The Chesapeake Bay Trade, Part 6
In no uncertain language did the residents of Accomac county, Virginia, express their indignation at what they term the "unrighteousness exercise of this monopoly" by the Baltimore, Chesapeake and Atlantic Railway Company, at a public meeting held in the Masonic Temple, Onancock, Tuesday.
The meeting, which was presided over by Mr. John S. Waples, was called for "taking steps looking to the improved and greater passenger and freight facilities by the Baltimore, Chesapeake and Atlantic Railway Company." It resulted in the appointment of Messrs. Nehemiah W. Nock, Lewis J. Harmanson and W. A. P. Strang as a committee, which framed the following strongly-worded resolutions:
"The Baltimore, Chesapeake and Atlantic Railway Company has, either by purchase or lease, secured the control and exclusive use for its own steamers of practically all the available wharves or landings on the Chesapeake side of this county, barring all possible competing carriers of every class to and from Baltimore -- facts which vest in the company a dangerous and arrogant monopoly of trade and travel. And the company in the unrighteous exercise of this monopoly has either by penuriousness in management, by studied indifference to our needs and requests, or by inexcusable incompetency on the part of its governing officials, failed not only to provide sufficient tonnage, but has for years past been imposing antiquated, obsolete, slow and unsuitable steamers upon our trade and travel, in spite of repeated protests on our part, causing our people untold losses in time and money, and also hundreds upon hundreds of grievous disappointments and fatal delays, both in matters of business as well as of health.
"And in the establishment of the said monopoly of trade and travel by the company, it practically assumed and obligated itself to provide amply for the safe and expeditious carriage of ourselves and products at fair and reasonable rates of compensation, and from such points as might be most available and convenient to us, and upon duly advertised and maintained schedule of hours of arrival and departure. And the development and growth of our every interest has been seriously hampered and greatly retarded, and ourselves been made to suffer severe losses and many inconveniences because of the facts and conditions cited. And the Baltimore, Chesapeake and Atlantic Railway Company having notoriously and utterly failed to provide prompt and adequate transportation for the traffic offered by us, especially for those highly perishable products upon the prompt and safe marketing of which we are so absolutely dependent, both for money and our living, notwithstanding that the company has been repeatedly and timely warned of the demand our crops would make upon it for transportation. And our people have lost hundreds of thousands of dollars by rottage, by shrinkage and often by rapidly declining markets, because of the failure of prompt carriage and delivery of their products by the said company.
"We strongly condemn and earnestly deplore the continued existence of inadequate and wretched carrying facilities on the part of the Baltimore, Chesapeake and Atlantic Railway Company as impels the call of this meeting and the formulation, passage and publication to the world of these proceedings.
"We view with anxiety and alarm the existence and possible continuance of the monopoly of transportation now established in the Baltimore, Chesapeake and Atlantic Railway Company; a monopoly that has apparently been zealous only for its own further increase of power, profit and wealth, and which seems coldly indifferent alike to our interest, our pleas for justice and to our protests against wrongs long suffered at its hands.
"While we appreciate the services for which we have so dearly paid, and while we have no disposition to embarrass its work or to criticise its acts except as a last effort and means by which insufferable wrongs might be righted, and while we fully recognize every obligation which the service of this company has merited, yet we would hereby strongly impress upon its stockholders and officials the need of an immediate and practical recognition on their part of the company's greater obligations to us. We would remind them also that without our patronage, our products and our people, its past, present and future prosperity and power would be impossible, and that notwithstanding its monopoly of place and opportunity, that without our support its costly wharves would be useless, and, rotting, would drop piecemeal into the sea; that its steamers would either traverse our waters unfreighted and passengerless, lie rotting at their docks, or else seek employment among a less favored and more submissive people; that while we have no disposition to antagonize its interests, or to withhold either our good will or our patronage, provided we receive fair and decent treatment in return, we would have this management distinctly understand that we are determined to no longer endure unresistingly and without protest or effort for relief the inexcusable and wretched conditions of both trade and travel that it has with marked indifference imposed upon our people since its monopoly was established.
"Failing to secure from the company the fair and decent treatment we ask at its hands, and the relief from inexcusable delays, burdens, inconveniences and losses which we have and are now suffering, we pledge ourselves individually and collectively to use whatever influence and power we possess to secure the long-desired relief by whatever means and from whatever source it may be had. To this end we earnestly invite the sympathy and active co-operation of every citizen of this shore, as well as the people and commercial interests of Baltimore.
"A committee of six representative business men and farmers shall be named by the Chair, to be known as the committee on transportation, which shall act for this body, and whose duty it shall be to secure, if possible, such service in the carriage of our products and persons as our interests demand.
"A copy of these resolutions shall be furnished the local and Baltimore papers for publication, and a copy also be sent to every official of the company, including its board of directors.
"A vote of thanks shall be tendered to the local and Baltimore papers for their interest in our behalf."
The resolutions were adopted unanimously.
The following committee was appointed: Messrs. H. W. Boggs, Ben Mears, E. J. Beloate, Samuel T. Taylor and Major Wise.