Memphis daily appeal. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1847-1886, 1869-12-06
MEMPHIS ABROAD.
The Short -Sighiedness of the People by a
ST. Louis Journal.
What We We're, Are, aad are Dong, by a
Correspondent.

D Inc fDLs l4DuAS LtNtto VI AAlAcf
Geo. p. Plant, Esq, President Of the
Merchants Exchange, has addressed
a letter to Mai. NJ. J. Wicks, Presi-
dent of the Memphis and Charleston
Railroad, stating succinctly and in a
business-like way, the importance of
cheaper and improved facilities for
the transfer of freight from the boats
of the packet company TO the cars at
Memphis.
This is a matter to which we have
frequently adverted, and shall con-
tinue strenuOusly to advocate, until
the imperative needs referred to are
fully met.
A propositiOn-and an admirable
one il was-fOr the establishment OF a
union depot at some accessible point
upon the Memphis levee, was recently
! introduced in the Common Council OF
that city, in the form of a petition
! from Mr.. Wicks, of the Charleston
! Road, and Capt. H. W. Smith, of the
fPacket Company, asking the right of
| way through the city and the requisite
! privileges upon the landing; but,
/ strange to say, it was given the very
cOldeSt shoulder OF that municipal
body, and disposed of in manner
] certainly more summary than wise.
! This singular action OF the Memphis
City Council seems furthermore to
! have been approved, if not dictated,
/ by the local press, and many of the
prominent business men of the town,
who certainly stand much in their
own light in this narrow and con-
tracted policy.
We can appreciate, Of course, the
unwillingneSs Of our Memphis friends
to have their beautiful and thriving
city ignored as a distributing point on
the great route of trade between st.
Louis and the interior South, but the
sensible business men Of that city very
well know that the day is past for
such merely local considerations to
stand in the way of commercial enter
prise, and that all efforts to blockade,
by exhOrbitant and ruinOus transfer
charges, the natural channels of
trade, must5Of necessity prove injuri-
Gus in the end to the city or the indi-
viduals who thus assume to thwart
and embaTrass the economic transpOr-
tation of Southern freights.
The great river that washes the
Ievee at Memphis should teach her
citizens the striking resemblance be-
tween the laws Of nature and the
equally inexOrable laws of commerce. (
Wherever the current of this mighty
stream comes in contact with any OBJ 1
stacle 10 its progress, if it does not |
force its way through, as its natural I.
tendency i, go around, Ii must, and /
invariably does.
So with the current of trade. 1t is (
q 70. q
not 10 be checked by city councils or .
aldermanic wisdom; and Memphis or /
any other city attempting to restrain .
it, will be CircumYeuted at the last, If .
not altogether ignored.
The trade OF St. Louis with the .
South, already of immense proper
tiOns, is daily increasing, and must .
continue to increase. 1t must, Of .
course, ind its way to the interior OF
the Southern States by the cheapest .
and most feasible route. 1t cannot /
afford TO pay eXtOrJiOnate tribute to .
Memphis, and unless the people of /
that city exercise a more liberal and |
magnanimOus spirit they must, sooner .
or later lose every advantage pertain
ing 10 their port as a point Of COM
mercial tTanshipment
There are other routes South, which
must and viii be adopted by our mer-
chants. unless our friends at Memphis
accept the inevitable situation, and by
business-like legislation, make that
city as they may, the permanent dis
tributiVe point OF our vast and in
ereasing trade.
The lmpOsiJiOns now placed upon
our shippers are no longer endurable.
While the cost Of transfer at Cairo,
from rail to boat, is but twO-and-a-
half cents per hundred pounds on pro-
ducc. and i've cents on merchandise;
while at Columbus, under contract
with Mr.. Halliday, it costs but five
cents a hundred to transfer from the
river to the Memphis and Ohio road,
the average expense Of moving freight
from the Memphis landing 10 the cars
is fully twelve cents hundred, and
frequently rises to fifteen cents, or
three to four times the cost of tran
az Cairo, Hickman or Co
lunbus.
The extraordinary expenses Of the
Packet company at Memphis for the
single month OF October, we are as
sured, were So coo for the single item
of labor. when, with proper depot IA
cilities and the requisite trainways,
the whole DilI could be footed fOF not
to exceed $1,000.
The cost, in fact, Of transhipment
at Memphis is now fully equal to the
hence TO Cairo, by river, or
from Memphis / aland a hundred
miles by rail.
This condition Of things must be
reVOiuti0uized, The people Of Mem
phis have it in their power 10 do it, or
by neglecting the opportunity, to lose
the great commercial i'm
pOrtance which Is by nature theirs.
Believing that our readers would +
ike to see our city as others see it, We
present the following from letter by
a correspondent Of the Kansas City /
Times, who wrote from Memphis a
few days ago;
Memphis, some two years ago, had
a population of over $4,000. Its re-
verses may be said to have commenced
at that time. High rents We're con-
tinued and eXacted as during the war.
One to two hundred per cent. were
obtained for gOOds-Which absorbed
the resources Of the farming commu-
nifty. Politics and plunder were re-
sorted to; legiOns Of negroes were I
brOught from the country fOr the pur-
pose of voting their assumed benefac-
tors into Office; the white men for
want of sufficient labor or no labor at
all became demOr8lized; murder and
burglary were familiar items on the
police register; through the imbeciiity
OF the law officers, partly from the in
huence Of precedents, but more from
the terror Of the asSassin'5 bullet, most
of those criminals were permitted to
90 unpunished. A respectable jury
was a sight Of rare occurrence. Seve-
raj thousands of good, peaceable citi-
Zens left here end One-third of the meF-
chants were forced into bankruptcy.
The balance have hoped on from one
season to another. Business is not pros
porous in Memphis. Complaints are
universal, though more order exists
by the fortunate election Of Hudson
and Horrigan, Judge and prosecuting
attorney Of the Criminal Court, who
are using Missouri hemp with the del
icacy Of an artist and the strength of
an Atlas on the condemned. The jury
system is changed. Dead heads.
loafers and free lunch men are not
accepted. The panels comprise the
best merchants, and Derringer and
Bowie knife men are at a discount.
consequently a better feeling and
more security exists, though progress
sion IN wealth and population or i'm /
prOvement IN business cannot be no. [
led. There has not been half dozen 4
buildings put up in two years. Ev- /
erything Is imported here, except the /
one single, solitary product-cotton. I
Most Of the plantations have been
worked on shares by the negroes, and
it is interesting TO see with what nice