The Marietta journal. [volume] (Marietta, Ga.) 1866-1909, 1875-02-19
SPEECH OF GEN. PHILLIPS.
Marietta and North Georgia Railroad

lanta in the hall of the House Of
Representatives.
General Phillips said that he hes
itated to accede to the request Of
friends TO address the General As
sembly, because he knew the disad-
vantages attending application for
money, and from feeling Of ina
bility to do the subject justice.
Governor Smith and ex Mayor
Spencer having visited that section
with me, know that the half has not
been told.
The section between the Airline
and State railroads is the one | al
lude to. The Marietta & North Ga.
railroad runs through Cobb, Chero-
kee. Pickens and other counties.
The country between Marietta and
the Cherokee line, near Bullock 8
Barn, is cotton land. Then we
strike water power and splendid bot
tom land. Near this we find the
magnetic iron oar; near Canton we
strike the Etowah valley with beau
tiful valley farms, growing all staple
products near Pickens county are
rich iron beds worked during the
war by company from Troup coun>
ty. In Long Swamp we find con
tinuous mountain of marble. TIE
negro kitchens at Gates have mar
bic chimnies. The lands are rich as
those of Texas. The Tates have
5000 bushels of corn and 1900
bushels of wheat. Here we find the
Talking Rock and Tallonay creeks,
where cross beds of slate. The route
of the road cuts through marble. -
For ten miles up this valley the
land is productive without fertili-
zers. Continuous hills are filled
with magnetic ore. You pass up the
Coosawattee to Ellijay. The hill
sides produce all the cereals. The
same is true of the lands in Union,
Towns and Dawson. In Pickens
county, the State Geologist was
greeted by crowd equal to cir
Gus. Mica was found there imbed-
ded in the finest kaolin. Tale, used
for twenty different purposes is to
be found. A mountain of marble,
slate and tale with 20 acres of bot
tom land sold recently for $4,000.
AT Rabur Gap, the ridge comes
down between Dawson and Lump
kin counties.
The people cannot haul the mar
BILE, iron, tale, kaolin. They must
haul their apples, wheat, corn, Irish
potatoes, etc. How far will it pay
to haul corn 7 1t will cost more TO
haul it than it is worth. 1t has to
be sold to illicit distillers up there.
&c to our iails and you see the end
They take the risk and run the
chances.
ltow are these people to build
railroad 7 Is the State too poor to
help them : Have not all other sec
tons but this been benefited I In
the days of Mcdonald and our best
men $l,000,0Q0 was given to the
Atlantic and Gulf railroad. Tile
people of North Georgia did not
complain at this. The SCARED vet
Grams just from the war gave aid to
the Macon and Brunswick railroad.
The State of Georgia exempted the
Central railroad from taxa'ion.-
Where is the difference between the
road carrying freight and our wag-
ons I 1t was right to aid the Cen
trail railroad and the others. Render
to the people of the mountains what
has been rendered the other sections.
Will the road pay Cobb has
2O9, 900 acres of land. The other
counties have l,373,000 acres Of
minerals. Cobb pays within six
thousand dollars the tax paid by the
other seven.
The counties of Gwinnett, Hall
and Habersham have increased lO5
per cent in taxable property since
1869, the result Of the competition
of the Airline railroad.
Where is the railroad in upper
Georgia that the taxable value o.
property was not increased.
The people of northeast Georges
cannot build it. They can feed the
convicts aud grade the road, but
cannot iron it.
Why is Georgia not richs We
have every element in Georgia tc
make our own fertilizers.
Between 100000 and SO, 000,-
900 go out of Georgia every year
for commercial fertilizers.
Georgia imports annually between
So, 5000 and 100000 of por-
celain ware.
$4,000 tons Of iron are used in
Georgia every year costing $9,OO0,.
600.
Steel can be made of magnetic
$4,000, 900 Of safes are sold annual
ly in Georgia. We have all the
materials to make them on the line
of this road. An iron safe manu-
factory is projected here.
The Rolling Mills pays out S40,0
or $4,000 annually for fire brick
when mountains of tale in .nortf
Georgia are not worth a cent.
Georgia has followed the suicida
policy of planting all cotton anC
4 Al n