Nashville union and American. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1868-1875, 1873-09-17
BLOWING BUBBLES.
The Tax QuestIOn-A Review OF Enoch
EnsIey's Scheme.

EnsIey's Scheme.
To the Union and American: ....... -r
Have read "these lines" spreading over
nine columns in your last Weekly-snd had
my laugh. But it is no laughing matter
since the Nashville merchants propose to
scatter 100000 copies of Mr.. Ensley's letter
throughout the State. Memphis will douct-
less do as much, and so We have 100000
copies, one for every voter in the State.
Think of that, ye farmers, now in State
convention.
Is it unnatural to regard this move as
a sequel to the sortie made on the
Constitutional Convention of 1870, and the
attack in force on the last legislature con-
corning the privilege tax? Farmers do not
cluo together and make up pools of few
thousand dollars to sustain lobbyists at the
capitol, and give members oyster aud cham
payne suppers and free drinks and things
worse. Nor do l counsel farmers 10 attempt
the like. 1t is game they don't understand.
What tLey do understand is to vote for men
so honest and honorable that they will net
even accept mild cigar from lobbyist.
THE SOURCE OF ACCUMULATED WEALTH.
All wealth, of Yh'tever nature, results
from the God-given increase Of the seed
committed to the soil. l. is only what the
farmer raises over and above bis own wants
that makes it possible for other men to fol-
low other pursuits. Destroy this surplus,
and Michael Angelo could not carve, nor
Rafael paint, nCr Milton write, nor Gutten-
burg print, nor Watts waste time inventipg
the steam engine. The farmers surplus
buys every other product of labor, and is
the Only source of accumulstiDg wealth,
Mr.. Ensley argues for the "rapid gro WITH OF
cities. Cities cannot increase or even
conserve wealth. They are consum-
ers. For instance, every city, town and
village in Tennessee has doubled in the past
fifteen years-with what result? Are we
better off, or worse? Is our wealth greater?
or has the ratio of its growth been in
creased or diminished by this doubling of
town population?
Bluntly, all the increased wealth that Mr..
Ensley predl Gates Of his cities must be ex-
tracted from the country in some shape.
How, then, can the latter be benefited by
his system? He half peTceiges the fallscy,
and solaces US by promising to stretch ont
the arms of Nashville and Memphis to drain
the farmers of other States.
NEEDFUL CITIES WANTED.
In healthy, self.sustsining State there
must be due proportion OF town popula-
ton for obvious purposes-mainly for va
rious manufactures and the distribution Of
commercial articles. Of commercial distrib-
tors, Tennessee has already more than
enough, thanks to the profits OF the busi-
ness. Of manufacturing towns we have
almost none. Our few mechanics are i'm.
ported, and we are making no new ones.
The number of apprentices in 1873 in our
State is not one-fourth what it was even be-
fore the war. Foreign mechanics with
poor families dependent on their labor, will
not compete with our negro hotches.
Thousands of such have come and gone
from Nashville alone, each year since the
war. We may cry ourselves hoarse about
immigration, but we cannot induce Euro
pean mechanics to regard the negro as we
do, and associate with him in the work
shop. Our only hops lies in native mechan-
les. The young sons of our people who
can afford i. should be sent North to finish
their education--to learn the various arts of
industry and come home to make useful
citizens. 1t does not detract from the high
est classical attainments to be able to build
an engine, make good plow or run match
factory. Peter the Great, Emperor though
he was, did not disdain to work as ship
carpenter. Instead of law and medicine,
let some OF our young men 20 to Northern
fictories, as normal schools in which they
may lesrn to be the teachers of our youth at
home and then We shall have useful man
ufacturing towns which will give the coun-
try some return for the bread they eat.
CREDIT VS.. CASH. - r
We are reminded that Nashville had
S5,O0O,000 banking capital before the war,
while now it has only s1,000,000. We
need only appeal to the Commercial ReUieao
published Sept. !, to show that this $1,000,-
600 is now doing double the work of the
S5,OOO,OO0. Why? Because there was ten
times as much credit before the war. Abol-
ish credit altogether, and money will move
from hand to hand so fast that brokers will
find their avocation gone. Let each nan
stefnly economic till he can "pay as he
goes" and he will be astonishsd at the ease
of the money market,
THE ABOAuNATIoN OF DESOLATION.
Mr.. Ensley's glowing picture ofthe future
Of Memphis, based on the utter ruin of Ar
kansas, Louisiana and Mississippi, is pain
fully amusing. The progress these Safes
have already made toward negro chaos is an
ample eXplauaLlOu VI Iue QulluSSS OF M6hl-
phis business. When that chaos is COM
plete, the doom of Memphis will be sealed.
it can be read in the decay of Kingston and
the Jamaica plantations.
Equally heartless must be the CONNER
cial spirit which unblushiugIy wishes to
reverse nature aud dam the Mississippi
for the psltry benefi. that would accrue to
the masses OF Tennesse from four million
bales of cotton passing cur borders and
building up among US the same terrible
railroad Ilonopolies that have grown out of
the grain traffic Of the West because ihe
West abandoned nature and the Mississippi,
A FAVoRITE FALLACY.
But suppose Me Cphis pFospers according
to Mr.. Ensley's unnatural programme of
fattening on the misfcrtunes Of neigt boring
States-suppcse Memphis attains 100000
population or say 100000. viii its taxes
decreased Nay, all experieT ee warns Us that
its taxes viii. increase in geometrieal ratio.
1t will want parks and monuments and
boulevards snd all the outward signs Of