Public ledger. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1865-1893, 1871-03-09
THE ruruRg OF MEMPHIS.

There is no denying the TACT that
property values have been steadily
iessened. that skere Is sad want q
energy and enterprise among merchants
and a greater leshsrey among owners O
real estate. Trade 5 paralyzed mainly
( byf conditon q he cotton market
and by epheneral facts which have httle
or no inarsnce upon the market value
Of town lots ana country farms tits
not in the var ia Europe or advance in
rates of interest decreea blythe Bank o.
England. 10 preveni the outflow Of eold
into waste places Of Europe; il is not
the price OF cotton, affected by these
facts, which renders it inPossble % sen
city and country lots At priees Of former
years. The difficulty hes IN the imper
fections of our systems Of trade 1t
originates really in the want Of co-opera-
tive action on the part Of men having
brains, intelligence and social and com
mercial influence. II is hoped when
the Chamber of Commerce sits at
the Peabody Hotel, that there may
be a reformation of many evils,
positive and negative, of omission
and commission, from which Memphis
now suffers. What have merchants done
to attract to this city the trade of the
West9E How much influence have they
exerted in drawing down from the Union
Pacific road branch line, which. for
years to come, weuld give this transcon-
tinental route all the traffic and travel of
States south of the 0hio7 Capitalists
largely interested in the Union Pacific
have said that if Memphis furnished a
direct route tothe Gulf and Southeastern
Atlantic coast, a road from Kansas
City to this point would soon be built
Never thinking of these facts, no meas
ures have been adopted by which, in af-
ter years, we may escape the Western
evils which have already wrought incal-
culable losses on the eastern side Of the
Mississippi 1t is this lethargy, this
treason to ourselves, which lessons
property values, renders real estate un-
salabIe and destroys confidence in the
future of the city. We see the Mobile
and Ohio and Mississippi Central roads
bearing away from our very doors the
trade we enjoyed for thirty years-the
trade that laid the foundation stones OF
Memphis; and because We have incurred
this loss and are impoverished, it is said
we must aggravate the evil by patient
endurance. Instead ofproviding against,
are we to perpetuate it2 The remedy
costs 100000 per annum for FIVE years.
It is a final remedy. 1t takes nothing
away, even before It becomes operative
upon commerce and real estate values.
There will not be dollar of the subscrip-
ton taken out Of the county. On the
contrary it will go into active circulation
give employment to thousand laborers
and activity through dull months to
countless farmers and tradesmen
Moreover, those who pay the tax
each becomes a shareholder in the
road, and when forty-one miles are fin
ished, to Holly Springs, it will be the
best paying property of the kind eyel
held in, Memphis IL the subscription
of the county did nothing more than as
sure the completion of the road to th'
capital of Marshall county, Memphis
might well afford to expend every dollal
which it may cost, even to-day, to achieV'
the task. There is, we repeat 1t, nj
escape from present public evils Of deb
and taxation, save in the multiplication
of taxpayers. This end can onlI
be gained by the augmentation o
Memphis trade and population, and tt
achieve this purpose the MobilsaanC
Ohio, and Mississippi Central roads
must be shorn of their power for evil
Then to crown the prosperity Of this cit
with lasting splendor we must have &C
cess TO the cotton, coal, iron and pin
fields, and forests of Mississippi an
Alabama, and then the purposes Of Dr
Walk may be achieved and this city wi
become the seat Of manufacturing, al
and industry, and of a magnificent, PR
gressive civilization.