Nashville union and American. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1868-1875, 1874-01-27


. interest and importance to the country.
and worthy Of consideration at all
times. Whatever may be thought or
/ said to the contrary, they constitute
the arterial system of the entire indus
trial organism of the nation. Without
them the population, varied pursuits of
the masses and the general prosperity
manifest throughout the broad domain
of the States would be nowhere as COM
pared with the present growth and de-
velopment. What if clamor and COM.
/ plant have been provoked IN certain
sections toward that class of roads
built by spectators and monopolists
from the proceeds of huge land grants,
and controlled in their special interests
because of their extortiohs and op-
pressions-roads in which the people
profess no interest IN common as Joint
owners and managers, IN other sections
where roads were built by the people,
with their own means and now con-
trolled by them. these complaints are
less audible. Yet, however Just this
0utery, and excusable this public indig-
nation, these and much more of similar
tenor and spirit, would nor can be valid
arguments against the utility and ad-
vantage, the incalculable value and
convenience of a properly managed
system Of railway.
In their place and the purposes for
which they are designed, railroads are
as essential to the common veal as a
country wagon on the highway or a
| horse to cultivate the soil. With
out them the populations of
New York and Philadelphia would
starve-our poor, lean, half paid con-
gressmen go with empty stomachs
long before supplies from distant re-
gions could reach them by any other
means than railways. The oxen and
mules would consume their burdens,
besides the loss of time and the inevi-
table expense by other available modes
of conveyance would be thousand per
cent. greater than any existing railway
charges. 1t is the peculiar misfortune
of some sections of country to be dis
tant from markets, and to such sections
railroads of necessity are the only in
land means of transportation by which
to reach them.
In this fact lies the great argument
IN behalf of this new enterprise. We
are to remote from markets to sell our
produce. We can sell our cotton but
can dispose of nothing else for money,
and money we must have to pay our
debts, support our families and com.
pensase for our labors and tolls from
year to year. 1t is useless to talk
about diversifying land and labor as
simple and Z sufficient resource and
means of successful and permanent re-
lief In the absence of markets to sell
the excess we make by such diversity.
In many localities cotton cannot be
produced with profit even with a recup-
Grated soil. In these communities,
what principle or motive can incite to
energy and enterprise among the other
wise would-be industries, conscious of
their inability to sell their produce to
pay their current expenses and procure
their necessary supplies?
Want of markets to dispose of every |
marketable article the farmer produces |
IS the one great thing needful, especial |
" in the South. Railroads, with just |
and equitable freight and passagerates,
IN very satisfactory degree supply |
this want. For this reason, along its |
entire line, this road is contemplated |
not as a convenience only, but as ne
Cessity. Knowing the wants of the |
people throughout the whole length and |
breadth of Alabama In the matters al |
luded to, as well as the prominent pur-
poses the friends and pro ectors Of this
enterprise have IN view, / viii sketch |
briefly its line and proposed connec-
tons as have them from some Of its |
officers.
As its corporate name indicates, this |
road is to run from Montgomery, the
capital of Alabama, to Wetumpka, Tai
ladega and Gadsden, or Attala, where
1t will intersect with and cross the Ala
bama and Chattanooga Railroad, thence
to Guntersyille, crossing the Tennessee
at or near that town, and thence on an
air line, as nearly as the topography of
the country viii permit, to the State
line and Tullahoma, or Decherd, on the
Nashville and Chattanooga road. AT |
either of these points il will connect
with that railroad, which forms its con-
tinuation to Nashville l understand |
from the friends of this road that it is
the desire of their company that the
main line should run to Huntsville, and
from thence to Nashville, but
1t is believed that, to run
there, will throw the road too
far West to establish short-line connec-
tons with the Nashville and Chatta-
nooga, and especially so, to make Tula-
homa their terminal point-this place
beng regarded as their most favorable
and judicious location, because here,
they viii form direct connections with
the Manchester and McMinnville road,
which, at future day, viii be extended
to the Cincinnati Southern at some
point in Kentucky; whether that road
be built to Chattanooga or Knoxville
the extension of the Manchester road
beyond McMinnville and Sparta is
mainly matter of time. Hence the
propriety and wisdom of building this
Alabama road to Tullahoma instead of
endeayOring to worm its way through
to Nashville. In view of the present
railway lines in operation southwark
from Nashville, it is thought that to
undertake to build another middle
road to your city, deriving no other ad-
vantages or connections therefrom
when completed, than may be similarly
secured and enjoyed by uniting with
one of the other existing roads, and
particularly when the entire country
for many miles south of Nashville
already seeks that market with its pro-
duce and trade and could not of itself
furnish sufficient local patronage to
pay for the outlay and maintenance of
a new road, that such location would
ruin the prospects of the enterprise as
a sef-sustaining and successful institu-
ton. This company is not will
ing to incur these hazards. The risks
are too great. They prefer stopping
short of Nashville; connect with some
road already running there. and at
some point on such road where they
may establish additional and other con
nectlOns than the line to Nashville can
furnish them. AT the same time the
charter of this Company authorizes the
construction Of a road from their main
line to Huntsville, which it is the Dur
pose of the Company to build-thus
to that city the same trans
DOrtatlOn facilities aS ~ +bair ,,o;,, - ] (