The Columbia herald. [volume] (Columbia, Tenn.) 1850-1873, 1870-10-07
SOUTHERN RAIL ROADS.

SOUTHERN RAIL ROADS.
Extracts from the Speech Of william
j. sykes ON the Rail Road Interests
of Alabama. delivered mt the Capt.
toI, Montgomery. Ala.
1t has been well said that you are
watched with eagle eyes-that every
thing done and said here is known III
Boston and New. Y ork, md is calcu-
lated to make an.impression upon the
credit of your State, and to affect her
material well being. This fully APP
preciate, and all the remarks which L
NAV make tonight will be with a
view of sustaining the credit Of Ala
bama, and of showing that there is q
substantial basis for her high credit.
Loose and inconsiderate remarks
about running the credit of the State
and making her bankrupt, made by
men in high position, are better calcu-
lated to ruin her credit and destroy
her prospects than the issue Of bonds
for the purpose of building railroads.
Capital is cautious and credit is sensi-
tive, and whenever men in high posi-
ton depreciate the credit of their own
State, whether their remarks are well
founded or not, it is calculated to inf1ict
a serious, if not an irreparable blow
upon that credit. My object Tonight
is to show that nothing has been done,
or is likely to be done, to injure the
credit of Alabama or involve her in
= bankruptcy. What is the bankruptcy
of State? The mere failure to pay
the interest on her debt for short
time, docs not necessarily make her
bankrupt. If / mistake not, there has
been time i'm the history of Alabama
when she failed for a short time to
paw the notes of the old State Bank
and Branches, but who will say On
this account that she was ever bank
rupt? An individual may owe a
debt of $4,000, which he may fail to
meet at maturity, and yet he may
have property worth 81 100000. Will
any man who understands the proper
use of language say this man is a
bankrupt? 1t would be well for all
men and all States to meet their notes
and bonds at maturity, and never suf-
fer them to be protested; but the fail
ure to do so for short time, neither
establishes the bankruptcy of an indi-
Yidual or State. These remarks are
not applicable to Alabama, because /
will show you tonight by facts and
figures, not of rhetoric, but of arith-
metic, that there is no danger of Ala
bama ever being protested, or any
bonds which she may endorse or may
loan to railroad companies in your
State. The remarks above made ap-
ply to my own State, whose credit l
will demonstrate before l take my
seat, rests upon as good basis as that
of any State in the Union. Much of
the in jury done to her credit has been
by groundless cry of bankruptcy,
made by those who know nothing
about her true condition. i viii al
ludc to that matter more fully here
after, and ask your attention, and the
attention of capitalists abroad, to the
facts which L will produce i'm refer
ence TO the financial condition of Ten
nessee. '.'
How can the issue of bonds to
railroad company, with proper guards
and restrictions, or the endorsement
of the first mortgage bonds of COM
pany, bankrupt State? Let us look
at this matter closely, for it is bust
ness transaction, and is neither to be
determined by defamation nor de-
nunciaton, but by plain facts and ar
guments addressed to the reason and
GOOD sense of men. What is a State !!
1t is nothing more than the aggregate
of the citizens living within its lin
its; whatever enriches the people, en-
riches the State; and whatever tends
to bankrupt the people, tends to bank
rupt the State. These propositions
are so plain that it seems that any one
could understand them: but many
appear to have very confused notions
on this subject. To make my mean
ing clear, let us suppose that an indi-
yidual should contract debt of xl0,-
600 i'm the purchase of property, or in
the improvement of property he al
ready owns; now if this property
should be yalueless, he would be
loser to the extent Of $1,000; but II
it should increase in value until it
was worth $4,000, would any one
saw, that because he owed $4,000, he
was thereby injured and his credit ru-
ined? Or, take case more in point
suppose man should take $1,000
stock i'm a railroad company, and this
stock should be worthless, does it fol-
ow that he is injured? By no means.
If his property should be increased
$1,000 in value by the building of
the road, instead of being loser, he
would be the gamer to the extent OF
$1,000. So with county; If coun-
ty should take stock to the extent of
100000. and her property should be
increased in value $4,000 in conse-
quence of the building of the. road,
the county or the people of the coun-
would be the gamers to the extent
of 100000, even if the stock in the
road should be worthless. AS with o
county, so with State. If a State
should aid railroads, to the extent OF
S3O,OO0,0O0, and. should be.compelled to
pay the whole amount, it does not fol-
low that the State would be bankrupt
or even injured at all? Suppose in
consequence of this loan of State
credit. for the building of these roads,
The value of the taxable property OF
the State should be increased 500,
100000; would any man of ordinary
disccrnment say that the State had
not been largely the gamer? In this
case, if $30OO0,000, the amount of the
State Indebtedness, should be taken
from S2O0,Oo0,O00, the amount the
State had gained by the construction
of her railroads, there would be left
SI7O.GOO.O00, which had been gained
bv the people of the State. .
But / have not stated the PROPOSE
lion fairly for the railroads. Suppose
fbe State should lend their credit ii
the building of railroads to the extent
of S30.0OO,O00, and the value of hel
property should be increased 500,
100000 thereby, and the railroad com
panies should pay the..interest on thu
bonds, and the bonds themselves
when they fall due, the State, or TN
neople of the State, would gain $2OO,
100000. i have given you SUPPOSE
tions, but they are such as are dali,
occurring: we can only judge OF thu
future bv the past. What has made
PENNSYLVANIA, New York and Massa
chusetts rich and powerful? Why i:
that New York City is SO far ahead
ofNorfolk? Commodore NJ. L. Mau
nv. than whom there is no better au