THE 1-IUN TINGDON GLOBE, A DEMOCRATIC FAMILY JOURNAL, DEVOTED TO LOCAL AND GENERAL NEWS, &C.
THE GLOBE.
Circulation—Mc bargest in the count✓
MO BVLIIP.II - 0041, P,A.
:Wednesday, May 27, L 857.
ronMOCRATIC NOMINATIONS.
FOR GOVERNOR,
Hon. Wltl. V. PACKER, of Lyconxing.
FOR CANAL COMMISSIONER,
IfIMROD STILICICIAAAID, of Chester.
Sale of the Main Line.
We give this week the reasons drawn up
by a friend of the sale of the Main Line in
favor or its passage. If the statements and
figures there given cannot be successfully
contradicted, and it seems no efforts were
made by the opponents of the sale to do so,
then we say the sooner it passes out of the
hands of the State, the better.
The Bakers are Coming.
We are glad to announce to our readers
that the Original Baker Family—three gen
tlemen and two ladies—will give a vocal
concert at the Court House, in this place, on
Thursday Evening of this week. We do not
hesitate to assure our citizens that this is no
"humbug" affair—and that a rich musical
treat is in store for all who may listen to the
Bakers on this occasion. They are notori
ous as very superior singers, and always
give unbounded satisfaction. Let us give
them a hearty reception—a full house.
Concert will commence at 8 o'clock. Tick
ets, 25 cents. One concert only in this
place.
d4~Speaks for itself—The letter in the late Huntingdon
Globe, from the Mother Superior of somo Roman Catholic
nunnery. Who says the Globe isn't a Jesuit sheet to the
backbone ?—How can an honest, consistent Protestant
give it his support. That is a question we leave with the
Democratic Protestants of this county, 'who are subscribers
to it. Yoa may as well send for the Boston Pilot or
Hughes' organ in New York at once.—hunt. Journal.
IlelThe letter alluded to, we copied from
the Chambersburg Valley Spirit, and verily
it " speolcs for itself," inasmuch as it gives
the lie to another foul Know Nothing story,
manufactured for the purpose of adding to
and increasing the spirit of religious proscrip
tion and intolerance. One by one are the
malignant slanders of the Know-Nothings ex
ploded, and every day gives evidence of the
desperation of Know-Nothingism as it ap
proaches the deep and wide grave dug for it,
where its memory and crimes may be buried
forever. We were always opposed to the
spirit of Know Nothingism—to religious pro
scription, in all its various forms, call us a
"Jesuit" who will, and. as for the doctrine of
exclusive dealing, we think it worthy of the
little-souled whiffet who was born in a bar
room and suckled and stunted on rot-gut
whiskey.
We are not surprised that Samuel G. Whit
taker should scribble an item declaring the
" Globe" to be a " Jesuit sheet," when we
recollect his slanders against, and misrepre
sentations of a respectable citizen of our bor
ough, and a member of the church which
Samuel, with much scandal, is allowed to be
long to—for which in the columns of the Hun
tingdon - American and Huntingdon Globe,
there appeared a letter over the signature of
the HOD - . A. W. BENEDICT, from which we ex
tract as follows :
"Samuel G. Whittaker, sought and obtained admission
into the American Order, opening its door with a lie, af
firming as he crossed its threshhold, that he was a man in
years, although he was then an infant; declaring before
the God ho - professed to honor, that he was twenty-one
years of age, when his subsequent acknowledgment proved
he was not. In such a Presence by himself invoked, with
out a tremor on the tongue, the lie was boldly said."
"Before the citizens among whom you mingle and hope
to deceive; and before that God whose religion you pro
fess, but whose precepts you disregard, and whose church
you pollute, I charge you both, as having, with studious
and malicious care, broken the ninth commandment—with
bold, unqualified, cunningly devised, yet intentional lying.
You tell the lie, knowing it to be a lie, and intending it as
a lie."
There, now, it will be seen that Samuel
lied—very solemnly—for the purpose of en
tering a conclave whose members were sworn
to proscription of their Catholic neighbors and
all others who should say nay to their perse
cution. But w•e caution the - Know-Nothings
against him. He is as much of a jesuit as
any one we know of. It is true that some
time ago he was a first-rate Thug and could
lie and swear against the Catholics without
restraint. He insulted them and courted re
sentment. A respectable citizen ordered the
impudent scamp away from his door—another
after repeatedly ordering a discontinuance of
his paper, which represented Catholic ladies
as worthy inmates of bawdy-houses, kicked
the filthy sheet out of his door into the street.
He became low, respectable Protestants dis
carded him, charitable Catholics forgave and
took pity on him. Since, his abuse is more
moderate, and is only practiced in order to
cloak his future traitorous designs, while at
the same time he privately courts the friend
ship of Catholics and assures them of his
most prodigious respect and excessive admi
ration I He has been caught! It is openly
asserted that he has been overcome by those
who took pity on him and into whose society
he was inveigled with the intention of teach
ing him, by precept and example, the true
principles of their religion which he so ma
lignantly assailed, and improving his man
ners and conduct generally. The result is a
contemplated bridal party, at which Samuel
is to be the gay groom, and the bride one of
the fair virtuous daughters of the Romish
church Isnot Samuel G. Whittaker making
rapid strides towards the confessional, kissing
the Pope's big toe, and so on?
Now what "consistent" Protestant Repub
lican, or what Know Nothing, can give the
Huntingdon Journal his support without vio
lating his sacred conscience? We pause for
a reply !
The Washington Poisoning Affair.
The Albany Statesman, in noticing an ar
ticle of the N. Y. l'ost, on what it calls the
"National hotel Malady" at Washington,
designed to prove that the mysterious sick
ness had a miasmic origin, and. to remove the
prevailing suspicions that poison was admin
istered to the guests in the food, says that in
connection with this deadly sickness at the
National Capitol, the resolutions offered by
the Negro, Frederick Douglass,at a Fremont
Black Republican meeting at Syracuse last
Fall, send a thrill of horror through the hu
man frame. Before the hand of the Poison
er was visible at Washington, we well recol
lect it commented with indignation upon the
deep disgrace of suffering such resolutions to
be introduced even at a political meeting.—
They were as follows:
Resolved, That since the traffickers in the
bodies and souls of men have resolved. upon
the endless enslavement of their victims, and
with diabolical meanness and wickedness
have deprived them of all power to procure
arms, with which to win their freedom in an
open and honorable manner, the slave is jus
tifiable in the use of any or every secret process
far destroying the life of the oppressor, by
which he can reasonably hope to secure his
freedom.
Resolved, That the slaveholder should be
made to dream of death in his sleep, and to
apprehend death in his dish and tea pot; POI
SON should meet him at his table, anclthe Si
lent Angel of .Death should every-where be in
voked to affright him in the midst of his mur
derous slave-holding revelry.
THE NATIONAL HOTEL DISEASE.—As addi
tional deaths from this terrible are
announced, the public mind becomes more
and more aroused to a desire to learn the
cause of it. There seems to be an almost
settled conviction now, that it is caused by
poison in the - victuals, placed there to destroy
the President and perhaps a number of dis
tinguished gentlemen who were stopping at
the house. William Hubbull, of Philadel
phia, who was one of the victims, says, in a
letter to the New York Times:
" I went to Washington on the 19th of
March and staid until the 27th, was experi
menting in explosive shells from the Battery
of the Navy Yard. On the 18th of April, I
returned, stopped at a hotel; on Wednesday,
the 22d, feeling very unwell, I hastened home.
By Sunday my disease had become so - violent,
and I sinking so rapidly, that I suspected poi
son. On sending to my physician, Dr. C. '
Henry, he at once pronounced the symptoms
those of arsenic, and gave me homeopathic
preparations of iron, antidotes to arsenic, and
in thirty hours they stopped the violence of
the poison. I have continued taking antidotes
to arsenic fur the past ten days and am slow
ly recovering. The active effect of the poison
is evidently neutralized; but mine was an un
usually violent case, and its effects have been
very severe. If those persons who are suff
ering whom you speak of, do not neutralize
the poison by antidotes, I think it will either
destroy the intestines, or cause inflamation,
which will repeatedly manifest itself until the
poison is exhausted. I suppose that some of
the slaves there gave the poison intentionally
in revenge for the defeat of their party, and
to cripple or destroy the President and his
friends, or persons supportnig the elected
party. I have no doubt that the arsenic was
given intentionally; I have - my suspicion and
circumstantial grounds for them. I was not
in 'Washington when the effects of the poison
appeared at the National Hotel; but my phy
sician, who had several cases from there says
that the symptoms are the same, only in my
case more violent."
•‘3.- 'Governor Pollock has signed the death
warrant of David Stringer McKim, fixing
the 21st day of August as the day of his
execution.
Our excellent citizen Dr. J. B. LUDEN,
left town yesterday evening on his way to
Europe, accompanied by his lady. They
will pass the summer travelling through
England, France, Germany, &c., and return
to their home in the fall. May they have a
pleasant journey.
DISTURBING A RELIGIOUS ASSEMBLY.—Ann
Amelia Elliotts and Catharine Hanson, two
ladies of color, were arrested on Monday
evening and taken before Esquire Harrison,
on a charge of disturbing the congregation
of the " African M. E. Church," on Sunday
evening. They were sent to j ail—their port
monnaies being quite empty.
It Cannot Succeed
It is simply nonsense for the Philadelphia
Sun, and other papers professing American
ism, to urge the election of Davin WILMOT.
That gentleman is now politically dead, in
the State, and his funeral will take place in
October, when he will be so deeply buried as
never to be heard of again as a politician.—
The signs of the times indicate that PACKER'S
majority will be tremendous, and it is idle to
induce the true American party to strike a
blow in favor of the Bradford Abolitionist.
His fate is sealed! His defeat inevitable.—
Patriot & Union.
Dred Scott.
This "cullud individual" was expected to
raise considerable excitement in the political
world. It seems, however, that ho "wont do
to tie to." The Democracy have gained large
ly in every election that has been held since
the Supreme Court decided his case. Our
opponents will Dread Scott more yet before
the nest elections are over. They misled the
people upon the Kansas matter, but this ques
tion is too plain for their profitable use.—
The people know that the Democratic party
is right upon that matter..
There is no more use for poor old BRED.
yA woolen factory is about to be estab
lished at Johnstown, Cambria county.
,1" - -The ]Emperor Napoleon has entered
his 50th year.
From the Pennsylvanian
Row we are to Conquer the World
We have heretofore advocated the policy
of encouraging the consumption of iron, as
the means best adapted. to develop the vast
mineral resources of the United States, and
have urged, that as far as practicable, the
Government should give the preference to
American iron for the various objects in
which iron is employed by it. This we have
always regarded as a very certain means of
increasing the consumption of iron and giv
ing vitality and prosperity to the trade, with
out injury to any other great interests of the
country.
But beneficial as we expected this policy,
initiated by the late Democratic Administra
tion, would prove to the iron interests of the
country, we did not anticipate the stupen
dous results predicted in the subjoined ex
tract from an article recently published by
an influential New York journal. The arti
cle referred to is well worth the serious and
attentive perusal of the iron manufacturers
of Pennsylvania at this time, in view of the
approaching Gubernatorial and Judicial elec
tion. If this popular Democratic measure
was sufficient last year to induce the iron
masters to support Mr. BuenaNAN, as the
great body of them did, it has lost none of
its importance at the present moment. The
wise policy adopted by the late Democratic
Administration, in reference to the iron
trade, wo are assured will be continued by
the present:
We publish in another column some specu
lations as to the probable effect of the intro
duction of the Iron Building upon the pro
duction and consumption of this great staple,
which we commend to the careful attention
of our readers. It will be found replete, not
only with matters of general interest, but
with suggestions of the gravest moment to
the statesman at the head of affairs in this
Republic.
Quoting from the recent report of the
Committee on Manufactures of the United
States Senate, in favor of the adoption of
iron buildings for public uses in the United
States, and from other statistical authority,
the writer certainly makes out a tolerably
conclusive argument in support of the hy
pothesis that the expansion of the iron mar
ket consequent upon this new application of
iron must at no distant day give to the
American manufacturers the control of the
iron trade of the world, so long almost wholly
monopolized by those of Great Britain. As
suming what appears to be so conclusively
demonstrated by facts and figures, it may
not be uninteresting to glance at the ()Teat
commercial and political revolutions which
this invention will probably bring about.
It appears, by British and. American sta
tistics, that although the value of all the ex
ports of Great Britain is double that of the
exports of the United States, we should at
once take the precedence of her as an ex
porting nation ; if we could only manage to
get from her a single branch of her export
trade—that of raw iron and iron fabrics—
we, of course, retaining what we now have.
It should be remembered that the trade is as
yet in its infancy, and there is a growing
tendency to substitute that metal for nearly
every solid material hitherto used, not only
in connection with building, but in the arts
generally. A well informed writer says :
" From 1740 to 1855, the production of
iron increased seventy fold. If the same
rate of increase should prevail for the next
one hundred and fifteen years, the annual
make would reach 490,000,000 tons; and it
is to be observed that the ratio of increase
has been an increasing one for each period
of ten years since 1740, and not a decreasing
one. Commencing with 1806, it required
till 1824, a perikd of eighteen years, to
double the production in Great Britain. By
1836 it was again doubled, requiring only
twelve years. In 1847, it was again doubled,
requiring eleven years. In 1855, a period
of eight years, it had risen from 2,000,000
tons to 3,500,000, at which rate it would
double in ten years."
The present annual production of iron, by
all nations, is estimated at 7,000,000 tons, of
the value, as raw material—that is in pig,
bars and plates—of about $350,000,000. But
we must multiply this sum by a high figure
to represent the value which is imparted to
a large proportion of it which is converted
into various kinds of iron fabrics. Of this
immense product it is safe to assume that
near one-half is consumed by nonproducing
nations, thus forming the basis of the inter
national iron trade which has heretofore
been almost wholly monopolized by Great
Britain. Should the demand for and pro
duction of iron increase for the future as it
has in the past, the iron trade proper must
attain to a magnitude in less than fifty years
which will exceed the whole presentinterna
tional commerce of the world.
But this estimate of the probable future
increase of the demand for iron is based
wholly upon the ordinary sources of con
sumption. When we consider the new ap
plications of this metal to house and ship
building, and to an increasing variety of
other purposes undreamed of a few years
ago, it must be apparent that this estimate
is quite moderate. The results which we
have adjourned for fifty years may very pos
sibly be realized during the next fifteen or
twenty. At any rate the period can not be
very far distant when the monopoly of the
iron trade alone will give commercial su
premacy to any nation that possesses it.
In another and more enlarged view of it,
the iron trade looms up, in the no distant
future, a mighty potentiality in the bands of
our people for the subjugation of the world.
The estimates which we have just made of
its probable future increase are predicated
upon the supposition that non-producing na
tions will hereafter consume proportionably
no more iron than they now do, and that,
consequently, we shall not be called upon to
most any larger proportion of the demand
than is now supplied by Great Britain. But
if the pressure upon the market has had the
effect of doubling the price of coal and iron
stone, and advancing the wages of labor in
Great Britain during the last few years, it
must be obvious that the vast increase of de
mand foreshadowed by new applications of
iron must correspondingly enhance the cost
of producing it in that and other countries,
so that it will at last rise even far above
what we can afford to make it for; and if it
be true, as eminent statisticians tell us, that
we possess near three-fourths of all the coal
and iron ore on the habitable globe, and that
we cau produce 50,000,000 tons per annum
with as little drain upon our natural resour
ces as Great Britain can produce what she
now does, 3,500,000 tons, other countries
will soon find it to their interest to abandon
the manufacture of iron and buy it of us, for
it is an invariable law of trade that the coun
try which has the greatest natural resources
for the production of any article of commerce
can, and does always, if occupied by an in
dustrious and commercial people, monopolize
or control the trade in that article, when the
demand exceeds the supply of less favored
nations.
By the preceding extract, it will have been
seen by our readers that an extraordinary
impulse was given to the iron trade of the
country by the policy pursued by the late
Administration, in employing iron as a build
ing material. The adoption of that policy,
and the practical results which followed it,
proves that a high tariff, which, in the nature
of things, must be fluctuating and unstable,
is far less to be relied on than a policy which
tends so largely to increase the consumption
of iron. Let our iron masters ponder upon
this fact, and they will come to the conclu
sion, we feel assured, that it is better to
identify themselves permanently with the
Democratic party, which has struck out this
new scheme of protection, than to adhere to
a party whose favorite measure proved so un
stable.
This scheme of protection, adopted and
carried into successful practice by the late
Secretary of the Treasury, will, we have as
surance, be perfected and extended by his
able and popular successor.
Mormonism.
The outrages committed by Brigham Young
and his deluded worshippers have gone be
yond endurance. Daily we see chronicled
the debasing influences exerted under the
power of that arch traitor. Decency seems
to have been banished from the land of
" saints," and the degrading effects of biga
my sweep away the chastity and pureness of
scores and hundreds who are without the
pale of the Mormon church, but imprisoned
and fettered by the edicts of that corrupting
High Priest. Federal authority and the claims
of society have been placed at defiance, and
might, not right, compels the juries to ren
der verdicts in accordance with the wishes of
the Mormon leader, and such as will advance
the interests of the church, and the Gentiles
aro forced to meekly submit to the commands
of a tyrant, or his authorized subjects, and
make his edict their law.
There are but few seceders, although many
have long since become disgusted and disaf
fected, and would leave those degrading and
brutalizing scenes and indecencies, but they
are in the hands of a despot whose boldness
knows no limit, and in whose hands rebellion
and death are one and the same. The alli
ance between the church and many of the
"brethren" and "sisters" would be annulled
if they had a protecting hand to guard their
lives in escape. In many instances, youth
ful and innocent females are driven to join
the corps and swell the already heart-strick
en band of some polygamous wretch, whose
" spiritualists," perhaps, are six or eight in
number.
Notwithstanding the numerous and aggra
vated outrages, of which we read, the half
has not yet been told, neither indeed can it
be; because it is almost impossible to get ad
vices from that territory containing anything
derogatory to the interests of Brigham Young
or his crew.
At present, the mails are entirely under
Mormon control, which prevents honest dis
closures of the sad state of things in Utah.—
It is stated, in a correspondence of the New
York Daily Times, that the mail route from
Independence to Salt Lake was let to a Mor
mon named Kimball, who has since sold out
his contract to Brig,hain Young. If this be
the case, the despotism with its already accu
mulated strength, will have nothing to stifle
its march to growth in power, inasmuch as
that their doings will not be reported with
out the territory. Can federal authority be
thus trampled beneath the feet of a horde of
petty tyrants, and allow them to continue to
swell-their number and defy the claims of
common decency and the laws of God and
man, and permit them to proclaim edict after
edict, to flood the annals of our land with re
ports of inhuman practices and debasing
monstrosities ?
Nov, that Mormonism, its corrupting prac
tices and infidel influences are known, and
that it is comparatively in its infancy, feder
al authority clothed with power, should
march into the heart of error and supersti
tion, tear down their strong holds and plant
the banner of freedom and America upon
the soil. ~,.
Republicanism as it Is.
Republicanism, as it was during the last
Presidential election,was imposing and formid
able. Swayed by the same fanatical spirit
which filled the Crusaders or impelled the fol
lowers ofMahomet, they rushed into the battle
without order or discipline, it is true, but with
a blind confidence that victory would perch on
their standard. The case is different now.—
The Kansas delusion is Over—STRINGFELLOW
and LINE, ATCHINSON and ROBINSON probably
have shaken hands and entered into specula
tions together, and no more shrieks for mur_
dered Free State men or burning buildings
are borne on the breeze. All is quiet. The
telegraph brings no more reports of battles
fought or anticipated. In short the food on
which Republicanism lived has been taken
from it, and it is dying of starvation. In
Connecticut its force has been so much weak
ened that it can never fight another success
ful battle. In lowa it has been vanqished ; and
in this State, next fall, with all the aid it may
receive from the American organization, it
will be overpowered and borne down by the
Democratic phalanx as easily as raw troops
would be overthrown by drilled veterans.—
The people have opened their eyes and ears—
they both see and hear—and therefore Repub
licanism is powerless.
DETERMINED TO HAVE THE NEWS FIRST.
—The New York Times recalls the story of a
country editor, who, finding the body ofaman
hanging to a lamp-post one night after his
own paper had gone to press, cut it down and
and carried it home to prevent his rival from
publishing the news, and was himself indict
ed for the murder.
Sale of the Main Line.
[The subjoined Argument and Analysis of
the bill for the sale of the Main Line of the
Public Improvements, was prepared at the
instance of gentlemen favorable to the bill,
and who wished the public to know the real
grounds. upon which its passage was urged.]
What is the Main Line worth? What is
its real intrinsic value ? We do not mean to
the Commonwealth, for to it, it has never paid
expenses. A close, fair and honest examina
tion of the result of its working will show
that ever since it has been built, it has been
a heavy annual tax upon the other resources
of the Treasury. The yearly nett loss to the
State since it was said to be completed, has
been in the neighborhood of quarter of a mil
lion of dollars. For the accuracy of this
statement, we ask a careful analysis of the
reports of the Auditor General, State Treas
urer and Canal Commissioners. We do not
impeach their reports, but we simply wish to
see their gross discrepancies reconciled. We
merely hold that those reports, (and you may
bring the originals from the Departments,)
exhibit, not only an inconsistency, but a va
riance so gross that suspicion at least is fully
aroused. A comparison of the reports de
monstrates in the most positive form, that the
I Main Line has not only not paid expenses,
but has been a steady and enormous charge
I upon the other revenues of the State. More
than twenty-five years of this management,
under all parties, satisfies us that it cannot
be corrected. If this is the case, could not
the State pay a large bonus to get rid of it ?
To the State it has proved a heavy and dead
loss. All experiments have failed to correct
it. But the practical question is, what is it
worth to individuals? What is its real value
under the provisions of the bill that passed
the House of Representatives ? That is the
real question. The valuable portions of the
Main Line of the Public Works, are the Col
umbia railroad, and the Eastern Division of
the canal, from the Junction of the Susque
hanna canals with the Main Line to Colum
bia. The Columbia railroad cost originally
four and a half millions of dollars. The
common estimate of the value of the road has
been five millions of dollars. The fact, that
in a few months the Lebanon Valley and
Reading railroad will connect Harrisburg with
Philadelphia, by a route but three miles lon
ger, and far superior in grades and curvature,
will bring the value of the Columbia railroad
down to its original cost. It will take at least
half a million to remedy its defective loca
tion. Assuming then that the Columbia rail
road is worth four millions and a half of dol
lars, and that the Eastern Division, from the
Junction of the Susquehanna canal, with the
Main Line to Columbia, is worth an addition
al million, we have five and a half millions
of dollars, as the actual value of the paying
Portion of the Main Line.
Passing west from the Junction on the Main
Line, we find that by the provisions of this
bill, the party purchasing, is required to keep
in navigable condition forever, one hundred
and twenty-one miles west of the Junction,
and reaching to the town of Hollidaysburg.
This Juniata canal has been one of the great
draw-backs of the Main Line. It never has
paid and never can pay. It should never
have been built. It is in such a dilapidated
condition at this time, that immense appro
priations must soon be made to re-build de
cayed parts of it. From the fact, that a large
and valuable portion of country on what is
called the Upper Juniata canal would be de
prived of all facilities for getting to market,
and thrown back to the condition it was in
thirty years ago, if it were abandoned, it is
made one of the conditions of the bill for the
sale, that this line shall be kept up. An ex
amination of the cost of working it, will show
that this one hundred and twenty-one miles
of unprofitable work, will more than absorb
the profits of the Eastern division. The Wes
tern division is worse than worth nothing.—
Yet the bill requires a large expenditure upon
an unfinished railroad between the canal at
Blairsville and the Allegheny river at Free
port, in order that the people on the Western
division shall not have withdrawn fi-onz them
any of their present facilities. The finishing
up of this link gives those who live upon and
near that canal a complete railroad commu
nication with Pittsburg. The party purcha
sing, when they conclude to abandon it, are
bound to give it to the citizens of the coun
try through which it passes. We are thus,
under the several provisions and conditions
of this bill, brought down to the Columbia
railroad as the actual value of the Main Line.
The minimum fixed in the bill, is seven and
a half millions, and, if the Pennsylvania rail
road purchase, an additional million and a
half ; in consideration of which that compa
ny is to be released from the tonnage tax, the
tax on her bonds, dividends and property.—
This is simply the State tax, and leaves the
right of the cities, counties, boroughs and
townships to tax, as it was. Why fix a min
imum of seven and a half millions of dollars
in a bill, by the provisions of which it can be
shown, no party can afford to give more than
four and a half millions? For the simple
reason that you could not pass a bill in the
House of Representatives at a low minimum.
It would undoubtedly have been sounder pol
icy to have offered them without limit at auc
tion, or fixed a bona fide minimum of four
and a half millions of dollars. But no such
bill could pass the House. In the event of
the Pennsylvania railroad purchasing, the
price is nine millions of dollars. 'What does
this additional four millions and a half repre
sent ? The first tax that is taken off her is
the tonnage tax. Last year the tonnage tax
amounted to one hundred and ninety-seven
thousand two hundred and ninety-eight dol
lars and ninety-five cents. We believe this
tax to be unsound and vicious in principle ;
but that part of it we will not argue. At
the time that the charter of the Pennsylva
nia railroad was granted, this tax was un
posed to protect the Main Line of the Public
Improvements from the competition, of the
Pennsylvania railroad. Has the Main Line
been injured? Has its value been impaired
by the extension of the Pennsylvania railroad
from Harrisburg to Pittsburg? We say, no.
Modern improvements in New York and Ma
ryland, above and below it, have destroyed
its value. The Main Line is better off this
day than it would have been if the Pennsyl
vania railroad had never been built. We
will illustrate this fact.
By the Main Line before the construction
of the Pennsylvania railroad, a passenger
started from Philadelphia in the morning,
and was brought to Harrisburg by noon, then
shipped by canal boat to Hollidaysburg, a
distance of one hundred and thirty-five miles,
at the rate of three and a half miles an hour.
In half a day more he was passed over the
ten planes on the Allegheny Portage railroad
to Johnstown ; again transhipped at Johns
town to a boat, and in thirty hours more,
found himself at Pittsburg. The other mode
of passenger transportation was by stages,
over the roughest roads for two hundred miles,
from Harrisburg to Pittsburg, at the same
rate of three and a half miles an hour. If
the Pennsylvania railroad had not been made,
of the thousands of passengers weekly, al
most daily passing over the Columbia rail
road to the western States, and even the wes
tern counties of our own State, not a solita
ry one would at this day have passed over it.
This is a fact past all denial. The Baltimore
and Ohio, and the New York and Erie rail
roads, would have taken from the Columbia
railroad the great throng of through travel
that now seeks the west by this route. Has
the Pennsylvania railroad injured the ColuM- -,
bia railroad in this respect ? The question
needs no answer. The Stato road is a large
debtor to the PennsylVania railroad on thiit
head. She would have been at this day, if
it had not been for the extension west, a mere
local road, doing a petty local passenger and
freight business.
The same result can be shown in reference'
to all the light and valuable goods—the goods
that remunerate the carrier best—the profit;
able kind of freight. Would a pound of it
at this day have taken the disjointed line of
canal and railroad, and been ten days reach- ,
ing its destination, when it could pass direct
by a railroad both above and below it in two?
Why even the Pittsburg merchants would
have become the patrons of the Maryland
railroad. The building of the Pennsylvania
railroad has saved all this trade to the road
owned by the Commonwealth. These are
facts that defy contradiction. We now come
to the heavy and cheap articles, cotton in
bales, tobacco, rice and flour. There was a
time when the Main Line transported heavily
from the west these articles. Would she have
still had this trade if the Pennsylvania rail
road had not been built? With the Baltimore
and Ohio railroad tapping the Ohio river be
low Pittsburg, would not all these heavy ar
ticles have passed east by that route? Would
they—could they have passed on up to Pitts
burg—been re-shipped to a fifty ton canal
boat at that point, carried east to Johnstown
by the Main Line, then transferred to cars,
and passed over the Portage to Hollidaysburg;
again transhipped to boats, and boated to
Columbia ; changed at that point, and again
placed on the cars, and transported to Phila
delphia ? Tapped as the Ohio river is below
Pittsburg by our southern rival this freight
would all have gone by Baltimore. The hand
ling of these goods on their transit four times
between Philadelphia and Pittsburg, and the
great delay and uncertainty upon a broken
line of canal and railroad transportation,
would have swept all the through trade, light
and heavy, passenger and freight, to the Bal
timore and Ohio road. The Pennsylvania
railroad has saved to the State road even the
heavy articles to which canals are now con
fined, except the local iron and coal trade. If
any improvement is directly chargeable with
killing the Main Line, it is the Baltimore and
Ohio road. With the local business along
the Main Line the Pennsylvania railroad may,
to some extent, have interfered. But when
you come to balance the account of what it
has taken from the State works, and what it
has brought to them, and held for them, the
c,verwhelming portion of the indebtedness is
due from the now valuable portion of the
State improvements to the Pennsylvania rail
road. This is a bitter conclusion but a true
one, notwithstanding every active interest has
arrayed itself against this road. Its construc
tion has saved to the State the value of the
Columbia railroad. It has preserved to the
Commonwealth one link in the Main Line of
the public words. Why then discriminate
against it? Why restrict the trade of this
road by a tonnage tax ? Wrong in principle
as that tax is, and calculated to fetter and
manacle our commercial enterprize, howfia
grant becomes that wrong, when, instead of
injuring the Main Line, as it was thought it
would do when the charter was granted, it
has been clearly shown that its construction
alone saved the Columbia railroad from be
coming a road of mere local trade and traffic.
The principle which originated the tax is vi
cious and unsound. The ground of necessi
ty or expediency upon which it was imposed
has wholly disappeared. Why then should
thetax not betaken off ? In all justice it should
be removed.
The question then again recurs, what does
the four and a half millions of dollars, above
the value of the Columbia railroad, which
under this bill is the only valuable portion of
the Main Line, represent? Not the tonnage
tax, for that is false in principle and unjust
in practice. We have now reached the point
where that excess over the intrinsic and ac
tual value of the Main Line begins to repre
sent something tangible—something real.—
By the provisions of this. bill she is released
from her State tax, not her county, city, bo
rough or township tax. How is she released ?
How exonerated ? How granted a great, ex
traordinary and dangerous immunity, as it
will be alleged? By the payment into the
Treasury, annually, until 1890, of $225,000.
Then the payment of the principal of that
sum, four and a half millions of dollars. Is
this an exoneration ? Is this a release ? Let
us look at the figures, and they are open to
the most rigid scrutiny. What are the State
taxes of this road? To what do they amount
at a time when the State debt is Arty mil
lions?
State tax on S per cent. dividend on $12,616,-
000 stock $50,561 00
State tax on 6 per cent. mortgage bonds $7,-
551,000
State and county taxes along the line, exclu
sive of Philadelphia 0,006 26
State and county taxes in Philadelphia, say 15,000 00
99,043 26
Ninety-nine thousand and forty-three dollars
and twenty-six cents is her aggregate tax,
county, borough and State. We pass by the
fact that under the provisions of this bill,
she is still the subject of city, county and
township rates and levies. We wish to make
the case as strong as possible. She therefore
pays two hundred and twenty-five thousand
dollars per annum, to be released of a tax
that amounts, say to one hundred thousand
dollars per annum, and in 1890 she proposes
to pay the principal of this—four millions
and a hall of dollars. Is this a release
She agrees to pay this sum—not for the value
of the public improvements; not alone to be
released from taxation—but to get you to take
the hampers off her trade; to unshackle her
business, and let her fight a battle with her
New York and Maryland rivals upon an
equality. To fight a battle, the favorable is
sue of which must redound to the prosperity
of that great State, with whose soil and ma
terial prosperity all her interests are so close
lyidentified. The principle of releasing from
taxation where an immense consideration is
offered, is a new one. It may be open to ob
jections. Doubtless it is. But where a par
ty comes forward, and voluntarily agrees to
pay more than double the amount of the tax
annually for thirty years, and at the expira
tion of that time double the principal, and
23,553 00