Whig and tribune. [volume] (Jackson, Tenn.) 1870-1877, 1872-01-20
why and How Railways EhrIeI.
Farmer.


1t is demonstrated that Tennessee
owesto its railway system, imperfect
as it is, quite one hundred millions
.ofmoney. We see and know and
admit the fact, but the question is
asked, how do railways work such
miracles? There is but one answer
ssthe cost of TRANSPORTATION is less
ened and the sums thus ANNUALLY
saved are added TO the value ofland
which is incapable of locomotion,''
The Memphis and Louisville and
Memphis and Charleston roads have
absolutely lifted up Judge Jones
farm, fifteen miles distant, and de-
posted it within a mile of its mar
ket-place. As the value of prodae-
tions on a farm increase, so with the
actual value of the farm. Whatever
is saved in. theCost oftFansporfation
of these products is so much added
to the real value of the EARN. If one
acre of Judge Jones' farm produce
fifty bushels of corn and 1t cost him,
as was the case twenty-five years
ago, fifty cents per bushel to shove
it through the mud to Memphis, his
land was of course taxed SIS per
acre every year. Suppose it cost
him an annual tax of ten cents per
acre to build railways, it is wholly
impossible that he should complain.
On the contrary he would have all
his nefehbors enriched and blessed,
as he has been. lie would build
more roads. He is conscious that
when one man IN a community
grows rich, his neighboFs follow IN
bis footsteps. A single energetic,
progressive, daring spirit has often
Fevolutiohized a vilIage, aneighbor-
hood, county or city, even as Gene
raj Gaines, Governor JOnos, and
| Mcmahon and McCIanahan infused
into Memphis daring purposes that
would have been consummated long
| ago if war had not thwarted the
| wisest plans ever devised by patri-
| Otism and true statesmanship.
But reUeH0r a nos n0atOR-to re
| turn TO the corn question (; if il cost
only ten cents, instead of fifty cents.
| to move Judge jones' corn to mar
ket, he would only pay annually a
transportation tax Ofifive dollars per
acre, and his annual profits, given bv
railways, would be twenty dollars
| per acre. Therefore il IS That the
! judges land is doubled inactual val
ne by railways already built, Thc
| land may produce no. more than
| twenty-five years ago. but these pro-
/ ducts are worth more. .Hhe Judge
| does not lose annually, as in the OIL
den time, the value ola wagon and
| team, or destroy servants value
each year in transferring the pro-
| ducts of his toll fifteen miles TO mar
ket. Ii stock investment pays an
nually six per cent, or six hundred
| dollars, and is worth par, and 1t at
forwards pay twelve per cent, the
| investment is doubled in value. The
farm is stock inYestmentrin rail-
/ road. The farmer draws the diVi-
| dends, though the war made the
eounty's shares in railroads almost
valueless. - The farm produces no
more'per acre, but the profits on
these products are doubled.
Moreover, corn and cotton are not
| the only articles made valuable BY
| railways. Products formerly inca
pable of paying the cost of transport
tation are now saleable, and thus
the value of lands is augmented, and
it is a real, enduring, absolute and
| practical value. The forest. the
field, the mine, all depend for intrin-
sic value upon cheap systems OF
transportation aud, therefore, it is 4
confessed faet-cOnfessed by all in
telligent communities in America
and EurOpe-that if shareholders in
railroads derive no moneyed divi-
dends from railway investments
they are still enriched by them
APPeal. ga. ..tat