Nashville union and American. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1853-1862, 1857-12-29
RAILRoADs-coUNTY BONDS AS AN INVEST
MEAN.

railroads. Thenow producing communicable COM
mercial and travelling classes we're once supposed
to be the bOrn-heirs to all their advantages to the
exclusion Of the farmer and mechanic. Experience
has, however, shown the fAlaey Of such calculation
and the balance is vastly on the side Of the pro-
Queer. The great equalizer of interests near or re-
mote, the common and universal stimulent of enter
prize and industry, of labor and production, the
equitable distributor of advantages and profits have
been railroads. Fractions of cent now count the
advantages and disadvantages of many miles Of dis
lance, and SO the large and wealthy producer in,
and the farmer of moderate means driven by the
high prices of land, far from the neighbOrhoOd of
markets, stand now on more even ground. Give
the farmer a market and enable him to get his pro-
auctions there at the smallest possible cost, and he
asks for no bountes or favors. Not only are these
ideas true of confined and pareuler localities, but
they admit Of vaster range and more expansive ap-
pcation, and it is in this enlarged scope that
we wish cur producers to contemplate the subject.
1t has not been many years since Tennessee wheat
became an element Of commercial importance in the
market of the United states-New York. Nor has
it been many years since we we're purchasers-we
have now become sellers, and We have become SO
under difficulties transportation of small value,
when compare them with the facilities opened up
in those vast grain fields Of the West and Northwest
with which we are brought into competition Who
is prepared 10 calculate thelimts of our trade in the
article Of wheat alone when fscitiesfor transport
tatiOn are proportionately enlarged?
This is the one sole check to the rapid and enor-
nous expansion Of the agricultural interests of
Tennessee. We yet lack the facilities of transpor-
tatiOn, which at all propOrionate to compe-
tenee of production. We need the earliest possible
completion of our rairoads-that great fourth and
last wheel in the system of successful commerce.
No one close his eyes to the fact that we have
powerful competition TO contend against-that it is
increasing upon every year, as the cheap lands,
the open praries, the easily cleared regions of that
vast agricultural domain, West and Northwest, are
rapidly coming under the plough Their railroad
system is doing for them, what ours through our
own culpable insctiOn, have scarcely yet begun to
do for us. They, the outer borders of our i'm
mense country, have so nearly, if not completely
Obviaied diTIance a competing element in trade,
and have left but little to hope for, and the small
comfort we may derive from the old sdage, "better
even late than never" Wheat is not the only arti
Gle from which we are annually suffering loss by
our incapacity Of transportation, but beef pork
and wool, swell up deficits, beyond anything
that would be deemed at all reasonable, without
careful reflection. What would the nlinoisian, In
diaHian or Ohioan think, who should passing by
his very door, Tennessee beef and hogs destined for
the market he has been in the habit of regarding
IL 4 IL, s
tation, only few conts in excess per 100 pounds
over his own costs. Yet this is.no dream. This may
be readily realized. But we have much to do be-
fore our position, as a first class producing State,
can be attained and sustained 1t is the agricultu-
raj community alone can give Tennessee this posi-
ton. We all aware of the fuctuating circum
of commercial men, and of that class called
capitaliss-how crippled, for instance, now. The
interdependenee Of these classes and the sgricul.
tural though large and varied, is nevertheless not
entirely reciprocal. Similar causes do not affect
these classes equally and the agricultural generally
the least Consequently in times of troubous need,
all eyes are turned to the farmer. 1t is from them
that Tennessee demands whereWith 10 attain her
lofty position among States and it is by them she
claims to be sustained therein.
We must, for once, take our hand from the plough,
and give it in aid Of those well and udciOusly plan
ned railroads, which must so largely subserve
individual interests, and increase the wealth of the
State. The period has come, when delay in their
prosecution may tempt our Legislators to relieve
the present embarrassments Of the State by some
all sweeping act, which may annhilate enterprises
of incalcuable benefit. We must arise and make
manifest the fact that it is we, the farmers, who
chiefly need them and that we are not 10th to come
to their rescue in the hour of peril. Does any
ask, "What shall we dol" The answer is obvious.
Let us no longer content ourselves with merely
looking on the very arduous efforts of cur railroad
managers, and with cOmplaceEs vaunteuance Oishing
all manner of prosperity to theEI This cool and
deliberate iuaction, was bad enough under the best
financial circumsta nces, but under the violent and
nOn-elastie pressure of the present emergency, in
action is death. The Presidents of railroad COM
panies making earnest appeals to US for aid.
Not for subscriptions stock in their enterprises,
but for an advance of money county bonds and
other securities. Shall we continue any lSnger to
ignore our individual interests, to cast away our
State pride, and to cut off the right arm of wealth
aud political greatness at once?
As an investment of capital these county bonds
offer what may emphaticaly be termed first class
securities.
lst. They safe Investment. For by the terms
Of the county subscriptions these bonds are them
selves, secured not only by the liability of the pro-
perty-holders of the county, but also by the stock
in the road itself-these bonds being convertible. By
the very nature of the existence of a county as a
quasi corporation, these bonds can never be, legally
or in any other way repudiated, no more than any
perfectly solvent individual can refuse to pay his
debts
ID. They are good paying Investment The bonds |
of various wealthy counties being offered stpri
ces varying from 90 to So cents the dollar. As
suming the average of these rates for general re-
suit, say, IS cents, we have investment yielding
eight per cent per annum, payable semi annually in
the city of New York, and upon which semi-annual |
interest the bond-holder receives premium equal
to the value of exchange between Nashville and |
New York, and which has recently been as high as
10 per cent.
Money invested in these securities are by law ex-
empt from taxation. The investment involves no
risk whatever and precludes all trouble, for the tax
collector collects and pays to the treasurer of
he county sinking fund commissioners, whose duty
Q is to make payment in the city of New York
Nothing can exonerate either these officials, or the
county from absolute and certain payment Of both
interest and principal And further, the very mon
y so invested reacts to the benefit Of the former in
hese two channels-the one of immediate expendi-
ure for the support of large number of operatives
he other by expediting his avenue to good market,
hereby increasing the value Of his lands, and ad-
ling to the wealth of the State, by bringing the re-
loterregions into active and useful competition.
This species of investment is safe, good and pay
ng to the Spectator and money-dealer, as well as
o the farmer. In few months the original bond
olders the railway companies, will no longer have
ny for sale, and so the yearly sums raised by the
ounties to liquidate these bonds, will create de-
laud often less readily responded than the original
ales of them For who will be Wiling to loose an