Rensselaer Union, Volume 6, Number 19, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 29 January 1874 — CHEAP TRANSPORTATION. [ARTICLE]

CHEAP TRANSPORTATION.

Synopsis of the Report and Resolutions adopted by the Rvernt National Cheap Transportation Convention. The Cheap Transportation Convention, in session in Washington, adjourned sine die on the 17th, the next session to be held at Richmond at a time to be fixed by the Executive Committee, Before adjournment Josiah Quincy was elected President, with a VicePresident from each State, and R. H. Ferguson, Secretary. The majority report of the Committee on Railways was adopted, declaring in substance: that relief must come from legislation, by which our system of railways can be regulated and improved, and by competition, which will completely carry out the reform which legislation must inaugurate; recommending a national law providing for a Bureau of Commerce and Transportation, etc.; that members of the association shall endeavor to obtain the passage of certain laws in their respective States, including a law prohibiting all railway companies from making unjust and excessive discriminations against places which are not competing points, and a law obliging ail railway companies to transport the ears of other companies, or of individuals, for a just and impartial compensation, with the same dispatch as for cars belonging exclusively to said roads ; calling for legislation making it a penal offense for a public officer to accept or use a free pass of any railway company, and prohibiting railway companies from granting passes to other than employes; and declaiming against the granting of subsidies in any form';' recommending that railways and canals be constructed by the National Govern ment, the manner of constructing railways to be by contract to the lowest bidder; that when constructed they should be used for the transportation of Government property, and, when not required for Government use, all citizens are to have the right to place cars and locomotives thereon, and to operate the same, subject to the regulations to be provided by the Government, they paying toll therefor sufficient to maintain the roadway. Resolutions were also adopted—that the convention ask of Congress, aft a means of affording relief to the country, the enlargement of the Erie Canal and lake route; the en-' largement and extension of the Illinois & Michigan Canal to the Mississippi River, at Rock Island, together with the completion of the work on the Illinois River; the improvement of the Mississippi River and the Tennessee River route, the latter being known as the Atlantic & Great Western Canal; the extension of the Chesapeake <fc Ohio Canal from Cumberland, Md., to some point on the Ohio River, and the control of a water line through Virginia. .