Memphis daily appeal. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1847-1886, 1869-06-16
TIE MEMPHIS AND Ell PASO
PACTFTC RAILROAD.
A correspondent of the Arkadelphia


PAcLFTC RAILROAD.
A correspondent of the Arkadelphis
Standard says:
The people of Southwest Arkansas thinb
they have observed a preference in the
Little Rock Gazette for the Little Rock
and Fort Smith Railroad over the road
from Little Rock to Fulton, as a part Of
the Southern Pacific. Is is said that the
sympathies of Little Rock citizens are the
same, and it appears that the columns OF
the Memphis APPEAL are to be devoted to
the same result. sFE Ak4ER
The correspondent is correct. The
APPEAL has, and VIII have, a prefer
ence for the direct road by Fort
Smith. Fulton viii be but a feeder
for Cairo and older cities north of US,
with whom We must contest for the
palm of success, The future Of Mem
Phis hinges upon q Pacific Railroad
by the thirty-fifth parallel. Forum
ateIy for us, we have it nearly COM
pIeted to Little Rock, and under way
to Fort Smith. With that much the
start Of all rival routes, and the press
and people of the Indian and other
Territories beyond, and the States in
~tervening between Tennessee and the
Atlantic for US, it viii go hard, but We
will win with Congress, already
pledged to us in the Lower House by
a majority of more than five to one.
We are well aware that the voice Of
the Memphis and New Orleans Con-
ventions are against US, (the former
so because of the apathy of our peo-
ple,) and we expect that to meet at
Louisville in October viii be equally
marked in its expression of preference
for a scheme which, as We have before
remarked in these columns, can never
be successful before Congress, owing
to the fact that, instead of one, there
are a half dozen routes concerned in
it, and just that much capital addi-
tional to what the Northern Pacific
Railroad has already in hand with
which to operate against Us. Yet,
notwithstanding the Judgment OF
these bodies, we are determined, in
common with our brethren in Arkan-
sase and Virginia and those OF
our own State, to press the
claims of the route by the thirty
fifth parallel, because it is the
only one that promises anything for
Memphis. 1.-THE trade and travel"
as the Little Rock Gazette says, "ol
that road would pour itself almost ex-
clusively into Arkansas and Tennes-
see, whether the attraction were
Northward or Southwark" "Adopt,"
as the Little Rock Liberal says, 1.-THE
line Of the thirty-ffth. parallel, and
we have a vast and beautiful expanse
of country lying upon our West, that
by the natural course of, and laws of
trade, is tributary to Us. Memphis,
from her position, would then be the
connecting point on the Mississippi
from whence would radiate all the va
riouscommercialb bands to the Eastand
North, as well as to the Southeast.
She would become the great wholesale
mart of the lower Mississippi. At
the same time Little Rock would be
the gateway, as it were, to the Pacific.
In addition to the present Fort Spith
route, there would be one running On
the south side of the Arkansas. This
would run for miles through the finest
coal fields in the State. The present
insurmountable obstacle of want Of
fuel being thus overcome, and a bOun-
tiful supply of coal secured at cheap
rates, Little Rock, as could also Mem
phis, would become Il manufacturing
city" 7 srfs
Quoting again from the Liberal, we
answer the correspondent of the Stand
ard, and give additional reasons why
We should prefer the Fort Smith to
the Fulton route. Our contemporary
suggests that while Little Rock might
be benefited by the passage of the Full
ton route, Memphis would be almost
completely isolated. He says, and
every word applies with force to the
situation of Memphis: "The Cairo
and Fulton would form the main and
only feeder from the North, and it
would pass by our doors. BY the
completion of 4 contemplated line
from Cairo to Nincennes, Ind, the
New York and Erie, as also the Balti-
more and Ohio, would soon form an
uninterrupted line from Cairo to New
York. We at Little Rock would
therefore have but one change Of cars
to New York or Washington on the
East, or Chicago on the North. So
much in favor of the thirty-seeond
parallel route. There are, however,
other considerations of far more
weight to US in Little Rock than these.
We all of US naturally hope to build
up and rear into maturity a large and
prosperous city. To do 50 We must
llANt lIdut dllu I"lOlllidNtOiI IT,. NOW.
go where you will in the United
States, and you find the current of
of trade to be from the West to the
East. 1t is nowhere seen to be from
to the North. While, therefore,
we look to the East for the purchase of
our supplies, We must also look to the
West as the source of our trade. We
need not look for anything from the
as it win never come. He who
undertakes to prove the contrary,
must first show himself able to reverse
the natural current of trade. Toprove
this, we have but to revert to one
fact here in Arkansas. The
Mississippi, ouaehita and Red river
road, nov under contract, has for its
Western terminus the town Of Full
ton, on Red river. This is also the
Southern terminus of the Cairo and
Fulton, as wellas the probable start