Nashville union and American. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1868-1875, 1870-01-16
OUR RAILROADS.

uroteet their property. = The real sub
stance of that report was for the Wall
street bondholders TO get control of our
railroads and run them in and for their
sole and exclusive benefit. AS matter
of course, no such proposition can be
reasonably entertained for moment by a
Tennessee Legislature. The State of Ten
nessee loaned her credit to her various rail-
roads because she believed that the build
ing of these roads would advance the
material interests of the State. In the
main the stockholders of those Railroad
Companies were persons resident of and
identified with the State. The committal
Of the control of these roads to non-resi-
dent parties would most assuredly not
have been tolerated as an original PROPOSE
ton. If such proposal had been made,
itwould have been met with the irresist-
ible argument that the object of the State
in lending her credit to these improve
ments was, that the State might be bene-
fitted by their construction and subse-
quent management; that to intrust their
management to foreign parties would be
to enable such parties or managers to so
control these internal Improvements as to
make them entirely subservient to foreign
interests, utterly regardless of the local
interests of Tennessee. If our railroads
were placed in the hands of Wall street
operators, how easy it would be for them
to so adjust the tariff of freights and
passengers, and the terms of connection
with other roads as to compel every pound
of freight to go to New York or to pass
through New York to get to Baltimore,
Norfork or Charleston. We now see how
how completely the entire West is
made tributary TO New York by
Wall street management to the
very great injury of Boston, Philadelphia,
and Baltimore. If this was the original
purpose of Tennessee in lending her credit
to her railroads, how much more rigidly
should she maintain that purpose now that
her own citizens, stockholders in her
| various roads, have invested millions OF
dollars in their construction Every sug-
| gestion of duty in the maintenance of he1
local interest and in the protection of the
interests of citizen stockholders impera-
lively demands that the management OF
her internal Improvements should con
tinue in the hands of her own people, and
especially of those who have put then
time, their talent and their money in the
building of these roads.
1t is true that it is of very great impor-
lance that the State should be relieved OF
the payment of the Indebtedness which
she has contracted in assisting the con.
struction Of her roads. But she has
greater interests than the dollars and cents
in her bonds. She has far greater inter
ests in money and she has still far greater
interests politically. Every effort of heI
Legislature should be TO resist the tend.
ency to consolidation, which is now SC
alarming Nothing in our opinion would
more advance that tendency than
the delivery Of the control of the
local interests of our State and people
into the hands of the money princes OF
the city Of New York. To avoid this,
almost any otherresult is preferable. Oul
own citizens, the stockholders in our rail
roads, ask Of the State the permission to
retire the amount of their liabilities to the
State by the payment to the Comptroller
| Of that amount in the bonds of the State
bearing the same rate of interest as those
loaned by the State to the railroads ItIs
urged by some as an objection to this re-
quest Of our railroad companies, that they
cannot pay TO the State the same amount
in bonds as is proposed by the New YorE
boEdholders; that some of our railroad:
are insolvent and can pay nothing. Ad
nit for the sake of the argument that thi!
is true.
If one, two or half dozen of ou
railroads are insolvent, should that deprive
the one, two or half dozen which arr
solvent from relieving the State and them
selves from liabilities by the retiremen
Of their Indebtedness, and thus preserv,
the individual interests of the stockhold
ers, thus protect the interests of the State
financial and political, by keeping thest
solvent roads out of the clutches of Wal
street Spectators?
Is it just, is it right, in equity o
good conscience, that the solvent road
and their stockholders should be sacrificed
because of the insolvency of othel
roads? If the insolvent roads havc
to be sold, let them be sold; i
possible, to our people. AT any rate, anC
by all means let US never consent that oul
entire railroad system shall pass into the
hands of New York capitalists. Fa
better in our estimation for the future Of
Tennessee, that she should forever lost
every dollar of the Indebtedness of thu
insolvent roads than that they should pas
into the unrelenting control of foreign
Shylocks. We maintain that she is fal
better off to-day in all of her industrial
interests and in political standing with hel
railroads, even though she should lose every
dollar she has loaned to them, than She
would be without her railroads and witt
no bonded debt. No one can deny the
Importance of reducing our State labili
ties. 1t is our deliberate and confirmed
opinion that the plan proposed by the
House bill now pending in the Senate Is
the surest, speediest, and most beneficial
to the State and her citizens.
|
GETTING MORE THAN THEE
BARGAINED FOR.
There are indications from Washington
that the Radicals in Congress are getting
more in the Georgia matter than they bar.
gained for. Their purpose was to so re,
construct the State as to give the Radicals
complete control of the patronage and
|