Public ledger. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1865-1893, 1870-03-19
FINANCIAL AND COMMERCIAL.

MONEY. is worth from "a to 4
premium. The supply is meager. Scrips of
all sorts and Tennessee money are very dull.
There wasn't an ass in the Convention of Ten
nessee, and few in the State, who did not know
that Bank of Tennessee money issued to pay
| costs of secession, and of the war, was rem
dered valueless by the Fifteenth Amendment,
annulling all debts, bonds and notes created
by States in maintaining the rebellion, and yet
Northern Radicalism seeks to beget the i'm
preston that our Convention provided for the
payment of this debt.
CoTToS.-The market yesterday was I'M
steady and speculative. Prices paid in the
morning could not be secured in the afternoon,
and there was some shyness this morning.
Many feared that the highest possible prices.
in the present state of the gold market and of
cotton receipts. had been reached Actual
sales were made of middlings at DC, which
the market did not justify. The price Of mid
dlings ruled from 22@23c; low middlings. 2l@
&c; good ordinary, l955s9201sc; ordinary, ia
$50. Eighteen hundred and ninety bales were
sold yesterday, and transactions were brisk
this morning.
TRADE.-In every department of business
considerable activity prevails, and prices, es
pecially of dry goods, have been greatly re-
dueed by the adoption of gold values.
A FORGOTTEN SOURCE OF WEALrH.-Within
very brief period, Memphis will be startled
by the influx of vast trade and wealth from
Central and Southern Alabama. While we
have never exaggerated the infinite value of
the proposed Kansas road, which shall make
this city the great depository of Western
wealth on its way to the sea, while this high
way would constitute an airline extension of
the Selma road. begetting an exchange of
cereals for cotton, and of alligators and juve-
nile Ethiopians for buffaloes and Digger In
dians; while we have never forgotten the in
finite value of highway to the Pacific, we
have not failed. now and then, to advert to a
mighty task undertaken by two citizens of
Memphis which, achieved, must add vastsums
to the wealth and promote, to an incaleulable
extent, the prosperity of Memphis.
MEMPHIS MoNoMASIA.-We have really but
one single source of wealth-cotton. Bankers,
dry goodsmen. grocers, lawyers-this whole
population eats, drinks, wears it, and is en-
riched or impoverished by cotton. Cotton has
done all it can for us. II can build no more
houses and attract no more people. We must
diversity our pursuits, or stand still, or go
backwards. To become manufacturing city,
Memphis wants iron and coal. These furn-
ished, there is no limit to wealth and popula-
ton. With these resources. cotton would be-
come an insignificant element of progress and
strength. and manufactures rise up on every
Il Ii e.
eilities for transportation. would make Mem
phis matehless site for every description Of
mechanical art. and every branch of human
industry would flourish here as not elsewhere
in America. Iron and coal alone are wanting.
The MINES OF WRALTH.-Campbell Wallace.
W. B. Greenlaw and Sam Tate are building
road at the cost Of FIVE and a half millions Of
dollars. from Decatur to Montgomery, Ala
bama--One hundred and eighty-three miles.
From Memphis to Decatur the distance Is one
hundred and eighty-five miles. When the road
is completed. Memphis will be within three
hundred and sixty-eieht miles of Montgomery. |
and within two hundred miles Of the iron and
coal fields and "a pineries " Of Alabama. Tate 1
and GreenlaE will furnish rs coal By way Of
Decatur as eheaply as Major Sykes, by way Of /
Elyton and Aberdeen, over our Selma road.
The cost Of fuel will be reduced one-half. and I
then cotton mills win spring into existence. /
and every kindred branch Of mechanical in
dustry.
EFrEcrs OK TRADE.-whether Memphis can !
compete successfully with Cincinnati and 1
Louisville for the grocery trade Of Central /
Alabama remains 70 be seen. Memphis viii .
be certainly two hundred miles nearer Mont !
esmery, by rail. than Louisville. and about
equi-distant with Nashville. Nashville can
POI eomrcfe with Memphis, because the latter I
cits receives hea,Y freighis At nominal freight !
charges By water. while Nashville Is supplied I
BY railway lines. Memphis must be the I
cheaper market. and If it furnish Alabama 7
with groceries. the whole wealth Of the State
along this railroad will become tributary to
Memphis.
PHILOSOPHY AID FarT.-We have often IN
sisted that whites could never Be drawn from
Europe or the North 10 l. sandui..hei rmour .