The Harrison Times

"Business." The Dictum of the New Road.

The interval to their meeting with Mr. Scullen and the departure of the Marion county delegation, having been too short to allow a study of the effect had on the railroad people, only a passing notice was given to the conference in our last issue.

The point most strongly brought out, in consequence of the interview with Mr. Scullen, was the showing of business submitted by both Yellville and Dodd City. The result or the means to it, will be appreciated when it is made known that a lack of such a showing for the country in general, has been the principal obstacle to pushing the road up to the present time. And not to strain a point in one direction, that does not apply in another direction it is an open secret at this time, that the $10,000 raise to the Harrison bonus is due to the fact, that the sum of Harrison's business, and of the business in the territory situated east of Eureka Springs, was wholly a blank to the St. Louis end of the St. Louis and North Arkansas railroad, until Yellville and Dodd City appeared on the scene.

That such a condition of not knowing the country into which a company builds a railroad, almost takes a way one's breath, cuts no ice in the case. It only emphasizes the fact of supplying the business necessary to the construction of the St. Louis and North Arkansas railroad into territory situated beyond Harrison. For since it is plainly, not understood by the company, that further extension is called for not to one point but to several of them, it is going to do little good merely to say so on paper, or by word of mouth. And in fact, since the Times had not divined his object at the time, at this point, it throws up its hat to Capt. Chase, of the Morning Star mine, in acknowledgement of the business sagacity behind the proposition submitted by him, early in the year, of mine owners assembling ore for shipment over the new road, the point of delivery for which was to have been named by the road, whether Harrison or not.

The proposition before made by Capt. Chase, carries the kernel of the idea which should govern all points entitled to extensions from the St. Louis and North Arkansas railroad. The source of the business the country will offer at the terminus of the road, is going to be the determining factor in the premises. It is going to apply alike to mineral output, commerce and passenger traffic; and no petty notion of contributing to the growth of another town or county, which would be only for a time, should prevent Yellville, Dodd City, Lead Hill, Rush, St. Joe Mt. Hershey and Jasper, obtaining that recognition to which the business of their territory entitles them. The dictum has been given out by the builders of the road that neither sentiment nor bonuses will cut much figure in further extensions of the line: simply the volume of business it is possible to supply.