Clarksville weekly chronicle. (Clarksville, Tenn.) 1873-1890, 1879-11-22

III tAhC WcctCAh uttCNtAOA AuCS AC- ,
quire almost similar improvements
on the Lafayette road. The road
itself is portentously bad even /.
among Montgomery county roads,
and Piney Fork requires bridging
as badly as Sulphur Fork does east
wards. We cannot repeat the
for improved commune
cations in this direction; it is pre-
cisely the same as we used before,
and we proceed to Capt. Gracey's
other suggestion.
The capitalists of GAINESVILLE must
own a small boat on the Cumber-
land. We are using now entirely
Capt. G.'s argument, which, how
ever, we most heartily endorse.
Other boats, which in favorable
seasons ply the Cumberland river,
come here in the interest of Evans
vile or Paducah or Nashville, or /
finally in their own interest as a
boating speculation. The boat |
which the capitalists of GAINESVILLE |
should own should be held exclus-
lively in the interest of GAINESVILLE |
trade, and its owners should at first
be ready to forego all profit on its
transactions in the way of freight
and passage money, and calculate
on their profits from the increase of
business it must bring them. They
should be ready even to lose on
some transactions rather than let
trade go elsewhere. To illustrate
the value of this scheme Capt. G.
mentioned the great increase of
trade which so small a boat as the
Gracey had brought to GAINESVILLE,
and was borne out by the testimony
of some of the best business men in
the city, that especially Of Capt.
Crusman. The little Gracey, we say,
which has no passenger accommO-
dation and which has never been
regularly announced for freight at
specific times and seasons. Such a
boat as he proposed could be built
or purchased for $1,000 or $4,000,
and he firmly believes that by in
vesting in her sums which would
be insignificant to them, business
men would make larger profits
through increase of business than
by anything else they could put the
same amount into.
So far it would seem that we are
approaching the limits of a news
paper article and have said little or
nothing about the railroad question,
which started the whole discussion.
. We never intended to say much
about it in this article. We do not
! at present know enough of what
Capt. Cole and the other railroad
kings are going to do to discuss it
; profitably. Whether the Captain
: intends to gobble up the l.. * n.
: railroad or to starve it out; whether
, ne or Mr.. Wadley is going to con-
troll the traffic from Chattanooga to
, the Atlantic coast-these are ques-
{ tions which he knows better than
/ we do, and whether he knows OF
4 not he is not going to tell US. But
4 meantime we can tell him one
e thing: he is not going to eat W
: GAINESVILLE. We have no idea that
: he desires to do so, but he COULDN'T
J., if he did. GAINESVILLE has position
5 and resources which no railroad
/ king can touch, but which may be-
e come objects of interest to such
t gentry if duly handled. Let Clarks
:. vile keep in hand those resource;
e which naturally belong to her anC
e establish her importance as place
d for the transaction of business "a:
k she easily CAM, and it will not be {
s question with her how she can ge
4 railroad communications, but i
d will be a question with railroad
r systems how they can get to her
t and the control of these local re
>, sources, the establishment of thi
d local business, is her present prob
: lem.
e That business is even now rapidly
9 increasing, and so is her population
{ spite of our cry of hard times, anC
d the way to forward this healthy
n movement is to improve her loca
: communications, her roads, he
d bridges, her river trade; let he
t make exactly the Improvements W.
h have been dwelling upon and other
d like them. If she has spare capita
t (and we believe she has plenty, lie
t her buy up the tolls on both thu
a Red river bridges; let her imprOv,
. her own streets, pave, drain anC
Il light them; let her attract popula
! ton instead of repelling it, anC
k above all, let her extend her corpo
II rate limits around her pOpulOu
o suburbs; in other words, let her be
r; come the great city which he
Is exceptional local advantages requir
n that she should become, and rail
y roads will find her out, never fear
o We are not blind to the advant
II age which either of the railroad
II would bring to her, the road t
e Princeton or that to Dickson sta
o ton. She wants the former to ge
/ coal for her manufactures, the latte
e for access to Southern markets
It where she can sell what she makes
$ but the control of her local resource
IS is the first thing she needs and viii
y ultimately facilitate her railroad
It schemes by making her plac
o worth coming TO and by interesting
t more and more people in the prob
/, lem of her increasing traffic.
' At the risk, then, of being laughed
at, we will say that the simple
z moderate and unpretending i'm
{ provements so ably advocated by
; Capt. Gracey, and others analOgou
j to them, are, in our estimation, o
y more immediate Importance t.
j GAINESVILLE than any railroad, anC