Knoxville weekly chronicle. [volume] (Knoxville, Tenn.) 1870-1875, 1870-04-13
tcoMsuNIcATEp.l -.Ds
The Knoxville Wing on Manufactures.

To the Editor Of the Chron,cte'
A few months ago the editor of the Wing
manifested great zeal in behalf of the man.
ufacturing interests of Knoxville and East
Tennessee. OF late, however, he finds 1t
necessary, in order to be consistent AS a
politician, to advocate national policy,
which, if adopted, he knows would be
death-blow to all future attempts in this
branch of industry
We have been making some progress in
our manufacturing interests since the war,
so much so that our prospects have been
looking up. But what has been done is
nothing to compare with our capabilities.
We want Rail Mill in Knoxville that
will require fifty tons Of iron and ten car
loads of coal per day to feed it, making such
a demand for iron as would open up the
rich ore beds in our own immediate vicini-
ty OH the Knoxville and Kentucky Rail-
road.
We want Cotton Mill located here that
will work up the raw material right at
home where it is produced, giving employ
ment to hundreds of otherwise idle boys
and girls. We want Wooden Mill that
will divide profits with the farmer, con-
verting our native wool into cloth for the
people, and making sheep-raising more
profitable. These, and scores of other
branches of industry, could be put in ope-
ration, and are certain to be speedily built
up, unless the tinkering of the tariff shall
render such undertakings SO uncertain as
to suspend all efforts in this direction.
Capitalists will not risk their money and
invest large amounts in the erection of
rolling mills, cotton and wooden factories,
or other establishments where they are
threatened with that system of Free Trade
which would at once render all such in
vestments entirely worthless.
| The Wing says: I" He is the wisest man
who can comprehend the drift of public
opinion and shape his course accordingly"
and assuming that the " scholarship and
statesmanshipo of the age is in favor of Free
| Tradep he goes in for it needless and re-
gardless of all our home interests.
If the editor was really anxious to shape
his course in the "drift of public opinion"
the vote of the people which so triumph
antly elected Grant, and which so fully
| >
ought to be sufficient to show him that he
is drifting in the wrong direction. If all
| the material interests of East Tennessee
are to be committed to the charge of such
a pilot, we can feel certain that all our
hopes of future prosperity are destined to
be shipwrecked.
The editor further says that the system
of protection "depreciates the value of the
products of the SOIL and destroys the best
market for that which the farmer produces.
| We had given him credit for better
sense than to pen such nonsense. But if
| he honestly believes this is so, we would
like to see the figures. viii he please give
US the mental workings by which he comes
to the conclusion that the farmers of East
Tennessee would get better prices for their
products under system of Free Trade
What particular feature of the system war
rants the farmer in expecting better prices
for his product sent to foreign countries
than can be realized when sold to manufac-
turers right at home? "a He.
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