Knoxville daily chronicle. [volume] (Knoxville, Tenn.) 1870-1882, 1872-06-04
WHAT IS NEEDED.

We occasionally hear the remark, " If
East Tennessee is SO good a country as it is
claimed to be, why is it that its natural re-
sources have not been developed?n We
answer that it has been for the lack of cap
ital and properly directed enterprise. Our
iron and coal mines, our marble and lime
stone quarries, our fertile land, our unsur-
passed water power, and our forests Of fine
timber have never been of much adYan-
tage to us until recently, for the reason
that we have not had the capital to convert
the raw material into such articles as we
need for use and for expectation. We are
sorry to add that our people have never eX-
hibited a spirit of enterprise of such a
character a. to attract capital toward our
section.
We have not enjoyed the advantages of
railroad communication for IL very great
length of time. Our railroads have been
completed only few years previous to the
war. During the four years of the late
desperate struggle East Tennessee was
almost constantly occupied bye large, ac-
tive, hostile armies, which consumed our
substance, laid waste our fields, burned
the railroad bridges and used up the roll
ing stock Of the roads. At the end of the
war these roads were put i'll a condition as
soon as possible, to accommodate the COM
mercial necessities of the country, and
ever since we have steadily progressed.
Property in many localities is worth two
and three times as much as it sold for at
that time. New industries have sprung
up i'll different parts of East Tennessee,
and we fiatter ourselves that we are enter
ing upon an era OF prosperity, which is to
result in our section taking its stand along
side of our more prosperous, and i'll some
respects. more highly favored sister states.
But still we need capital. We want
more railroads, and we want more iron
and coal mines and more quarries opened.
We want capital to properly cultivate and
replenish our fields. Not one farmer in
ten has sufficient capital to stock his
farm and to improve it, so as to make it
yield anything near what it should yield.
With few hundred thousands invested
IN completing unfinished railroads and
opening these mines which are now being
worked on a comparatively small scale,
East Tennessee would become the wealth
lest section i'll the Union. The completion
OF the roads insures the opening of the
mines and the erection of the manufac-
tories OF every character. The opening of
these mines and the erection of manufac-
tories will prove such all incentive to that
class of our people engaged in agricultural
pursuits, that farmers will redoubIe their
eff ,rts, and our country will certainly
blossom as the rose" To US capital is
everything. To be sure there must be en-
ergy and judicious expenditure of means,
but we think these will follow as one of
the results.
Knowing that capital is what we need,
We invite emigration, as the best means
OF securing it. Every stranger who comes
Among us sees our natural advantages,
and will direct his efforts toward their de-
Velopment. The man of large means will
see 4 field in the coal and iron mines,
Forests, water power, &C., for profitable in