Whig and tribune. [volume] (Jackson, Tenn.) 1870-1877, 1873-09-27
Jackson should be a Wholesale
Market.

Transportation and capital makes the
wholesale market. These combined have
brought obscure places into prominence,
overcome obstacles of location, indeed have
made, what is commonly called "advant.
ages Of location" Any town that has
several lines Of railway transportation pen
etrating productive and f1ourishing dis.
triets and is sufficiently isolated from
larger cities to WELD the advantages and
conYeniences Of short distances and time,
can, with capital, build up respectable
and permanent wholesale trade with the
smaller towns around her. These are facts
which the history Of KNOXVILLE and of
Atlanta very forcibly illustrate and suffi-
eiently for the purposes Of this article
Neither Of these tlourishing interior cities
enjoy river or canal transportation, but are
purely railroad towns and the creations of
the numerous little streams of trade that
now into their bosOms from the surround
ing country. Neither are metropolitan;
they are not the rivals OF Cincinnati, Louis
willie or Baltimore, Of Savannah or Charles
ton; the area Of their commerce does not
embrace States, but Counties, and yet they
are fiOurishing cities with populations of
fifteen and twenty thousand, and with
futures that defy local rivalry and are I'M
Swallowed By the colossal but distant cities
around them. The success Of these rep
resentative cities of the Southern interior
was attained by employing and developing
all the means placed in their reach by the
railroad facilities which they enjoyed
Early in their railroad history capital was
brought to bear upon their commerce,
wholesale houses, representing every
branch of trade were opened, small mer-
chants in the smaller towns around them, |
soon found it to their interest to trade |
nearer home, and ere long Knoxville and /
Atlanta become the centers of rich COM !
merce, the chief cities of large districts Of
country and too large and rich for local
rivalry. The peer of knoxville and At
lanta 1t is IN the power OF Jackson to be-
come, and that at an early day, if she viii |
but use the means that nature and fortune
has placed in her grasp. Within radius
Of forty miles the country is exceedingly
rich and prosperous, and developing in
degree unprecedented in Southern history.
Two great trunk lines of railway running
North and South, forming competing lines
South, East and West, and competing con-
nections with the East and West RAILROAD
system cross here, affording fine transpor-
tatiOn facilities and cheap freights in and
out. Up and down both lines for a long
way, and out into the interior, is 3 large
and remuneratIys trade that might be GEN.
tered at jackson, just as the trade OF East
Tennessee and North Georgia were conferred
at Knoxville and Atlanta If the right effort
Is made in the right way. Already fair
business is done by Jackson along the line
of these roads and within their reach, in
groceries, liquors, hardware and furniture,
but these can and should be greatly increa-
sed, and other branches Of wholesale
trade established. All that Jackson needs
to compass this great end is capital WELD
ed by bold, comprehensive, but discreet
men. If our grocery, liquor, hardware
and furniture dealers will enlarge
their capital and redouble their efforts
TO control the merchant trade or the
smaller towns within their reach, their
business will multiply itself five times
within two years. iC competent men of
capital will open here Il wholesale dry
goods, clothing, notion and millinery store,
a wholesale boot, shoe and hat house, also
a china and qUeensware house, and make
an earnest EFFORT for the rich trade that lies
so invitingly at our door, Jackson will soon
become an important wholesale market and
the commercial center OF large district OF
Such houses would make money
here from the very start, and the opening, 4
in the judgment of the soundest minds IN
the City, is one of the most inviting offered
by any interior city South or West. All
that is needed is capital; capital sufficient
to purchase the goods, offer the induce
ments to the trade and control the oppor-
tunity. The tree is here, its branches are
and laden with rich, full ripe
fruit, and all we need are husbandmen with
ample resources TO gather and preserve.