Memphis daily appeal. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1847-1886, 1870-06-06

road was the only great highway
planned by this cily which would not
divert trade and travel. 1t costs no
more to ship a bale Of cotton nom
Memphis to New Orleans by rail than
from fernando or Pamela to Mem
phis. Brownsville, fifty miles dis
tant. sends cotton bales at about the
same cost to Louisville and to Mem
phis. A cotton bale travels from
Corinth to New York for the same
fare, very nearly, that it pays the con-
ductor who directs it from C0rinth to
Memphis. Forests road is built by
people and counties and towns along
its route. Its directors will be repre-
~sentatives of the shareholders. 1t is
not proposed to suffer it to pass into
the hands of any railroad ring.
Every taxpayer of the city and
county will be a shareholder, and
the Board of Directors will be
representatives of local interests.
1t is true, moreover, that Forests
road penetrates the richest cotton
growing tier of counties in the Gulf
States, whose products necessarily seek
a Northern market. Columbus, Abb
erdeen, OkOlona, Greensboro, Eutaw
and Selma must draw supplies for
cotton growers over Forests road
from this city. Heretofore, mer-
chants Of Selma have bought bacon
and four bagging and rope, and
farming utensils in st. Louis and Gin
cinnati. They have shipped these
heavy freights to New Orleans, trans
ferred them to sea-going vessels, pay
ing a dollar and a half Iighterage over
the bar at the Balize, r~eshipped these
freights at Mobile, whence steamers
bore them up the Alabama to Selma.
Such was the course of trade
which Forests road will wholly
change. The whole country be-
tween Memphis and Selma must
draw its supplies from this city.
The Wicks and Church, great steam
barges, will never more want freights,
and Memphis, instead of Cincinnati
and st. Louis, will become the great
depository of supplies for a vast cot
ton growing region, becoming dense
ly populated, as it was once the para
disc of intelligence, ease and opu-
lence. Forests road will accom-
plish more in drawing to Memphis
wholesale dealers in the products of
the Northwest, than all other rail-
ways which Memphis proposes to
create. 1t cOmpels Kansas City and
Western Missouri and Northeastern
Arkansas to send their peculiar pro-
ducts to Memphis, the only point for
their distribution over the cotton
growing districts of the South. Build
Forests road, and st. Louis is forced
to extend the Iron Mountain road t9
Hopefeld. In fact, this necessity is
already rendered imperative by
the transfer of the Mobile and
Ohio road to the control of Chicago
and Of the Illinois Central. st. Louis
must have access to the Mississippi at
a point below that isothermal line
which defines the northern boundary
of the domains of the ice-king. st.
Louis must make Memphis the point
for the distribution of the wealth and
products of that city over States south
and southwest of Memphis. For
rests road makes this necessity doub-
" imperative. These plain simple
will shape the action of munich
pal and cOunty..aUthOrities in submit
ting propositions to the people to in
vest a half a million dollars in For
rests Selma road. The poor Of the
county demand the construction of the
road that there may be a demand for
mechanics have always voted
a solid body for such measures be-
cause their books and papers and pc
-IAAAaA AC0OAA6 AANhC AACH COLlDIC- !
bend thoroughly the value of such
highways property holders concur
because real estate will advance in
value from twenty-five to fifty per
cent. whenever it is known that the
road will be built even to Holly
springs, that the Mississippi Central
may be shorn of its power to divert
The whole trade Of Northern Missis-
from Memphis to New Orleans
md New York. Above and beyond
Ill this the Mobile and Ohio Road,
which has cost Memphis more than
millions of wealth, will be bisected
~ Forests road at Okolona and the
of the prairies of Mississippi,
'elieved of the despOtism of Chicago
md Mobile, viii give this city the
ichest trade which has ever been
lrawn hither by any agency of COM
nercial intercourse. The road must
,e built, and this city and county
must control its policy.
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