Whig and tribune. [volume] (Jackson, Tenn.) 1870-1877, 1873-03-01
Railroad. ana nanurae,0rle..

una
We have always been jealous ad-
vocates of public improvements in
Tennessee, and, especially, of rail-
roads, but recently, we have had
our studying cap on, and are not so
sure but that we have made a great
mistake in applying so much of our
means and credit to the neglect of
manufactures. The fact that north
ern capitalist are ready enough to
furnish us with money to build rail-
roads, with their noses pointing
northWaFds, but shut their money
bags as close as an oyster when any
thing is said about doing the same
for manufactures has set us to
thinking. There must be good rea-
sons back of this. ShreWd capitalists
don't act without sufficient reasons
for their course. Now every one
would, build Cotton Mills at home,
side by side with the cotton fields,
and manufacture goods cheaper than
a mill owner in Maine or Massachu-
settsT. who pays freight to his mills.
We of the South, in the end, pay
freight both ways, after it returns to
us in the shape of cloth and other
fabrics. Besides, it is well known
that the mildness of the Southern
climate gives the home manufactu-
rers = very large percentage of ad-
vantage, in the saving of fuel, and
in the cheapness of the living of the
operators. The Northern capitalist
knows all these things and hence
il is his manifest interest to discour-
age enterprises of the kind and
make the profits himself. We are
not blaming him; we have no fault
to find with him, for. he is merely
obeying the laws of self interest,"
We only want our people to do the
same thing and make their own pro-
fits at home. And we begin to think
that we have Overdone ourselves in
the matter of railroads, and neglec-
ted to give our attention and means
to the erection of mills, and machine
shops, and other manufacturing in
terests. Railroads, alone, will not
make us rich; they will only make us
the poorer, unless we Join with them
other industries; unless we take our
crude products aud transform them
into something more valuable. Our
fields TEEN with cotton and tobacco:
our mountains are filed with iron,
copper, lead, slate, marble and vari-
cites of valuable metals. Our for
ests with the most useful and adap-
table timbers; coal abounds suffici-
emily to drive all the machinery of
the world for a thousand years, and
with all of these splendid adVanta-
ges, we have scarcely made 3 begin
ming in the industrial arts. We are
content to go on from year TO year,
paying tribute to others of greater
energy and thrift than we are, and
aiding them by additional lines of
railroads to haul away that surplus
we accumulate. Ii is true that here
and there, throughout the South, we
have a mandatory, but few to
the vast wants and resources of the
| country They only tell the tale of
our want of wisdom as they stand
solitary and alone, q few dozens
scattered over a half continent.
| If one tenth of the vast sums that
we of the South have spent on rail-
| roads, had been expended in manu-
factories of various kinds, adapted
to our wants, what a different con-
dition of affairs there would be
among US, at this day. Had we not
better hereafter ''go slow'' in the
railroad questions, and a little fas-
ter on home manufactured Gala
Tin ErumineT