| From the Western Democrat (Charlotte,
N.C.) |
| |
| September 27, 1864 |
| |
| From the Richmond Enquirer |
| Southern Express Company |
| As a general principle, a
profession of peculiar devotion to a cause justifies an examination,
whether it is founded on sincerity or interest. A few days since the
"Examiner" stated that the Southern Express Company sent by rail sixteen
pounds 300 miles for twenty-eight dollars. This is at the rate of a
dollar a ton per mile. We have likewise learned that fifty-five dollars
a barrel has been charged on flour by the same Company for a
similar service. This office holds the receipt of the Express Company
for $3,216.90 for the transportation and delivery of ninety-one bundles
of paper, weighing some ten thousand pounds, from Forrestville, N. C.,
to Richmond, 277 miles. This is at the rate of thirty-one cents a pound.
Now, this shows either a disregard for the wants and sufferings of the
Southern people, or a disrespect for the Southern currency. We will be
told that the Express Company carries large sums of money and renders
other very obsequious services to the Government. We do not doubt that
the Presidential packages are delivered with more than oriental
scrupulosity. It is probable that the Departments are obeyed with much
alacrity. Possibly, government employees en route are accommodated with
rest and refreshments in the Express car. Should such an arrival occur
as a government official having a ration of tobacco or whiskey, the
packages may be perhaps put through, whilst food bought for starving
women and children is left to fight its unaided way to the hungry and
destitute. Railroad, telegraphic and conscription officers, and others
whom favor or fear may render it proper to conciliate, will testify no
doubt to the Express Company's devotion to Southern interests. But the
great fact that this Company charges the common people at the rates
mentioned, proves that, if the concern be bona fide in the hands of men
living in the South, the spirit of Adams & Co. animates its
transactions. |
| Do our friends know for what
these extraordinary and exorbitant charges are made? Not for the expense
of moving the freights which they deliver -- that is done by the
Railroad Company; but it consists of the charges of the Railroad
Companies for the transportation and the profit charged by the Express
Company for presenting the bill. They may tell you that they are
insurers; as if all common carriers were not insurers. You may be told
of vigilance and activity displayed in the service. But it is just this:
The railroads transport the commodity and the Express Company presents
the bill and charges their profits upon it. The Southern Express Company
has not built one yard of the Southern railroad they run on; has not
repaired one engine that draws them; does not, in fact, know or care for
rails or engines at all; has not, perhaps, a dollar of stock in one of
the roads from which they derive such magnificent dividends. The people
of the South chartered, built and equipped the railroads of the South.
The Southern Express Company contribute to transportation as capital
stock, an iron safe, some wagons and horses and a few exempts to carry
its package. |
| Is a raid upon the railroad
apprehended? The old men and boys of the country are marched from their
homes to guard the depots and bridges. Does the raid come? These old men
and boys shed their blood for the defence of the public property. Is the
road destroyed? The labor and lumber of the people is impressed to
repair it. What part of this risk and responsibility does the Express
Company share? At the earliest symptom of raid its agents promptly and
properly betake themselves to their heels. The danger and work being
over, the agent reappears, with his gold chain, diamond pin, oiled hair,
special car, and private whiskey. |
| Does our long suffering and
long-eared friend, the public, require an explanation of this unequal
contribution and dividend? It is not the fault of the Express Company at
all? The Express Company represents those common qualities, love of gain
and fear of bullets, which exist North and South. God forbid that we
should put ourselves out of temper against qualities which are,
unhappily, a part of our natures. The fault of this imposition upon the
public lies in the law, or the want of law, and on the railroad
administrations. The railroads will not make connections with each
other. Any freight coming over a road and consigned to another, even of
the same guage and grade, must be transhipped and remanifested upon the
second road. The delays and expense upon such freights are interminable
and intolerable. |
| Now, whilst the railroad
companies will not convey through freight from one road to another, they
will hire the Southern Express Company the privilege of running freight
cars on passenger and mail time. The Southern Express Company being,
then, the monopolist of through freights, may naturally exact their own
prices for the use of the public roads. Let us illustrate: A gallant
Southern boy pours out his blood in the trenches, or in the charge; his
bereaved father seeks his corpse, wraps it in its cerement, and it is
hauled by exacting Southern hackmen to thee depot. A nonchalent
exempt smokes his briar root pipe as he makes out its manifest, and it
is shipped. At the first junction with another road the sad burden must
be laid down and a new bargain made for it further transportation. There
may be perhaps a delay of one day, perhaps more. It must be watched. Its
mortality becomes painfully obvious to the senses. When it last journey
has been performed, the last sight, the deep gush of affection over the
loved remains, is impossible. |
| Of course, all such cases must
be committed to the Southern Express Company, because it alone can
forward them. The tax which they require from sorrow and affection,
perhaps we may have some occasion to mention at a future time. Again: A
citizen of Richmond escapes the extortion of the baker, and purchases
flour from a farmer of Wythe. He must store and re-ship at Lynchburg,
and again at the Junction. The Rail is the same from Wythe to Richmond,
yet the shipper cannot get through transportation. But the Express
company can. Consequently, the purchaser employs the Express Company.
Does the public see how this is? The Railroad Company is prohibited by
law from taking more than fixed rates for transportation. It has only to
refuse to make connections, and the public must employ an express. The
Railroad Company can exact any price it thinks proper from the Express,
and, although an illegal contract, the Express will comply, rather than
quit the road. It is a matter of no consequence to the Express Company
what it pays, since it can charge the shipper with cost and profit. It
is thus the public is either driven from its own roads or compelled to
pay an intrusive agency the exorbitant extractions which it may demand. |
| Now, we really think it is
time to retrench this unnecessary expense. In this bloody war, which is
calling old men from their chimney nook, and boy from their play ground,
it is really time to economise this luxury of an Express. We need horses
for light batteries. We see every day the fattest horses in the
Confederacy carrying packages to collect freights. We need men. There
are attached to the Southern Express office numerous highly able-bodied
and active operatives. We sometimes see tow or three smoking on the
Southern Express wagon, who would, w doubt, hear the command of "action
front!" with delight. Let us reform this a little , then. The railroad
depots have also hands exempt for transportation and delivery. There are
cases in this Commonwealth where there are to able-bodied men in the
same depot exempted from military service -- the one as a railroad agent
and the other as the express agent. Why not renounce this? Why are
ploughs stopped and mills closed for want of a single man, when the
agents of transportation are duplicated? The railroad companies perform
every act of transportation except delivery. Let them do that, and the
express system may be dispensed with. |
| The Legislature should require
every railroad to organize a domestic express. It should receive and
deliver packages at every depot. Railroads connecting on the same gauge
should be required to allow the passage of loaded cars from other rods
over their own. They should be required to run freight cars on passenger
and mail time, for themselves, instead of for the Express Company. We
may be told that an Express Company is indispensable to conduct the
connections between the roads of Virginia and the South. Perhaps so.
Because the railroad companies find their interest in throwing the labor
and responsibility on an Express Company. Elsewhere, as in England, for
instance, the companies take the express and package delivery on
themselves. Millions of packages are annually passed from road to road,
and a shilling charge on a package is sometimes divided between three
companies. We cannot expect such a thing at the South, because it might
throw someone out of office, reduce the dividends of others, and effect
a great practical and economical reform in the expenditures of society. |
| {The
author is so worked up over problems that he cannot figure out the root
causes of the problems so that they can be addressed. His proposed
solution, make the railroads handle and deliver the packages, will
require almost the same manpower and the same numbers of wagons and
deliverymen as using the Express Company -- the service is required,
moving its accomplishment from one organization to another will save
very little in resources. The real problems are the refusal of each road
to run its cars on another road and the unwillingness of the road to
establish a system-wide express service. The Southern RRs did create
such a service at just about this time because they saw their ability to
keep the express charges for themselves, rather than let the express
company keep them.} |
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