Clarksville chronicle. (Clarksville, Tenn.) 186?-1872, 1872-04-20
THE CHRONICLE.
TERMS. 81 90 IN ADVANCE.
sATURDAY,.................ApRrL 20, 1877


grave consideration of all interested
in the financial condition of the coun.
ty, and asks some questions involving
nice politics-moral distinctions. 1t
has been argued recently, in our midst,
that an individual would be dishonor-
ed if detected in buying UP his own
paper, at discount, and that a copor-
alton is amenable to the same moral
standard by which individuals are
measured. If this be true, it must fol-
low, as our correspondent will admit,
that the man who otherwise appropri-
ates the money due to another acts
dishonorably because, being in debt,
any money he may have, he holds, only,
as the trustee of his creditor. Any
hope he may entertain, however reas-
enable, that he can, by speculation,
realize enough to pay the whole, in
stead of a portion, of his debt, may
extenuate his conduct in the eye of
charity, but the moral wrong remains
unchanged, even though the specula-
ton may prove eminently successful.
The construction of the moral obliga-
ton of the debtor to.the creditor, we
hold to be strictly correct, but may be
by such considerations as grow
out of the difference between debts due
and to become due in the future. Of
this latter class, is the Railroad debt.
But as the obligation to pay it, is as
binding as though past due, the moral
bearing of the question of the transfer
of the bonds, is merged in the fnan-
cial view Of the subject.
From this point the question emerges
shall we appropriate the bonds we
hold, to the payment of our existing
debt, or reinvest them in another rail-
road project, anticipating from such
discrimination of taxes
and ample means to pay off the whole
debt at maturity. We are told that
the construction of the road to
Princeton will greatly increase the
revenues of the county, by means of
the enhanced value of land, and the
extended market for agricultural and
production. No road has ever
been built that did not greatly benefit
IN the aggregate, the district through
which it passes. But the question,
with our people, is not SO much one of
ultimate and aggregate good, as of i'm
relief from the burdensome
taxation. The wisdom of this view we
shall not now discuss, nor have we any
words ofcensure for those who ask how
much relief they will obtain by paying
tax on land valued at twenty dollars
per acre, which is now assessed at only
ten dollars. Doubling the tax on the
same amount of land looks to the far
mer very much like doubling, instead
of diminishing, his burdens. Of
course, the ultimate advantages of the
increased value being entirely pros
pective, are not appreciated as a means
of present relief to the landholder,
who prefers to avail himself of the
present opportunity, rather than rely
upon the specious promises Of the,
more or less, distant future.
We presume that every man in the
county wishes to sec taeroad built, and
none more earnestly than oursclf, yet
there are hundreds, so wishing, whom
1t wall be difficult to convince that the
project promises more material good
than was anticipated from a similar en-
terprise which proved anything else
than blessing to those who yentured
their money in its consummation. 1t
is not the road, per Sc, that benefits the
country through which it passes, but
the inducements it offers to capital to
come out Of its hiding places and
build up machinery, multiply pop
stimulate latent energies and
develope hidden sources of wealth
The road we have, signally failed to
do this-will the Princeton road un-
earth the buried U. S. Bonds, convert
them into machinery, give employment
to skilled labor and widen the demand
for the products of the farmer? IfI
not the road had better never be built
so far as Clarksville is concerned,
md so long as its slerping capital re-
mains dormant, it has no right to ask
he people of the county to add to
heir burdens, upon the supposition
hat some miraculous intervention
nay do for Clarksville that which its
'wn capital has persistently refused to
10.
If they who are engineering the
Princeton road believe it will do so
much for the financial relief of the
county, let them prove their faith by
aging to the people thereof-"lend us
our bonds-wc will pay the interest
'ou are paying upon them and their
market value when they fall due, or if
ou hereafter like the prospect, you
AN vote them as stock, minus the in
erests we may have paid" These
Jews we have heard expressed by
,arious parties, who lack faith in the
promises held out, as we'll as in the
igures built upon hypothesis and not