Memphis daily appeal. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1847-1886, 1879-06-01
A CONTRAST.
why st. L0uss is GroWiog at tho Ex=
pcnse OF Memphfs-Whatw we Must
do to Provost lE Or Become
Mere Way station ON
the !kSIVer.

EDITORS APPEAL-IdIpklugt that 1t would
be of Interest to you aod your reaoer5 TO know why
1t is that ST. LeuS is prosperous and growing city
Of over 50.J000 Inhabitants willis our own city Is
moving so slowly, have taken the trouble TO look
over her trade and commerce. and also her railroad
connections In order 10 be abe to judge OF the
sources OF her prosperity and TO present facts as they
In 1850 the population OF st. Louis was less than
100000; BOW 1t Is perhaps nearer 100000 than
100000. From 1S4S to 1850 her progress was very
Slow and there we're but few railroads that were real
feeders to her commerce; the rivers were her chief
travel Steamboats, lined her whaTves in large mum
beers but were Idle half the year Now she has each
DAY ABOUT ITO PASSENGER trains sVhg sRa arriving
Tonnage BY rail, $500 900; By nver TOO 900 tons.
troled by mon who lock TO her interests alone, and
the result Is that her gross receipts OF cotton this
sS Td S7s H nav wars a. the ad
increase the past year of 2,334 bales; ana six
years ago she did not get 25,00g bales. Her grain
and -four trade Increases yearly, notwithstanding
there twenty lines of railroad crossing the river
between here and st. Paul, and leading to various
as they can. carry all trade away from her. Her
dry goods trade also increases yearly as does all
reach S950,000,000. Her banking capital is about
S1500O.00e; and her best customers are the people
of the southern States She sells to merchants at
Nemphisand all the cities in the SOUTH at wholesale.
and thea goes to the villages that ought to trade
with Aemp pills, and sells to them at what might be
called retail prices, thereby monopOiizing every
thing In her reach. There IS to-day fewer Idle
mechanics and laborers in ST. Louis than any ether
city OF the size In the country. She has as many
manufacturing establishments as her trade requires.
The sales of real estate are large and building /. as
active as at any period for several years. And the
source OF all this Is her railroads. They reach out
10 every direction and are nun in her interest Now
to make MenphIs q city, prosperous and populous
there must be new awakening of enterprise. A
road must be built to Kansas, with connections TO
the Northern Pacific. ana the TWO Kansas Pacific
roads, and the st. Louis and santa Ee road; the
Little Rock and Fort Smith road must be eonsoli-
dated with the Memphis and Little Rock road, and
direct line must be built from Memphis to Texas,
and the river must be bridged at Memphis, SO as to
nd SVcfnF nf rail
roads there, or our psOr city, like VcksbGrg and
Natchez will rem ain more Landing on the river.
These are apparent facts, though they are Unpleas
ant, and our people have to meet them or re-
main always behind We have passed the
age OF SteamboaIS-time IS too valuable and
life too short for such things and If the Mississippi
river were dried up forever, Memphis would have a
better chance than now, for she wsud be forced 10
reach her customers by direct railroad lines, and
then she would build them; and when once they are
started they keep branching out, and going on, rs
long as they have space to run en-. In Tennessee,
the TWO greatest and oag prof lines Of road are
more beneficial TO St Louis than they are to Mem
phis; Middle and East Tennessee, Alabama, Georgia
and the Carcinas. and large portion OF Mississippi
get from St Louis the articles that Memphis ought
TO furnish and would furnish too II these western
connections were such rs to make her a competing
maikst for grain flour, osSon, lard butter. and the
many other things now msnopoized by ST. Louis.
But for our people TO let ST. Louis take from them
ne 2. "a n g erI pgsntIQR 2s
panies nave warehouses capable or holding as
much as sixty thousand bales, with presses able to
now about ready to build another one, so as TO in
crease the storage capacity forty thousand bales
and the comprising to twenty-five hundred or
three thousand bales per day. st. Louis cotton
nen have made large sums this year and they are
investing II il the extension OF their trade, and
they propose to handle four hundred and MY
thousand bales the coming season. Every bale OF
increase to St Louis IS a bale lost to Memphis
What is Memphis soing TO do about It?
These peozio alive to their Interests. are now
contracting for a narroW-g gauge railroad down
through Texas, two bundled AID seventy miles Ia
lenxth as continuation OF the St Louis and Iron
Mountain road. which crosses the state from north,
east to southwest and cuts all The Galveston and
New Orleans lines right in twain. and coInpetes with
them for trade right at their own doors, and IL s TO
be Eiahed in less than year, and the larger por-
ton by the first of October; to rcacn this years
crop Let Memphis men consider these things, and
make an effort to save themselves and their city.
ST LOUIS. May y. 1871. NOGASaAN.