Nashville union and American. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1868-1875, 1872-02-11
Manufacturing In Nashville.

! While it is manifest to the most casual
| observer that Nashville presents all the ele-
mentS of successful manufacturing opera
tons, TO the stranger as well as the citizen
Of the place, it is deplorable fact that her
great and manifold advantages have not
! been properly seized.
There is no use in Disgusting the fact that
an exodus of skilled men has been Steadily
going forward for some time, and no use eth
er in Disgusting the fact that their places not
being filed by q similar class of men. We in
the first place enjoy one of the most genial
and healthy climates on the American con-
tinent. We live in an agricultural country
that produces to a lavish extent all Of the
elements Of life, interspersed with all Of the
luXuries. We are approached from every
point Of the compass by OurrailrOad system
that the State has so dearly paid for, but
that now brings us into such close commu-
Mon with our friends from all directions.
We are supplied with fuel ola superior quail
ity from ten or twelve different sources.
We have within reach inexhaustible for
ests of the very finest timber, brought by
raft on the Cumberland and cars on the
railroads. In the woods are oak, elm, ash,
beech, hickory, cedar, black and white
walnut, poplar, gum, cherry, apple, the va
riOuS pines, and other innumerable woods
indigenous TO the soil; and to this fact may
be attributed the undoUbted success that
has hitherto crowned the efforts of our en-
terprising manufacturers of furniture and
agricultural works, chair makers, hub and
spoke factories, etc.
Now, while we can feliCitate ourselves
on the innumerable benefits that Providence
has bestowed, let US not forget the most
important Of all-the vast amount of min
eral wealth that simply waits our attention,
and that silently slumbers in our mountain
ranges and in our valleys, until the miners
pick comes to to disturb its long rest.
Since the time that Tubal Cain first con-
verted the sword into the plOw-share and
reaping-hOOk, there never was time that
called for the full development of the min
eral resources of our State more than now.
1t is a lamcntable fact that the iron in
dustries. are at so low an ebb. With very
few exceptions, all the furnaces on the old
Cumberland are fast going to decay, and
are not operating at all. IL is a lamentable
fact. that all of the machinery that has
been imported during the last five years,
say particularly since the war, has been
imported from other States less favored than
ours. We have large cotton factories, large
chair factories, large agricultural factories,
large furniture factories, large tanneries,
large distilleries, large breweries, all Uery
large concerns, and all the money to
equip these four concerns has been sent
away from Nashville, to enrich other COM
munities, and why? Because we have not
a large machine shop in the town. And
whose fault is this? Certainly not the
hard wOrkngmen who have striven to make
a manufacturing town of this, by hard
work and self-denial and hope for the fu-
ture; nor can it be considered the fault Of
the companies who desire to embark in
manufacturing, for when they cannot get
the machinery necessary here, they have to
90 elsewhere.
1t is the fault of property holders or per-
sons of capital in our midst, who arc too
near sighted to see even their own interest,
and who should aid materially in establish
ing first-class foundries and machine shops
in the city. All the machine shops put to-
gether would not be more than a starting
point for a good shop.
When the Gun Factory, the Jones Agri- !
cultural Shops, the Brennan Works, Ro-
mans Works, Woods Works, Stewart &
Geiger Works, Giles, etc, are all supplied |
with good tools and in a condition to keep |
the work at home instead of sending for |
every saw mill and engine to Cincinnati, |
then and not until then can Nashville be |
regarded as manufacturing tolcn.
HoT BLAST,