Daily Nashville patriot. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1860-1862, 1860-08-28
For The Pafrios,
The Proposed Union Depot and ths
Consequences Of its establishments,

and that all monopolies are dangerous to the
public veal. In nothing is this more evident
than in Railroad traffic. We have gone on,
building line after line, and building them
together. until the whole country has become
an iron network with which TO entrap the
birds of passage, and carry commerce
throughout the length and breadth OF the
land. None can deny that railroad is both
a social benefit and a social necessity, for by
its means far distant points, &C.. productive
localities, which were without market for
their produce are brought in contiguity with
the great marts of commerce, and the bless
ings of industry are no longer confined to
near and favored localities, but are scattered
| broadcast throughout the land-towns, vii
lagos and cities spring up as If by magic,
wherever the iron horse speeds on his I'M
wearied way-and his advent is hailed by de-
lighted thousands rs the pioneer of com
merce and of wealth. Were the advantages
of railroads confined within this, their pro-
per sphere, the opening Of new fields of COM
| merce, giving impetus to industry, aud en-
riching the districts through which they
to be hailed as the greatest social blessings
of the age. But unfortunately the rage for
Capitalization has supervened, and our net
work of railroads have been linked together
into a series of giant monopolies. welding
almost unlimited political and social power,
which frowns down the direct interests of
those who taxed themselves to create them,
and have neither thought nor cared for any
other but their own. Let New York, Penn
sylvania, Ohio. and the New England States
bear witness to this, aud let the South and
West be warned in time, nor suffer system
which should breed prosperity entail the re-
verse by diverting travel and commerce from
the very cities which the roads were express
ly created to benefit.
We pride ourselves on being a go-abead
people, and we are, for in art, industry, in
ventive genius, and the pursuits OF COM
merce we leave the old world far, far behind,
but our very go-sheaditiveness is apt some
times to lead US into the committai of grave
| mistakes. We forget the substance in the
shadow, and pleased with the soap bubble
that is blown for our amusement. We ad-
mre its prismatic hues and wonder why it
vanishes in air and leaves not wreck be-
bind. No more grave mistake is committed
by US than IN sanctiOning there unions of
railroad interests and consequent monopolies.
This centralizing of travel and traffic, these
fornalities of Union Depot5, and through
freight and passenger lines, in which rival
companies are continuously running race
for their own, and not our benefit, for in
place of such arrangements accruing to the
advantage Of the large cities connected by
railroads and those which have sprung up by
their sides, they are deprived of the very
benefits they once engaged and which they
fancied the railroads would enhance-to the
repletion of the pockets of the magnates
who rule these vast monspolies-their trade
is ruined, their commerce diverted to far dis
tant points, and they too late discover that
they have made a grand mistake. Are we
building railroads and sanctioning consolida-
tions of interests, for the especial benefit of
of the North, or our own. If the farmers let
US go on and patiently await the ruin to our
domestic trade and commerce which must ill.,
evitably ensue, if the latter, it behooves us
to watch with jealous eye, any proposed in
novation-which, whilst benefitting the few,
may scatter ruin and destruction among the
Industrious, many leading them to regard
| a railroad rather as a curse than the blessing
it should be. ........e
In this connection, we cannot but regard
the proposed scheme of a Union Depot in
our city as one which will not be of the
slightest benefit to our city, but on the con-
trary one which will divert from it the
travel and traffic it now enjoys. Mr.. Steven
| son, the presiding genius of the arrangement,
asks the consent of Councils for the forma-
ton Of Union Depot plausibly enough in
the first instance, for freight purposes alone;
but that granted, how long will it be ere the
| grand freight depot which is to benefit n lash
willie SO immensely, is metamorphosed into a
passenger one, and not a shadow of the
travel we now possess is left us? The very
| merchants who might buy in our own mar
kets as we'll, if not better, than in those of
far distant cities, freight included) will be
| hurried past our cities limits-passing our
very doors to bestow elsewhere the patron
age we have earned. Weaned by the speci-
| Gus announcements of ''lightning trains"
| and "direct connections without change of
cars" or even necessity of exit from the
depot. Who then is to be benefited by this
proposed innovation? Certainly not Nash
willie nor its merchants, business men, and
Hotel keepers. but simply the consolidated
| railroad interests and their ruling spirit, for
they will fatten on the monopoly of freight
| and passenger travel, whilst our city pines
in listless energy of trade. And the lack of
that prosperity it once possessed, as all have
done and do, wherever these great central
| depots have been permitted to be established.
As detriments to cities of which people get
but passing glimpse, and do not dream of
pausing at. as once they were wont to do, be-
fore these centralising influences were
abroad, and the competition of rival lines
brought not ruin alike on the companies and
the cities-they were instituted solely to
benefit. We talk of building new hotels
they will not be needed, for refreshment sa-
looms of the Union Depot will be amply suf-
icient. Take Philadelphia as an instance,
where palaces for the accommodation of
guests, do not pay their expenses, thanks to
the centralising and direct communication
system, which drives trade and the travelling
community directly through to New York,
and leaves the city of Brotherly love TO
mourn the day it sanctioned an innovation
that is fast tending to her ruin. -
We believe our merchants and citizens
nearly en- naasse are opposed to this scheme of
n T1nion Denot az ono diamatrica llv onnoead