Point to
Leavenworth City, Kansas, ($20,9^.0,188) with extra amount of
siding tracks, viz:
Land for right of way, station houses, &c., 30 acres
per mile, at $10 per acre $ 300
Fencing per mile with good cedar posts 531
Clearing and grubbing per mile 150
Average earth excavations, grading &c., 25c. per cubic
yard, 12,000 yards, per mile 3,000
Average girder bridging, 30 feet per mile, at $14 per
cubic foot, per mile 420
Piling and trestling, 50 cubic feet per mile, at $7 per
foot, per mile 350
Timber in log culverts and cattle guards, 4c. per foot,
per mile 90
Plank in cattle yards, 3c. per foot, B. M., per mile 15
Depots, pumps, warehouses, crossings, &c., per mile.... 1,000
Laying track, per mile ... 600
Cross ties, 3,000 (extra number) 45c. each, per mile.... 1,350
Engineering, salaries, legal services &c., per mile 400
Steel rails, 30 lbs. to yard, 55 tons, (extra quantity)
$120 per ton, per mile 6,500
Fish joints, spikes &c., per mile 650
Cost of road bed, track and permanent fixtures $ 15,356
Box cars 4,000, at $450 each, $1,800,000, per mile 1,800
Flat cars 1,000, at $350 each, $350,000, per mile 350
Coal dumps 1,000, at $200 each, $200,000, per mile 200
Gravel and repair cars 200, at $200 each, $40,000, per
mile 40
Passenger coaches 100, at $2,500 each, $250,000, per
mile 250
Mail express and baggage cars 100, average $1,800
each, $180,000, per milo 180
17
Locomotives 333, average cost 88,000 each, 82,664,000,
per mile 2,664
Hand cars, signals &c., company's telegraph, 8100,000,
per mile 100
Equipment, per mile <• 85,584
Total 820,940,128
In the foregoing specification, you will note that the road bed
provided for is one of five feet* this is, that should the necessi¬
ty arise, extra rails may be put down to accommodate other roll¬
ing stock than that intended to be operated by the company,
trestles, bridges, &c., are estimated to meet this contingent call.
The two guages being upon the same ties, the narrow being
within the two heavy rails, will not interfere, vice versa. But
economy especially commends us to the use of the narrow
guage stock, from the fact that the size of the cars are such, viz :
5, 6, 8, 9 and 10 tons, or any intermediate size, which meets
the wants of customers, who are compelled now, when chartering
a ear, to pay for ten tons, whether or not they have enough
to make up that quantity. This abridges the privileges of the
small shipper, and often precludes him the benefit of a distant
market. Notwithstanding the opposition that is expressed by
parties operating the heavy and cumbersome 5 feet and 4 feet
8£ inch stock, the economy of the narrow guage stock has car¬
ried such conviction to the ablest minds controlling British In¬
dia, who have, after an exhaustive investigation, adopted in that
country, for all new State roads not a continuation of the main
trunk lines already constructed, the 1 metre or 3 feet 3-inch
guage. These roads in India, though nominally State roads,
are constructed by private enterprise, and, in a measure, private
capital, the India Government pointing out the location of the
lines, and for a certain number of years guaranteeing that the
lines shall earn five or six percent, upon its bonds or stocks, at
such a rate pgr mile j this gives the Government the advantages
of these established roads, without being directly involved in
their management. This arrangement reduces the original cost
of the roads, from the fact that the guaranteed bonds, as the ob¬
ligations of the companies are styled, bring either par, a pre¬
mium, or so nearly the value, that they represent their full
2
18
value, and not, as is too often the case in this country, sixty
cents on the dollar. In India, though the old broad guage sys¬
tem of railroads cost an average of £16,000 to £17,000 per mile,
(equal to $80,000 gold,) and notwithstanding the want of fuel
in that country, and the peculiar prejudices of the natives, even
the old lines earned from 4 to 6 per cent, on the $80,000 cost
per mile. The Canto Gallo Railway in Brazil, an important
line, is 1 metre 10, or about 43 inches, constructed to accommo¬
date a traffic very much such as that done by our Southern
roads. In Russia, important lines are now being constructed of
a guage 3 feet 6 inches. In Wales, the Festinog Railway has
demonstrated to an intelligent public the economy of the new
system. Mr. Spooner, a celebrated engineer, in control of that
road, says : First, That through the whole time he has had the
management of the Festinog Railroad it has entirely demon¬
strated the theory of the immense saving on the narrow guage
system, in having carried more freight and passengers at less
cost than any line of railway now in use; that it is almost free
from oscillation ; that it has withstood the severest wind storms
in the country without being effected ; that the cars can run at
thirty-five miles per hour with perfect safety; that the wear
and tear of rolling stock and rails is reduced to an absolute
minimum.
Secondly. That two feet nine inches to three feet guage
meets the only objection that can now be raised against the
narrow guage, and that all the requirements of commerce can
be fully transacted by lines built on that guage; that they can
be built for from one-fourth to two-fifths of the standard guage
through the same section of the country, and can be main¬
tained at not exceeding one-half the cost of the present system.
This Festinog Railway is one foot eleven and one-half inches.
The annual report for 1869 shows that it transported 136,132
tons not, and 97,000 passengers that year. Gross tons handled,
exclusive of engines, 242,000.
Total receipts for the year 1869 were £23,676
Expenditures 13 053
Not income £10,623
This railroad, in a rough, broken country, 13£ miles in length,
on a grado of 62 feet to the milo, hauling slate and passengers,
19
ha8 done a traffic of 140,000 passengers at one cent per mile,
and hauled 500,000 tons freight at one-third of one cent per
mile • earning a net income on first cost of 40 per cent. In
Sweden, the Ullenborg Road, gauge 3 feet 6 inches, reports a
business of 220,000 passengers and 327,000 tons of freight per
annum, carrying passengers at 2^ cents per mile, length, 37
miles. The Laren Road in Norway, 3 feet 7 inches. 73 miles
long, Locomotives 18 tons grades, one in sixty-two; curves, two
hundred and thirty-seven feet radius; speed thirty-five miles per
hour; reports annual income fifteen per cent.; cost, $25,000 per
mile. In Canada, the Toronto and Nipissing Railroad, three
feet six inches, costing $15,724, has been quite a success.
Edmund Wragge, Esq., the Chief Engineer of it, also reports
the cost of the Toronto, Grey and Bruce Railway, 3 feet 6
inches .guage, 41 miles, $15,750 per mile, the earthwork averag¬
ing 10,500 cubic yards. The Denver and Rio Grande (to be 800
miles in length,) 3 feet guage from Golden City to Black Hawk,
20 miles, maximum grade, 175 feet; maximum curvation, 26° ;
total cost per mile, $18,465. Some of the other 3 feet guage
roads now in the course of construction, are the Chicago, Homer
and Southern and Danville, Olney and Ohio River Railroads
(to Paducah, and which should form a junction in North Alabama
with our line, making a through line to Chicago—1,000 miles,—
avoiding all mountains f) the North and South Railroad, Georgia;
Tuskeegee Railroad, Alabama; Kansas Central Railroad, Walla
Walla Railroad, (Washington Territory;) Ripley Railroad,
(Mississippi;) American Fork Railroad, (Utah,) &c., &c., &c. I
have been thus particular in pointing out the numerous instan¬
ces where this new principle in railway transportation has been
adopted and found eminently successful; and also where the
extension of the system is taking place, to prove to your minds
that it is now no speculative suggestion, but a practical exhibit
of the advantage in every way of this improved and economi¬
cal construction, so much to be desired. No one, unless blindly
prejudiced, but must admit that a thoroughly constructed
narrow guage railway,- with ample equipment for a very
largo traffic, the total cost of which does not exceed $21,000
per mile—/or all purposes—affords the cheapest, most expedi¬
tious, and safest trans-continental transportation to be had
with the Missouri and Mississippi Yalleys, having year by year
I
20
an enormous accession to its agricultural population. Can the
Government stand back, and take no interest is this important workf
An enterprise, meaning union in fact and not in heartless
theory ; an enterprise having for its object not only the relief
of American farmers at home, but American commercial pres.
tige in Western Europe and South America, for it is no less
than that we mean to accomplish by the exercise of good judg¬
ment, energy, perseverance, and last, though not least, by the
honest discharge of the great responsibilities and trust we ask
of your body. We ask the countenance of the Government,
that we may mitigate the distressed condition of the Western
farmer and Cotton consumer ; that we may show the Russian,
that American enterprise, skill and sound judgment, are able to
overcome apparently insurmounta ble obstacles. The bill speaks
for itself, a child can understand it. It means an important
" Co-operative Combined Transportation System."
Steamers, 4,000 to 6,000 tons.
Business estimated for from the Mississippi Valley is 300 cars
grain per diem, 6 tons average, 1,800 tons, 40 bushels to the ton,
72,000 bushels per day, 21,600,000 per annum; it can be
increased if demanded. Who is prepared to deny our promises,
that we can save from 10 to 25 cents per bushel freight from
Kansas City to the Ocean, on present rates?
Respectfully submitted,
W1NBORN LAWTON,
J. L. PEARCE,
DAVID MAYBANK,
E. H. PRIOLEAU,
AND OTHERS.
[ADDENDA.]
[.Extract from the United States Railroad and Mining Register.']
At the annual convention of the American Society of Civil
Engineers, in Louisville, Ky., last spring, Mr. William P. Shinn,
C. E., formerly General Froight Agent of the Pittsburg, Fort
Wayne and Chicago Railway, in rcpljdng to some remarks of
the Hon. W. J. McAlpino, during the discussion, expressed the
following convictions.
Now, as I have said before, instead of the economy of railway
transportation having received tho attention of the best engi¬
neering talent in tho country, it seems to me that such talent
21
has been studiously avoided, and rigorously excluded from any
prominent voice in that management. Roads within my own
knowledge have run for years with an equipment which was
not more than two-thirds adequate to the business which was
pressing upon them. They had a machine in their railway
which was capable of doing twice or three time the business
that they were doing, but they had not equipment enough to
employ it more than one-third or one-half of the time. After
repeated representations of that fact to the managers, an
unusual pressure of business having proved to them that there
was a demand for more equipment, they made a sudden increase
of equipment without making any corresponding increase in
side tracks or terminal facilities, and then they found that they
had got the machine disproportioned the other way. They had
nearly—perhaps quite—enough equipment for the time, but
they had not enough terminal facilities to get rid of the traffic
as fast as it accumulated, as they had not side tracks enough to
pass the trains, and they delayed the trains in passing; and so
crippled the business of the road by blockading the terminus
that when they should have hauled four hundred cars per day,
there could not more than a hundred cars get through. That
is the kind of engineering talent that has been applied to some
of our best railroads. I confess it has not been very
encouraging.
In regard to the capacity of railroads to do business, as com¬
pared with canals, while I do not propose to speak upon the
subject of capacity in any detail, I wish to say that the capacity
of railroads must not be judged at all by the amount of busi¬
ness that has been done upon the four existing trunk lines of
railway. These lines are none of them, so far as I am aware,
managed upon a scientific basis. They are not generally con¬
trolled by men who value engineers, or who employ them to do
anything more than merely to locate and perhaps construct
somo of tho works. On the other hand, they have been slow to
develop tho resources of tho country; they have been slow to
acquire tho necossary equipment; they have been slow to give
the necessary terminal facilities, and they have all had inade¬
quate facilities at tidowator to get rid of what freight they
could bring there.
For instance, tho Pennsylvania Central Railroad, which has
tho reputation of being one of the best managed railroads in
22
the country, has never been able to get rid of more than sixt;y
cars per day of grain in bulk without being blocked up. They,
of course, do not begin to limit the number of cars until they
are really blocked up, and then the blockade is transferred from
Jersey City to Philadelphia, and from Philadelphia to Pittsburg,
and so on back until every yard they have from Jersey City to
Chicago is full. The necessity for increased facilities was very
evident, but the stockholders of the Camden and Amboy Bail-
road, over which the freight came to Jersey City, took the
ground that they could not afford to spend four million dollars
at Jersey City to increase the facilities of getting rid of freight
for the Pennsylvania Railroad, when they only got ninety miles
haul on it. "While it might be of very great advantage to the
Pennsylvania Railroad to have four million dollars spent in in¬
creasing depot facilities, in filling up docks and building eleva¬
tors, it manifestly would make no return to them, and therefore
they would not make it. All of which will in due time be re¬
medied. *
It is undoubtedly true that there is a vast amount of agricul¬
tural products that is not carried to the seaboard, but I suppose
there is no doubt that a very much larger amount could be
brought on existing roads, if prices obtainable for it at the sea¬
board would justify its shipment.
The question as to whether the price can be reduced is main¬
ly a question whether transportation can be done for less than
it has been done. I have stated that transportation has been
done during the last year at a cost of from 7-9 to 7-10 cent per
ton per mile—at a cost to the consumer, not the railroad com¬
pany. I have reason to believe that that cost can be considera¬
bly reduced. Take, for instance, the item of dead weight. A
common country wagon, well built, weighing about eight hun¬
dred pounds, will carry three thousand, and can be hauled over
any fair country road, on which it will have occasion to pass
over stones, and receive at places a perpendicular fall of from
one to two inches. Then we have the ratio of paying weight
to dead weight of about 3f to 1. The ordinary box car in use
upon our railway at the prosent time weighs about ten tons,
and the maximum load allowed is usually about eleven tons, but
the averago load that they succeed in getting into it is about
eight tons, showing that the dead weight is about 58 per cent,
of the whole weight.
23
Now it does not seem reasonable that a machine constructed
to run upon a smooth even surface, such as a railroad track
ought to be, which ought to receive no perpendicular fall, should
require a carriage so disproportionately weighty to the load
which it carries.
I have already shown that the best engineering talent has
not been brought to bear upon the subject of the proper rela¬
tion of the different parts of railway machinery to each other.
Now, as to what amount of tonnage may be carried over a rail¬
road, it is to a great extent a matter of speculation ; but if, as
the gentleman has stated in the paper read, a railroad was built
exclusively to carry freight with a double track, so that the
trains could always move upon one track in one direction, and
not be required to turn out for anything, it is manifest that a
good many trains could be run in one way upon one track, and
the other way upon the other track. The ordinary rule is for
freights to follow each other at the distance of five minutes,but
by the introduction of the English block system, or something
similar to that, it is only necessary that there should be an in¬
terval of two minutes. But if we allow ten minutes as the
period to elapse between the trains following each other, and
have cars of such construction and engines of such power that
a train should carry 200 tons (which is not an unreasonable
supposition, for we do that on many railroads now,) we would
have 200 of tons freight passing in one direction every ten min¬
utes, or 1,200 tons in an hour. Call that a thousand tons.
That would be 24,000 tons a day and 7,200,000 tons a year,
which would be considerably more than my friend McAlpine
stated was carried by the whole of the four trunk lines now
existing between the East and West.
Mr. McAlpine—It is one-fourth that was carried by the four
railroads.
Mr. Shinn—In an engineering point of view there is nothing
improbable in that. If, as is supposed in the views of Mr. Mc¬
Alpine which he has submitted to us, there is a vast amount
of tonnage now to bo transported, there is no engineering ob¬
stacle in the way of its being done to this extent. I will not
attempt to work out the problem of what the cost would be of
carrying seven millions of tons on one railway as compared with
the cost of carrying two millions of tons on five railroads. It
24
must be evident that the cost would be very considerably re¬
duced, and, as I have already shown that the cost on some at
least, if not all of these four first-class railroads, is less than
Cent, per'ton per mile, it must be eyident that the cost would be
very low as compared with any figures heretofore stated.
FROM THE TENNESSEE . TO THE ARKANSAS SIDE
THE PRACTICABILITY OF BRIDGING- THE MISSISSIP¬
PI BEYOND OBJECTION.
The largest bridge in the world, is to be constructed over the
Frith of Forth. According to the London Builder its height will
be 150 feet, and the number of spans nearly 100. The smaller
span will be 150 feet wide, which is beyond the average width
of the largest spans in ordinary bridges; but the crowning
marvel in the whole structure is the great span in the centre, which
is to be 1.500 feet, or nearly one-third of a mile, in width, an ex¬
tent unparalleled in any existing structure of the kind.