The weekly North-Carolina standard. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 186?-1869, 1869-06-02
Commercial Humbug.


a big Hum5ug The Southern Commercial
Convention, recently in session in Memphis,
Tenn Western Democrat.
T We endorse the sentiments ofthe Democrat.
Ever since the war closed, a very large por-
ton of the leading business men, principally
those interested in transportation, have been
holding meetings. passing resolutions. me-
morializing Congress and State governments
to control labor, commerce, and business
generally, and they are now no farther adj
vanced in their pet schemes than they
were when they commenced. tits true, these
men begin to learn wisdom. The labor is
controlled by the supply and the demand.
BY following this rule, the Northern States
have succeeded, and the South never will
succeed until they follow the same rule.
This same fcolishness on the part of these
men is what gave the North the Pacific
Railroad, when it ought to have been built
upon Southern line. The Railroad men
of the North and West have followed dit
ferent course, and the result is, all the trade
is seeking Northern line. Already the
Missouri men are pressing their lines from
the southwestern part of that State to COM
pletion, so as to reach the South Pacific
Railroad, either on the 35th or SOD parallel.
l they succeed in accomplishing this, all the
great trade West and South, running as far
South as Texas, will reach the Atlantic over
Northern roads. They have this advantage,
that is, the roads of all the principal lines
have the same guage as the Pacific Road.
If the Southern roads want or expect to get
the Pacific trade, the Southern Railroads
must at once go to work and change the
guage of their roads so as to have through
and connecting lines East and North. The
same is true of the manufacturer. Let the
men who own water powers go to work
and get capital to build factories, and weave
and spin the cotton upon the soil where the
cotton grows. The experiment has been
tried in Mississippi since the war, and it has
proved great success The facts are, all
these conventions, though assembled under
the call of commercial men, are all po-
litical conventions. In this Memphis pow
WOW, the first thing on the carpet was po-
litical dissertation from " little Sprague"
from little Rhody." He talked about free
trade, his new hobby" and every thing
else but the object for which the convention
was Said to lace been called.
Gen. J. c. Fremont sends buncombe dis
patch that "his bonds those of the
Memphis and Ell Paso Railroad Company
are quoted at 70 for gold in Paris, when
any school boy ought to know that his Rail
road has not yet received the sanction of
Congress. At the last session of the 40th,
and the first session of the 41st Congress, he
tried hard to get but simple right of way,
and it was denied him, as it was known to-
be hnm5ug as great as the Memphis Con-
vention, if such a thing be possible His
friends hung about the lobbies of the Capt.
toll with pockets full of these bonds, worth
about three cents bushcl.
In contrast to this, we like to record such
evidences of enterprise as that Of Col. William
johnson, of Charlotte. He has pressed to
completion his railroad connecting by rail
Augusta with Columbia, thus shortening the
distance North from Georgia. Before he
completed his Augusta branch, freight and
passengers were compelled to come North
by Branchville, which is within fifty miles
Of Charleston. Give us more action like
his and fewer convention resolves, and the
South will begin to prosper.