Knoxville daily chronicle. [volume] (Knoxville, Tenn.) 1870-1882, 1872-12-06
OUR WORST ENEMIES.

There is a large landholder near one Of
our neighboring towns who owns one
thousand acres of fine land Immediately
surrounding the place. One of its citizens,
pointing to it some days ago, said: "There
is a splendid tract of land, two-thirds of
which lies uncultivated. The owner re-
fuses to sell it and has entailed it to his
children as far in the future as our laws
will permit. A neighbor near by hold
ing not quite so much, but equally as fer
tile land, is pursuing the same policy"
"These men," said our informant, ''speak
right out and say they don't want immi-
grafton. They propose to hold their lands
and cripple u.s."
The town referred to is partly
hemmed in by such farmers
and it is scarcely necessary to say that
for the last six years hardly a single new
house has been built. If the exclusive pol
icy of the Chinese were carried out and a
huge wall built about that place over which
immigrants were not allowed to pass, a
more ruinous policy could not be pursued,
How many such landholders are there in
our State? How many men are there
holding three or five times as much land
as they can cultivate, which they will not
sell and which is now lying idle? Can
not people understand that this is crying
evil and one that does more to impede i'm
migration than anything else?
We hear men cry out for more manufac-
tories. Just whatwe all wantw admit. But
where is the population to consume the
products of your workshops? \ foundry
is poor investment when there is no de-
mand for engines or machinery. Men do
not build manufacturing establishments
where there is no thrifty, growing popu-
Iation to use their products. There must
be population before there can be shops.
Population is the basis upon which every
department Of industry or trade must rest.
AS we'll try to build solid massive ware
house upon a foundation.of sand as to try
to build up State, or city, or manufac-
turing interests without population
to sustain them. Of course every
industrial enterprise depends some
upon patronage from abroad, but un-
less sparsely populated localities have ex-
ceedingly rare and peculiar advantages for
manufacturing, such enterprises will al
ways seek the populated regions. Here
we have great advantages, but the main
dependence of most manufacturing inter-
ests must be upon local support. If Knox
and adjoining counties had four times the
population they have-and this they
should have-we would have four times
our present industrial interests.
To come to the root of our present trouble
then, we repeat, we must have more pop
uLation. To secure this we must force in
to market our idle lands. Our farmers who
hold twice as much land as they work
must sell part of it to good men. Such
men as we referred to in the beginning Of
this article must be forced to sell their land
Their Chinese notions are against public
policy. They are our worst enemies. They
are keeping our people poor and our coun
try depopulated. If we had the power We
would tax all such lands so high that the
selfish, miserly owners would be compelled
to sell part of them. The industrious far
mer now helps pay taxes on these idle
lands. His enterprise and capital is taxed
three times as much as it would be if all
these waste fields were yielding abundant