The Charleston daily news. [volume] (Charleston, S.C.) 1865-1873, 1873-01-28
A VAIL FROM SAVANNAH.
THE Dismal PROSPECTS OF THE
FOREST CITY.

|
Business Going to Charleston-Des-
truction OF the Factorage and For
warding Interests-How Can the Ship
ment Of Half n Million Bales OF Cot
| ton Support City?
Paul Pry, a correspondent of the Savannah
Advertiser, writes to that paper the following
lugubrious account of the position and pros
poets of the Forest City:
We have lived, or rather managed to "pull
through" the last three years In a delightful
state Of genteel beggary, on the "reminiscences
and fruits of the tour previous years OF COM
paraLve prosperity.
Our city has been talked up and written up,
like Morrison's pills, until we have actually
| believed her to be the most hourlshlpg, lne
most prosperous-the I'll DORADO Oh Che S0uln.
| Her merchants, princes; her bankers, BarlnSs;
her shopkeepers, merchants; her enterprise
unexampled; her muniacence unparalleled
and-colton, king.
We have actually been forced to believe
these things, and that, too, In the face OF per-
sonal pecunisry proofs to the contrary.
We have believed these things each man
thinking that his decay was Individual, not
general; bu. now, when every man discovers
| That his neighbor is as seedy and as much out
pt the elbows as himself, we ere constrained
| to dismiss that belief and come down to plain
facts no matter how CALLING 10 ones prlue or
| how unpelataole to swallow.
AsI remarked In my last, we have beauti-
| ful city, with all the evidences OF progress
Without the realities Of prosperity.
There must be In lividusl action and eXer-
| lion to extricate us from ruin and bankruptcy.
We have got to use our heads and our nands.
| to put our shoulders to the wheel, take on
our coats, put by our kid gloves, and go TO
work vigorously and with will. We must
| teach ourselves economy and retrenchment,
while we impress economy upon the corpora
tIon, live cannot afford shad let us put up
with sturgeon or catfish.
Notwithstanding the heavy taxation, rents
have got to be reduced still further, 80 as to
enable those who are here to remain mere.
Af1uent individuals, who may be cursea !
| with the care or burdeced by the weight OF
too much properly, cannot in the existing
state of things take into consideration that
triflng desideratum, whether II ID a pay
| Ing Investment or not.
They must 90 with the times, and place to
profit and loss the deficiency when tneir wan want
of Judgment, want of prescience and specula-
tion created.
The real value of property In Savannah is,
or ought to be, even less than 1t was previous
| to the war.
Ruinous rents lead to depopulation, and de-
population to the destruction OF landlords, lar
over any Tipperary code.
turn our attention to O retrenchment In mu-
ncipal affairs, and for this purpose 1t Is neces-
sary to place before you synopsis OF the
mayor's report, 80 that you may. see Inc
dangerous ground on which we stand, and can
calculate the odds as to the time oil the nnal
extinction Of the debt, the properly, or-our-
selves.
1.-THE writer charges the city fathers with
dlyertlng $4,000 from the proper purpose,
and accuses them OF extravagant manage
ment. Amongst other things he shows that
the gas costs eighteen dollars lamp more
than in Charleston.l
COTTON IS KING.
Mfr. Editor, 1t Is not that we have too much
CLIQUE, too much Anderson, Loo much
Screyen, or too much Russell, but that we
have too much taxation, too much cotton
cotton on the brain. Startling as may be the
proposition, hold that 1t Is correct, for our ln-
ternal trade has been ruined and sacrlnced oy
sheer neglect We have amongst US class
OF men who are nothing more than birds Oh
passage-mere wayfarers-who contribute
little or nothing to our prosperity. but rather
extract all they make for the benefit OF Europe
or Saratoga.
Thess are some OF the cotton men who are
cracked up as the merchant princes, Wnlle
men like McDonough, Gleason, Arkwright,
This class, who live here and employ laoori
each or any one OF them Is In reality OF greater
benefit and of more use TO Savannah than
half dozen of these cotton men comoined.
BANKS
generally receive charter for their existence,
under the supposllion that they are to be the
means Of assisting commerce aud developing
the resources of the city or town 10 Wnlch
lbey are located. In Savannah our banks
ignore anything outside OF cotton. Instead
Of being got up for the public benefit, they
are procreated by clique-emanssion ior the
benefit OF themselves. We nave, therefore,
bauks got up for the suslenance of bank drec-
tors and their cotton friends, and ban ksrs
who don't understand either the first princi.
Piles OF banking or the rudest outlines OF po-
Iilical economy.
Let me show how banking In the cotton
season is carried on. A friend OF mine engaged
in wholesale business required few huA-
dred dollars, and for this purpose sent to
certain bank iour or FIVE small notes having
from ten to twenty days to run for discount.
Now, not man on any OF these bills but was
as solvent as the vce-presdent or that bank.
The bills were returned with the Dundreary
in,imaion, "That we.ah, don't-ah, do-ah,
anythipg-ah, undah hunda !" This Ia bank
inc with a vengeance. Why, sir, these kind
OF bills are the true and proper ones that all
bankers with banking knowledge will greed
lly take In preference to. putting all their eggs
into one basket. But this is always the case
where you see fellows who have only yester-
day got from behind q bar and are more con-
yersant with mixing liquors than managing
finances.
These men forget that they were ever poor
themselves, they forget that honest Industry
should be sustained and encouraged, and that
the prosperity of city is 10 the deVel llpment
of her resources, In the promotion OF manu-
facturGs and the assistance OF her traders, and
that their prosperity adds to the prosperity OF
themselves.
THE CENTRAL RAILROAD.
Imperceptibly our business has been drawn
from us By an undertow, and Charleston, Ma
con, Augusta and Atlanta are thriving at our
expeuse.
That anaconda, the Central Railroad, has
wound her coils around ns until we are almost
In the last stage Of strangulatlon, and unles,
strong steps are taken there will be nothing
lett of Savannah but the Central Railroad de.
pot and its wharf, and therefore proper NUM-
clpal legislation is necessary TO correct this.
Our tactorage interest is destroyed.
Our forwarding interest Is destroyed.
Our internal trade extends only between the
Ogeechee and Yamacraw.
Our drayage interest Is destroyed.
The Central Railroad has purchased proper
ty in Macon; the workshops of Savannah have
been removed to Macon to enhance the value
of that property, aud now we are called upon
to bniId bridges across the Canal. For what
To cut our own throats.
We have four hundred houses at the pres
ent moment TO let.