The Bolivar bulletin. [volume] (Bolivar, Hardeman County, Tenn.) 1865-1888, 1874-05-01

than that of all taxation to which this
inaccessible county is subjected Such
facts peftaiA to each of the interior
eoEnti-s designated
WEALTH OF COUNTIES
The counties through which It is pro-
posed to bald this rsad ara as rich or
produce as much annually as apy equal
I number of counties penetrated BY any
Memphis railway, and in diversity of
products these far excel al others Ia
Tennessee. They produce eighty thoe.
sand bales of cotton. In this estimate
the crop of Shelby county is not incIud-
| ed. They produce seven million Eve
| hundred and fifty nine thousand six hunA
! bred and sizty-fige bushels of corn, six
hundred and forty~ive thousand seven
hundred and ten bushels of wheat. nine
million four hundred and sixtv.three
| thousand nine hundred and sixty-two
dollars worth Of lise stock. This eheap
| railway therefore gives Memphis access
| to the great granary provision and stores
house Ofthe State. These products will
grow with wonderful rapidity whez pro-
! duetion is stimulated by ready MAJ ket
and cheap transportation. Not only will
the cheapest food be given our cities by
means of this highway, but there are
| inexhaustible iron fields whence ores,
the most valuable known to commerce,
may be drawn
COMPETITION WITH BROAD GAUGE ROADS.
Roads We now have are forced By
competition with other lines to reduces
through rates of charges to a mini
mum, aud local rates are augmented tC
make up losses 1t thus often costs as
| little to send package one thousand
| miles toward New York as one hundred
miles from New York, between remote
| towns and villages premium is thus
offered for trade by railroads in favor of
eastern cities and against those of this
| valley. 1t is worse than absurd to ask
| congressional intervention; it Is the per-
! lection of wisdom to relieve ourselves by
| our own cxertiODs Bnild competing
narrow. gauge roads, and those mere
costly must make the same rates of
| charges with the cheaper roads One
narrow gauge road leaving Memphis and
ending at Fayetteville will reduce, per-
haps, one-half rates of freight and travel
/ charges on oyery road entering Menu
| phis. The Memphis and Ohio road
would be forced to lessen its charges,
and so with the Memphis and Charleston
road, or lose all local business that could
reach the narrow-gauge line, and when
these prices on these roads were lessen
| ed, other roads would be compelled to
make like reductions of rates.
AUGMENTED TRADE.
At this time the whole trade of Har-
deman, Madison, Henderson, NcNairy,
Decatur and Hardin counties, the re-
hottest of these within one hundred
miles cf Memphis. is appropriated by
more distant, more fortunate, or more
enterprising cities Al this vast wealth
may be secured by Memphis by trihing
expenditure IN behalf of this narrow.
gauge road. At least thirty thousand
cotton bales, produced annually on this
side of the Tennessee, that are now
shipped TO remoter cities, would be
brought hither. Every branch of bust
ness in the city would recognize the in
pulse given its energies by such an ac~
cession of commercial force. H0w de-
sir ible it may be is best comprehended
by those who have inquired must care
fully into the extent of losses the COM
meTce of Memphis must sustain because
of floods low desolating the lOwlands.
GENERAL FACTS.
1t is enough to say that this one road
would reduce rates 81 freight toward
Memphis from twenty-five to GftY per
cent on two great comI citing broad
gauge roads, and thus turn backward to-
ward Memphis, the whole cOuntry's eu>
| tire wealth, within one hundred miles
of Memphis, now drawn toward New
York. This cheap railway would do
| this much more for Memphis, because of
Its very chespness, than any ever pro-
posed to be built, and, therefore, / only
the people and town AID counties along
I, the lire from Memphis to Bolivar and
Fayetteville, will be enriched, but every
village and county of western Tennessee
must confess direct benefaetions, when
Cheapness and adhesion to home inter
ests, on the part of the great broad gauge
lines, are made compulsory.
TIE INVESTMENT as SUCH
Most Tennessee railways have been
pro6tless, as investme nts They cost
too much per lineal mile for the density
of population per square mile The gross
earnings of the \ ashviile and Chatta
DoOga railroad per mile, ia 1870, were
1927, IT; of the Memphis and Charles
ton, for 1870. S5695,1l Despite these
great gross. earnings the net earnings
were very small, and for the reason that
! operating expenses of broad-gauge roads
| are enormous. A road through the rich
!
Memphis t. Fayetteville, would make
as much as the Nashville and Cbatta-
| n0oga or the Memphis and Char lesion
! railroad The gross earnings would
therefore be $685., per mile, on a cap'
ital Of $3.50, 900 (the narrow<gauge
costing $I5, 900 per mile.) Fifty per
cent. of gross earnings pays all costs
and expenses Of narrow-gauge roads.
The earnings TO Pulaski would be
1861 OPS, after operating expenses are
deducted. Ten per cent upon the en-
tire cost of the road would be only
S2S5, 900; and thus if this road SHOULD
only do half the business of the Mem
phis and Charleton, its net earnings
would be $270,5l2, or more than nine
per cent on its entire cost.
Row TO BUILD THE Road.
This is the most important inquiry
and most difficult of solution. A subs
scription f one-ffth of the land within
five miles OF the road would build and
equip it, and yet it would add surely
more than one-fifth to the value Of each
acre retained by land owners. Land
transferred 10 the railroad company
would be sold to immigrants who would
draw others after them and multiply
produr Subscriptions in labor may
be made and farmers execute contracts
as road builders, when crops do not de-
mand attention Merchants subscrip>
tions may be discharged in supplies
furnished the company. A subscrip-
ton of one dollar per acre for each acre
within four miles of the road would
furnish five thousand one hundred and
Wenty dollars per mile, or enough to
| nranara tho rood Rod far iron raj IN he