Clarksville weekly chronicle. (Clarksville, Tenn.) 1873-1890, 1873-03-08
RAILROADS.

Amid the din of preparation, on the
part of northern capitalists, to pene-
trate the South with Railroads and
canals. how few southern men pause
to enquire, for whose good? Is phi
lanthropy one of the motives suggest
ing these multiplied means of inter-
communication? Is Tom Scott build
ing the Southern Pacific Railroad for
the benefit of the South? 1t is true
that he and his hackers harp loudly,
upon its development of our resources
and thus cheat many into the belief
that the motive is unselfish and the
end the aggrandizement of the South.
We admit that such would be the re-
suit. were our people shrewd enough
TO raise and manufacture all that they
need and to dispose of any surplus in
the best market, whether foreign or
domestic.
But the Yankees know us better
than we know ourselves. They know
that southern men are ignorant of
their true interests, that they have
neither the will nor the enterprise nor
the patriotism to make their own vel
fare the aim and end of wise policy
and well-directed efforts. Hence the
purpose of the North to foster a sys-
TEN of internal communication that
may develope the resources of the
South and through which commercial
channels. those resources. as fast as
developed, will assuredly be poured
into the lap of the North. The wealth
of the North is mainly derived from
manufactures and high tariffs. For
those manufactures the South has
furnished the most valuable raw ma
terial and has enhanced its value to
the North, by becoming the liberal
consumers of the fabrics at an enor-
nous profit to the manufacturer. 1t
is Yankee knowledge that southern
folly will indefinitely prolong this sui
cidal policy which has suggested the
building of railroads.&c. pointing to
some prominent northern city, whilst
nothing is said, except incidentally, of
termini on the Southern seabOard.
The Southern Pacific Railroad was
STAYED off by a northern Congress,
until its construction became ques-
ton of time only. The terrible snow
embargoes which so effectually prevent
freightand travel during the interim
nable winters of the latitude of the
northern Pacific, demonstrated to
shrewd capital that the Southern Pa
cifc must become tie reliable link be-
tween the two oceans. This gave an
additional impetus to the construc-
ton of the southern route, and no
sooner had it become a fixed fact than
movements were set on foot TO tap it
at many points so as to intercept the
commerce that ought to belong to New
Orleans and drain it off into St. Louis,
Chicago and other northern cities
This southern road under the Credit
Mobilier policy and manipulation of
the Railroad ring, of which Tom Scott
is the representative, bids fair, like
every other southern institution, to
become eminently northern in charac-
ter and interest and equally depletive
of southern prosperity.
Notwithstanding the indisputable
facts which go to prove the cOrrec-
ness of our theory, southern towns
and counties glory in the opportunity
to vote appropriations for roads that
are designed to make the South still
more tributary to northern wealth and
still more abiect in its poverty and
political bondage. We do not cen
sure the North for its policy because it
is characteristic as we'll as instructive;
but we do censure the people of the
South for their voluntary contribu
tions to a section from which it has
received so much wrong and insult.