Public ledger. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1865-1893, 1871-03-02

ductiye cotton and corn-produclngl land
in the South have been practically eS
cluded from intercourse with the eS
terror world; lands of extraordinar.
richness in faultless climate, becom
valueless simply because of extraordln
ary burdens imposed by railway mon
onoly upon the exports of the country
Nothing less valuable than cotton car
nav the cost of transfer to Memphis iron
Eastern Mississippi and Central Ala
bama. 1t has resulted, in the country
between Okolona and Columbus, MISS.
that lands have become comparatively
yalueIess, and the very people who in
vested the Mobile and Ohio railroad
company with its franchises, and ex'
bausted their wealth in IFS construction
are the victims of the rapacity of those
who now own and manage the road. II
costs as much to transfer a cotton
bale from Macon, Mississippi, to
Corinth, because it may leave Corintll
for Memphis, as from Macon to
Columbus, Kentucky. The Mobile and
Ohio Company utterly refuses, on any
terms, though Tennessee loaned it
$4,000 per mile for one hundred and
thirty miles of its length, to connect
with the Memphis and Charleston road.
1t has made persistent war upon this
city, and has cost Memphis commerce
more, infinitely, than its bankruptcy
cost the State of Tennessee. When the
bill authorizing the Governor of this
State to issue bonds to the Mobile and
Ohio and Mississippi Central roads was
before our Legislature, Memphis was
represented in that body by Geo. l..
Holmes, John C. Harrington, James
Lamb and W. G. Dunlap, men of great
personal worth and ability, such as were
wont to hold Offices when decency and
intelligence governed the country. Each
of these gentlemen, the press and
people Of Memphis approving, voted
for these grants to these two roads,
and now the roads are used for our
own destruction. Since the war,
the Memphis press and people and rep
advocated the loan of State
bonds that was made to the bankrupted
Mississippi Central road. The viper
stinrs the bosom that renewed its life,
and there is a baseness in the conduct of
these corporations that reinvests with
all the freshness of startling originality
the assertion-that corporations have no
souls. There is but one recourse lett us;
These corporations must be shorn OF the
capacity for evil. They will begin to
mollify exactions whenever assured that
the Memphis and Selma road will be
built. Heretofore Memphis has stood
aloof and proposed no active interven-
ton in behalf of Forests road. For
rest, it was said, had undertaken a task
he could not accomplish, and the Mobile
and Ohio, and Mississippi Central people
asserted that his success was impos-
sible. Memphis stood aloof even
while mercilessly plundered, and these
people we're encouraged to rob
us more ferociously than ever before
we're subjected to prohlbitory
fare when they set their faces in this di-
reetion, and when some innocent coun-
tryman talked about the Memphis and
Selma road as means of escape from
the clutches of the chartered rob
bers. he was derided. Memphis and
Shelby county, it was asserted, will do
nothing. and Forests road will never
relieve Memphis of subsection to the
tender mereies of the Mobile and Ohio
and Mississippi Central roads, Such
was the response, uttered in acts, by the
managers of these highways. Shall
we bow meekly and submit tamely
to these outrages? May we not
resent gross wrongs and relieve
ourselves Of exactions fastened upon us
by those whom we endowed with power
to rob or to bless and enrich2 Is it wise
or even suiierable TO see ourselves plum
dered to poverty by corporations which
owe us everything, and yet baselyrob us
of everything? The courts might inter
vcne, but what citizen will sue2 justice
costs a private citizen more than his
steady annual losses, when a mighty cor
poration is a party to the contest. Our
only adequate remedy for insuiierable
and amending wrongs is to be in the con
struction OF the Selma road.
The Louisville Ledger says: Nilsson
seems to have worn ont her welcome in
Cincinnati. Her last concert in that