The Athens post. [volume] (Athens, Tenn.) 1848-1917, 1857-03-13

CNee
the interests confided to his charge, advanced
the rates Of travel on the road. Whereupon
the Cleveland Banner proclaimed, with q
great flourish of trumpets, and with degree
of mortified Importance, that its editOr-yes,
the editor Of the Cleveland Bdnnsr-was dis
pleased with the arrangement, and that IN
less things were managed more to his notion
In future there would be an explosion and
somebody would ketch particular fits" OF
corrse, this display of pOmposity and self
Importance had no other effect than to ex.
cite the contempt of the parties at which it
was aimed, and the ridicule Of the Banners
readers, whose happy privilege it is to be
weekly entertained with the asinine exhibit
tions Of its editor. Not content with that
silly demonstration, the Banner, the ensuing
week, announced, with all the gravity of
truth and without stopping to inquire into
the facts, that the passage sales on the road
had decreased forty per cent. in consequence
OF the increase in the rates of travel. Know
ing the statement to be maliciously untrue,
we took the liberty of contradicting it and
showing that the receipts had increased, in
stead of falling off. Whereat the Banner
man grows wrathy, and in his last reterates
his former statement, and to put the capstone
to his littleness, he attempts to identify the
people of Bradley county with his ill con.
ceived, illiberal and unjust course towards
the road, charging that it is a political ma
chine and has been SO managed as to be pro
scriptve of the rights and interests of the
citizens Of that county-thus. in substance,
imputing the basest and worst motives to the
gentlemen who have from time TO time had
charge of the enterprise. Recklessness could
not have conceived anything more remote
from the truth. As to the road being used for
political purposes, any one familiar with its
history, its earlier and present organization,
knows there is no found ,ton for the charge.
In reference to prescribing Bradley coun
ty, the accusation is still more preposterous.
No county has derived more advantage from
the building Of the road than Bradley, and
no community is more largely benefited by
the means of the enterprise, benefited at pres.
ent and in prospective, than the one where
the Banner is printed. And the attempt of
that paper in its last issue, to identify the
citizens of Cleveland and of Bradley county
with it's i'll conceived, illberal and selfish
course, approaches the lower strata Of little.
ness more closely than any thing we have
met with in all our newspaper experience,
and we are confident that the people there
will respectfully decline to be associated with
that veracious sheet in its present attitude
toward an enterprise which is doing so much
to develope the resources Of that rich county
and to eventually place Cleveland among the
most prosperous and fourishing communities
in the State.
Another word in connection with the sub
ject Every great enterprise has enemies
and prejudices to contend with, and rail- Dads
are not exempt from such annoyances As
long as they are confined to carpng and
fault.fnding, they are harmless, but whom
they result, ms they have in some instances,
in placing distractions on the road, to the
enlargement of the lives of passengers,
every one should be cautious about uttering
words calculated to feed and strengthen such
prejudices, and at which the depraved and
vicious may take courage to carry out their
fiendish purposes. We have too much charity
TO believe for moment that the editor of the
Banner is sensible of the evil and mischiev.
Gus tendencies of such remarks as were con.
tanned in a portion Of his last weeks article
about the road, or the effect they might have
upon depraved person who felt dispos-
ed to injure the road at the expense of the
lives and property of other parties. 1t is the
duty, and should be the pleasure of the pub
lie press, instead ofpandering to and strength
ening the prejudices and enmities which those
who control public enterprises have to en-
counter, and which in nine cases out of ten
are without cause, to do every thing in its
power to remove them and to sustain the of.
ficers in all honest and legitimate efforts
to discharge the obligations resting upon
them, namely, to make the road subserve the
public convenience as largely as can be done
without annhilating the rights and interests
Of the stockholders, upon whose money the
enterprise was constructed. This we are con-
fident, has been the honest intention of the
officers Of the East Tennessee and Georgia
Road, from first to last, and for that reason this
paper has given them constant and hearty
support and will continue to do so, irrespec.
tive of the motives that may be imputed to
It by mountebauk editors, or by individuals
who cannot accord to others any higher con.
,iderations than such as would control and
influence their own sordid and selfish natures
in conclusion for the present, we respect.
FULLY suggest to the Banner man that he is
On cold trail-that he cannot enlist the in.
.ellgent people Of Bradley county in an un'
natural crusade against the railroad-that
his course will meet with no response except
rom the class alluded to above, and that it is
about time for him to "curl up and quit"
IN regard to the railroad, unless he can deal
more honestly and truthfully with it.
The following are the receipts of the road
or passage sales for the month Of February,
1857, and for the month OF February, 1855.
which the Banner asks us to furnish and
which it says is the correct data" to deter.
nine whether it perpotrated a falsehood in
asserting that the travel had fallen off forty
per cent.