Knoxville weekly chronicle. [volume] (Knoxville, Tenn.) 1870-1875, 1872-05-01
SOBER FACTS FOR OUR PEOPLE.

A correspondent writes to als and says
" the CHRoNIcLE Is doing noble work IN
diffusiug valuable information about East
Tennessee and in inspiring our people to
new courage and hopes, but why don't you
write more about manufacturing That
will build us up more than anything
else"
We answer TO this in the first place,
that we think we have devoted q
very reasonable amount of our time
and space to encouraging manufac-
turing enterprises. But we do not be-
lieve cur only hope lies in that direction.
On the contrary, we believe such enter
prises must go hand in hand with popula-
ton and wealth. And this affords us an
opportunity to repeat what we have here
tofore said on this subject. We feel that
the great need of East Tennessee Is more
population, more work and more capital.
If we can secure these, manufacturing en-
terprises will certainly follow. There
seems to us 20 he popular delusion on
the subject of manufacturing. Many per-
sons think you can put an engine
and machinery to work anywhere
and draw around it population and
general prosperity. On the contrary,
ulation and general prosperity 80 sus-
tain manufacturing interests. Let us look
at this question practically. The railroad
from Bristol to Chattanooga is 240 miles
long. Including Knoxville and Chatta-
nooga, there are two cities in all this terri
tory. Our readers can get on train of
cars at Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, travel
westward through northern Ohio 24O miles
and pass through ten such cities as Chat
tanooga and Knoxville and twenty or
thirty growing towns like Greeneville and
Cleveland. What makes the difference
If they will stop at any one of those
Ohio towns and go out into the country,
they wsll find almost every tillable acre of
ground In cultivation. Instead of large
farms of three and six hundred acres they
will find any number of farms of eighty
acres, the majority of them probably one
hundred and sixty acres and but few as
large as three hundred acres. The result is,
instead Of large farms half worked, fences
down, stumps in the field, barns and
houses out of repair and homes unin-
viting, they would find small farms
tUeH tc0rkcd. Instead of farmers overwork-
ed and behind in pocket they find thrifty
farmers all prospecting. AS might be ex-
pected, people are more numerous there,
farms more valuable and farmers more pros
porous. Such country draws manufac-
turing enterprises naturally. 1t doesn't
need coaxing to get shops there, on the
contrary in their anxiety to serve such a
population they become too numerous.
Here, then, is our error. We want
more farmers and better farming. In
other words, we want more population
and more acork in East Tennessee. We
want our large, half-worked farms divid-
ed. We need to sell some of our idle
land cheap to some industrious, enter
prising farmers who will come and join
hands with us to put US up on the firm
basis of a better and more profitable sys-
tenn of farming. We might even afford to
give away some of our land to get it work.
ed and to bring more labor and capital iu-
to the country. A large population
of good, thrifty farmers would make
East Tennessee perfect gardsu spot.
When we once get these, we need nave no
fears about manufacturing establishments
They will come then without our inviting
them. Men who have thousands to invest
in shops are sharp enough to find out
where their ventures will pay. We want
them, of course, and mean to work for
them, as We have always done, by invit-
ing their attention to our section, but we
also want more farmers with strong arms
and stout hearts, to fill our rivers with
boats laden with produce, our railroads
with freights and our cities and towns
with merchants and artisans. Every new
farmer that comes to East Tennessee is a
round in our ladder, upon which we can
climb to wealth and happiness. Will not
our people help US and all Others in en-
couraging this class to make East Tennes-
see their home?