Harry Stevens, Esq
Dr Sir
Your valued favor of the 24th ult was duly recd. I regret that I could not have answered ere this & more fully than I can at this moment &c.
I shd be happy to attend your meeting on the 4th inst but that will be impossible. I hope you will have a full & spirited meeting. Binghamton is deeply interested in the project & can do much to help it thro if they have the will.
I notice your remarks relative to what the Times say of Del. & Cobbs Gap & that the N. Y. & E. R. Rd Co & this Co are all one & that they will never consent to have a road from the Bend thro to N. Y. & that our Co own the Cay & Sus R Rd which they will feel bound to protect &c &c. It cannot be doubted that we feel interested in the C & S R Rd & feel it our duty to work for that interest. Suppose the Binghamton & Syracuse RR should injure somehwat the C & S (which is a doubtful [unclear] question). I shd consider the advantages to be gained on the L & W by the completion of the B & S far more than we cd lose on that.
The Del & Cobbs Gap Rd in my opinion is going to be built. It is only a question of time. It must be the next great avenue opened to supply the increasing demand for anthracite coal on the seaboard. The consumption of coal in 1841 was less than 1,000,000 tons. In 1851 4,000,000. In 1861 it will be 8,000,000. Some estimate it at 10,000,000 when it is to go from all the present improvements cannot carry even 5 1/2 million at the largest estimate.
I know of no projected improvement from any of the coal regions that begin to offer so large inducement [unclear] or promise so soon a return as the Del. & Cobbs Gap Rd & in my opinion it must be the next improvement leading out of the coal region. When built nothing is more certain than it will be connected at or near the Water Gap with the New Jersey Roads & Trenton & Belvidere & Trenton & Phila R Rd. This is perfectly indicated & believed on that end.
The N. Y. & E. R. Rd Co & this Co are not one & in no way connected except to a contract for doing our business &c. We are family & feel a strong interest in that Co. & always have & I hope always shall but as regards the building the D & C Gap, they never interfered in any way & I presume never will. In my opinion they will have always more than they can do & if an enterprise shd injure them at one point it will be made up at another. Imagination has often predicted ruin by connecting & tapping established lines of public improvements. I have yet to learn whether any such predictions have proven true or at least to any very great extent.
If a continuous line of railway was built from Oswego to N. Y. in sections as named by yourself, interest would point the details of operating the different roads for the advantage of the whole.
The L & W R Rd when the tunnel is complete will be 48 mi long. Del & Cobbs Gap 33 mi from the Del water Gap to N. Y. not far from 80. Adopting high grades it cd be got in less than 70 mis. How much will be lost to get good grades is not yet fully settled.
I am sorry that I have not the time to give you more information relative to the subject matter of your letter but I have been worked very hard since you were here & have not had a moment at command until used up by the calls & business during the day
Any information that I can give you at any time you are at liberty to command.
I am very hastily & truly your obt svt
Geo W. Scranton
