The Columbia herald. [volume] (Columbia, Tenn.) 1850-1873, 1872-03-01
me Iron Interests Of 1entS6neFJ
-. ni ..''' County. :. ? ~


g' ..-' County. l'f'D ~
The table which we published some
weeks ago showed our iron interests
on the Cumberland to have been lanRe
in 1850. There were tvsnty-ons fun.
naces, nine FORCES and two rolling
mills, employing capital Of 81, 216, coo
with yearly products valued at s., $40
600. -. NJ, - ~
These iron establishments employed
1906 hands, consuming yearly /, 49,
600 barrels of pork. which, at ten
cents per pound would be SAG, 600;
$4,000 barrels of corn at $500 per bar
rel, S75, 600. They dug up out Of the
ground $1,673, 600 per annun, and
1921 900 Of it they distributed in the
simple items of pork aud corn; making
on estimate of hundreds employed ont
side of those who were merely furnace
hands employed in hundred 'ways
by reason of this great work being car
ried on, not estimating the mules,
horses, and hundreds Of other things
needed and bought besides pork and
corn. 1t might be safely assumed that
they gave employment directly or indi-
rectly to hundreds of men outside Of
their immediate hands. So that We
might safely estimate the market fur
nished to farmers in the Cumberland
river region at $500 men consuming
products of the soil and not producing
them. a1lae Ea- ~ Luaaa-a
GAINESVILLE was headquarters of the
iron interest, and may be 80 again.
Montgomery county shared largely in
the advantages of selling her product
ions in home market, saving the
freight to distant markets. 5ad ~.
The iron is still there, and of the
very best Quality. Those Who engaged
in that bushes, hardly skinned the
surface, leaving the great deposits OF
fine ore untouched.
By proper effort We may have these
furnaces, FORCES and rolling mills again
in operation, and these interests de-
veloped to larger proportions than
they ever assumed before, under the
stimulus of proper railroad connec-
tions, furnishing an outlet to the iron
regions, and cheap coal, we may see
every acre in our county brought into
| reauisition to furnish supplies for our
own home market of miners and man.
ufacturers, and operatives in the fur
naces, FORCES, and rolling mills, the
nail factories, machine shops, and
boiler works, that will spring up in
our county, and in the surrounding
region; for lying SO near, we are al
most as much intererested in the de-
velopment of the poor counties in
which the iron lies as in our own.
With railroad connection, Dickson and
Hickman would be our best markets,
with full development of their capac-
ity for making iron. ,GL
Following in the development OF
these interests, mining and manufac-
turing, would come q new laboring
population, and in that way, alone,
can we hope for regeneration of our
labor system. If it were to their In
terest to come they would come now.
By what change can we hope to make
them come, if not some such one as we
suggest. Anything that will make us
q prosperous thriving community will
bring capital and labor, but what Other
change can be suggested? Neither
labor or capital ever did or ever will.
flow into languishing and backward
country, plodding along with declining
in terests, with a farming community
barely supporting life. Labor and
capital go to live, rising countries,
where everything is prosperous and
growing. -s.-
five can suppose manufactures to
be built, and that our people, by then
own unaided efforts and their own en-.
ergies will build mp our languishine
interests, and make our county q live
thriving county, with plenty Of money
where men can readily make moro thar
they can elsewhere, we grant capita
and labor will come; but how can it b.
done? We have all the energy We ear
have in the future without some new
stimulus; we have all the capital We
can have hereafter, without some ele
ment to bring us capital more than VI
have at present. Our crops are not in
creasing, and on them we rely nov
almost solely for money. The surplus
corn, tobacco, pork and wheat consti
tutes our sole capital, and unless tha
production can be increased, or unless
that production can be increased, OF
unless we can save in freights by max
ing a home market. or by greater facil
tiles for reaching market, we canno'
hope for increase of capital. Hence
we cannot hope for relief internally.
Then we contend that we must apply
a stimulant, and such help from
abroad, with new railroads bringing
first few men, and then more and
more, establishing firm one and ther
another branch of industry. Aiding
by small beginnings, by enterprises
gradually enlarging and rising II
Importance.
Some talk of leaving the railroad ia,
on our children: we are in great dan
ger of leaving them a worse heritage
Of leaving them o country to live il
bankrupt in all the means OF iveh
hood, with q ruined labor system and
broken down farming interests. Pause
and see if in an unwise prejudice
against railroads you may notbe blind
~ looking at the one dollar you ar
about to pay over rather than at tht
ten You may hereafter get in: If you an
not unwise1y prefering your own pres
emit good to that of your children, Ct
even to your own future good.-To
bacco Leaf.
The Rothschild Partnership.