NP, WD 9/27/1864

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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