The Daily Nashville true Whig. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1851-1855, 1855-08-21
TUESDAY MORNING. AUG. 81, 1855.
The Result Of United Actlcn-Mereantils Associa-
stious.

rived in all business communities from unity
of action, and the cultivation of that principle
of mutual reliance, in contradistinction from
individual indepenence, are scarcely appreci-
ated as general thing in the Western cities.
While there are always a few men in every
community who, looking beyond the imme-
date routine Of buying and selling, to the
more general, more remote, and proportion
stely more important laws of trade which affect
abe business prosperity Of a city, instinctively
comprehend the importance of united action,
there are on the other hand, large number,
generally amounting to a majority, who are
not given to these ideas, and who imagine that
their ultimate success as merchants depends
solely upon the amount of shrewdness they are
enabled TO invest in their business transac-
tions, aud the degree Of secretiveness, as re-
CARDS all their operations, they are enabled to
maintain. This latter class are laboring under
most fatal error-an error which the history
of trade in all the older and more prosperous
cities most palpably exposes, and an error
with which all the nober feelings of the man,
unwarped by mistaken self-interest, must To-
eVitably war.
Almost any merchant in the city of Nash
VILE for instance, will say uuhesitatingly, that
the most disagreeable part of his business is
the work Of competing against the insidious
advantages and slight-of hand movements of
his neighbor upon the commercial chess-board.
His neighbor processes TO suffer from the same
complaint, and thus from Year they 60 on
cutting and slashing at each other, without
pecuniary profit and at a terrible sacrifice of
mutual confidence and self respect. This dis
agreeable state Of things can easily be Obvi-
ated, and an opportunity afforded for the pros
ecution of legitimate business, by the cult
walton, on the part of our merchants and bu-
siness men, of a community of interests and
the Inauguration Of q system of mutual help
in lieu of mutual distrust.
The other advantages to be secured by this
reform are still more important than those al
luded TO above. 1t is in the power Of the
merchants of a city, by association aud unity
Of action, to correct the many abuses to which
they are often forced to submit by the operation
of unjust local laws, and by the policy adopted
by corporations having the management of
railroads, steamboat lines, etc. Individually,
they are powerless TO resist these abuses, but
united they can sweep them away with ease.
4 striking illustration of this fact has come
TO our notice recently, and the circumstances
of which are contained in a report of a COM
mittee of the Cincinnati Chamber of Com
merce, and which are briefly: The Union
Board OF Railroad Managers, composed of
representatives of the various Indiana Rail-
roads, had adopted generalfreight tariff by
which the various companies professed TO be
governed 1t was found, however, that some
of them had discounted largely for shippers,
thus violating the spirit Of the agreement
The result was, that while roads leading from
Cincinnati adhered to the agreement of the
Union Board, the road from Indianapolis 10
Jeffersonville was carrying freight 1oal5c per
JOG lbs. less, from Louisville TO Indianapolis
than the rates charged from Cincinnati to In
dianapolis-the distance on both roads being
about the same This gave Louisville the ad-
vantage, and enabled her merchants to secure
a good deal of trade from Central Indiana that
otherwise would not have gone in that direc-
ton. The injury to the business Of Cincinnati
from this state of things was becoming 80
great, aud individual efforts to remove the
difficulties having accomplished nothing, the
subject was brought before the Chamber of
Commerce and the result of this movement is
fully set forth in the report of the committee.
This may be stated in single sentence-TRe
difficulties hare all been remoped
The President of the Chamber very truly
remarked when this report was made "You
see, gentlemen, what may be accomplished by
united action. individuals have been COM
planning for months with reference to this
matter, and they were laughed at; but Gem
mittee of the Chamber IN ttoo soeeks secured a
removal of all the difficulties" The change
that has been effected in Railroad freights by
this movement may appear as a small matter
10 such as do not fully understand ii, but it is
really of great importance-so great that the
benefits to result therefrom can hardly be esti-
mated.
The Cincinnati Chamber Of Commerce
struggled for ten years against the prejudioes
and selfishness Of large portion Of the mer-
chants of that city. 1t is now established upon
firm basis, and is justly considered by its
members, who comprise all the merchants and
business men Of any pretensions, as an indis-
pensable aid in their business. They could do
without their banks almost as well.
In referring TO the report Of the committee
above alluded to, the Cincinnati Gazette re-
Tmarks:
Ii is gratifying to notice that the business men Of
Cincinnati are beginning 70 see the importance Of
moving unitedly in all matters Of importance, that
relate 10 the commercial and manufacturing inter
ests OF our city and State.
There has been, heretofore, too much indiyidu-
ality. Men seemed satisfied 10 take care OF them
raly In sl,.s. nkara haar a,