Clarksville weekly chronicle. (Clarksville, Tenn.) 1873-1890, 1873-03-29
NORTH AND SOUTH RAILROADS,

we KNOW tnat no paper IN 1enneS-
see, wants more earnestly to see our
State developed and commercially in
dependent than the GAINESVILLE CHRoN-
ICLE, and we are persuaded that it
will not Intentionally discourage any
progressive movement, no matterwhere
it originates, that is calculated to aid
the good work"
We clip the above from the Nash
vile Journal of Commerce, and whilst
we thank the Journal fo- doing simple
justice to our intentions, we are not
willing to remain silent under the del
icate imputation that we are opposed
TO the building of southern Railroads,
or that we do not appreciate their value
as commercial facilities. In all that
we have written on this subject, we
have had but two fixed points in view
The one is. that tits impolitic, in the
Southto buildroads thatitcannotafford
to hold, and run Independent ofnorth-
ern monoplies-the other is, that the
money expended upon roads now in
the hands of such monopolies, by lease
or purchase, if expended in the cree
ton of much needed factories, the
South would now be far more indie
pendent, commercially, and richer in
material resources thanit bids fair to be
for years to come. Among the many
efforts to place US in false position
that Of being opposed to southern rail-
roads, per se-we have yet to see the
first attempts to prove the fallacy of
these positions, except in the case of
the Journal of Commerce which says
on this point:
If northern enterprise and capital
are quicker than ours, to appreciate
our advantages, it should only spur us
forward. If they will cooperate with
us, and take the chances of legitimate
commerce with us we should meet
them halfway"
But if it does not spur us forward"
what then? We contend that flour
people-our enterprise and capita"
are not quick enough to appreciate our
advantages" it is unwise to encourage
them to pursue policy that will for
felt those advantages ere the lesson
of appreciation has been learned. As
well might afather encourage his mi
nor son to trade with sharper upon
the supposition that he will become a
shrewd trader by the time he has
nothing to trade on. A large majority
of the southern people are minors in
comparison with the shrewd Railroad
and Manufacturing rings of the North,
which being soulless and unscruplous,
will not be content to take :" the chan
ces of legitimate commerce with us,
but will take the whole commerce in
accordance with prearranged pro-
gramme. This is the standpoint from
which We view the subject, and that we
cannot be far wrong in the opinions
heretofore expressed, in reference to
the dangers the South has to appre-
bend in building roads for Tom Scott
We append the following warning given
Us by Henry Ward Beecher:
You stand in the city of New York
to-day, and look southwark. and you
shall see that great railroad corpora
ton, the Pennsylvania road, with a
capital now. directly and through its
connecting branches, of hundreds and
hundreds of millions of dollars and
you look a little further to the
North and see the Erie Railroad with
capital of hundreds of millions of
dollars, still further to the North you
see the New York Central, with cap
ital of hundreds of millions of dol
lars. Now, let there Come up ques-
ton of national politics which touches
the railway interests so that these great
roads join their hands and their capt.
tai, what power is there on this CONT
nent that could for a moment resist
them? We have a disguised despot
among us. We have tyrant that is
more tyrannical in possibility in the
future than ever slavery was Slavery
is dead, but Mammon stands in its
place to-day, and there is no legisla-
ture that exists on this continent that
could not be crushed or bought by the
combinations of such vast treasures as
are held in the hands of only three
central roads.
If Beecher be correctin his estimate
of the power of these monopolies, and
if he be correct in his opinion that
Legislatures can be bought, who can
forsee their influence, for evil, in every
State'whose roads have been leased or
sold to them? Under one guise or
another, they can procure such legisla-
ton as will make the roads we have
built, the agencies through which our
commercial and political dependence
may be indefinitely prolonged. 1t is
in view of the danger pointed out in
the above extract, that we would dis
courage the building of roads which
the South cannot hold, in the face of
the power centered in monopolies, to
force their ruin by competition.
We do not question the correctness
of the position assumed by the Jour
nal of Commerce, that if southern
producers, merchants and manufac-
lures would combine work with the
same earnestness they work individu-
ally, we could successfully compete
with any section or nation"
Buff they will not combine, must
we encourage them to persist in pol
icy that will ensure their ruin before
they learn the wisdom of cooperation
and the folly of playing into the hands
of their destroyers We think it far
wiser and more patriotic TO urge the
opening of mines, the erection of fac
tories and the development of agricul-
ture as the shortest road to wealth and
political power without which there is
no escape from vassalage. There are
roads enough already leadingto north
ern ports, TO accommodate the ruinous
trafic in that direction; but if we must
build others, let them be our own and
run in the interests Of southern ports