Memphis daily appeal. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1847-1886, 1870-06-10
MEMPHIS AND SELMA RAILROAD.
Report Of the Committee Appointed by the
Chamber Of Commerce to Solicit
Aid from the County Court.
The Vast Advantages Of the Road to Mem
phis Set Forth In Plain Terms.

HatS
At a meeting of the Chamber of Com
meree. held some days ago, a series OF
resolutions were adopted appointing q
committee Of five to lay before the city
authorities the advantages to arise and
accrue to Memphis from the building Of
the Memphis and Selma Railroad. AT
the same time another committee was APP
pointed to solicit a subscription Of $780,
900 from the County Court in aid OF the
same road. Under these resolutions the
Hon. 1. G. Harris, chairman Of the COM
mittee, addressed the following to the
Worshipful Shelby County Court:
Under the 18th section of the I'd arti-
Gle of the Constitution of Tennessee, this
Court has the power to submit the cues
ton of subscription or no subscription
to the popular vote Of the people OF the
comfy. and if a majority Of three-fourths
of the popular vote is obtained for the
subscription the subscription is made.
The Committee beg leave to present TO
the Court the written Application OF the
sailroad company for this subscription.
II is within the discretion OF the Court
TO present this question to the people OF
the county in such form as the Court may
think best.
That Is. that the subscription be made
DHNaDl6 III NAO OgALE -
twenty or more years to run, bearing six
per cent. interest, paysbly semi-annuslly,
or that the subscription be made payable
in five annual equal instruments, laying q
special tax TO meet the same.
THE Company asks for b subscription
in 2O-year bonds of the county, but the
Committee is advised that the payment
of the subscription in i've equal annual
instalments would be much more promo
. thu COrnnanU This
question. however, is left to the discretion
of the Court. The Company feeling as
sursd that the subscriptions asked from the
county of Shelby and the city OF Memphis,
if granted upon either of b modes sug-
Oesfed. will secure the success Of this
great enterprise, so fraught with the COM
mercial Importance and future prosperity
of Memphis and the surrounding country.
Whatever may be the opinion Of the
court as to the merit of this application,
the court hazards nothing in submitting
the question to a vote OF the people,
where it requires q majority OF three
fourths to make the subscription.
Even if every member of b court
should be opposed to making the sub
scription, vet, If q majority OF three
fourths Of the voters of the county wish
10 make it. no member of the court will
denv that it is the duty Of the court to
give them the opportunity to do so, and
this opportunity can be had alone through
your action in submitting the question:
But. upon a careful examination of the
merits of this great enterprise, upon the
success of which the future greatness OF
Memphis and prosperity Of Shelby, IN 9
measure depends. The committee feel
assured that this court cannot doubt the
propriety of making the subscription,
much less the propriety of submitting
This road will be go miles in length,
running through one of the richest, most
productive cotton regions OF the South,
which produced in 1860 about 100000
bales-near one-tenth of the whole crop
of that wear. The counties through which
this road runs, in the State of Mississippi,
produced in 1860, 23S, 4SS bales OF cotton
about one-fourth of the cotton crop OF
that State. The counties through which
it runs produced last year a fraction over
900 bales, very little of which found its
way to the Memphis market; nor need
we hope hereafter to draw to our market
the crops of these fertile fields, unless we
connect ourselves with them by q direct
line OF railroad. especially while other
railroads are accessible to them-roads,
too which are interested in discrimi-
mating against Memphis; but secure this
road, and with the high character that
Memphis has always sustained as a cotton
market. we may confidently calculate
upon one-third to One-half of this cotton
being brought to our market; but, put IL
at ~one-fourth, which Is $4,000 bales, and
allow but five dollars per bale for COM
missions, drsyage, storage and hsndLlpg,
and we are reimbursed in q single year
for the subscription asked of the county,
and in two years for the subscription OF
both city and county, and this,
too, upon one single article OF tlade.
The same result wo aid be produced with
regard to other productions Of less I'M
portance; and a large proportion OF the
proceeds of these sales would pass to the
hands of our merchants, manufacturers
and mechanics in exchange for dry goods,
groceries, plantation supplies, agricultu-
raj implements, etc. But Independent Of
all this, the enhancement in b values Of
the property of the city and county would
more than doubly compensate for the
subscriptions asked.
In 1850, when Memphis made her first
subscription to a railroad, her taxable
property was valued at 49, O6, 900, and the
census report shows her population to
have been 52S2. Within the twenty years
that have passed she has contributed To
the building of the Memphis and Charles
ton, Memphis and Ohio, Memphis and
LANkAb AkRNAa aAAA Nv @8@
nessee railroads, and Notwithstanding s
prOtracted and devastating war, n OF
the results of which was to diminish the
property of the country by the emsncipa-
ton of slaves, vet her taxable property Is
today worth 5000 0O, 900, and she has q
population of over SO, 1908 sOuls-ten times
as much population and ten times as much
wealth as she had twenty years ago.
While il will not be denied that Memphis
would have increased both in wealth and
population to some extent without rail-
roads, vet no impartial mind can for one
moment doubt that she is chiefly, II not
almost entirely indebted to her railroads
for the rapid strides that she has made in
the last twenty years to wealth, pros
perity and greatness.
This result is not peculiar to Memphis,
but has been the same in every city that
has been able to make itself q railroad
center. and to every State and county that
has been able to construct a thorough
system of railroads.
The C~omptroller's reports show that the
average value of lands in Tennessee was,
in the wear 1886, 81 per acre, from 1886 to
1852 it had declined to g 81 per acre. In
1852 Tennessee adopted her general inter-
nal Improvement system, which gave
great encouragement to railroads, secu-
ring success to the various railroad enter
prises of the State, and the average value
of the lands commenced increasing at that
date, and in eight years had gone up nom
50 81 to IS IL per acre.
The value of all taxable property in
Tennessee, was in lS52,SlS6,62l ,ll9, tnclud-
ing the entire slave property Of b State.
In 1863, without slave property, It was
S223, S62, 243 SO, showing an increase In the
value of the taxable property of the State
of S37, 24l, l24 50, Notwithstanding the
d~evastations of four years of war, and the
loss of the entire slave property OF the
State,
This increase in values commenced with
the commencement of your railroad sys-
tenn and has kept pace, step by step, with
it, values increasing in the ratio Of rail-
road progression.
If YOU would make Memphis q pros
porous, wealthy, great and powerful city,
Won must make her a railroad centre (;
must ope direct lines OF communics-
ton and transportation to and from the
rich and productive fields Of the sur
rounding country, you must invite The
trade of the surrounding country by Of
fering the usual facilities for trade, or you
will find that trade lost TO you by these
facilities being offered by rival cities pos
fewer natural advantages, bat
foresight and enterprise.
Build this road, and 1t not My opens
to you the trade Of the rich and highly
productive country through which IL pas
ses, but 1t secures to you the shortest n
most direct line from Memphis TO Bruins
wick, Georgia, the finest harbor on the
south Atlantic, the distance being only
6S5 miles. 1t ecure to you the Kansas
City railroad, for the most direct line
from Kansas City to Brunswick Is through
Memphis and by this line Of road.
With this road completed to Memphis
and connecting here with the Little Rock
road and the Kansas City road, the prop
erty and population Of Memphis will be
doubled or trebled in ten years, and with
this increase of wealth and population It
will be easier to pay a debt Of = million,
than it would be now to pay n half Of
that amount. If the subscription Is made
payable in Eve equal annual installmensa.