Knoxville daily chronicle. [volume] (Knoxville, Tenn.) 1870-1882, 1880-05-16

fury has been a competing line for
freight and passenger traffic, and
this want the proposed connection
with the Cincinnati Southern meets
as no other can. A brief view of
the situation will be convincing Of
this if proof is necessary. E
The future greatness of our sees
ton depends entirely upon the ad.
vancement of the manufacturing in-
terests of East Tennessee. Although
her lands are productive and fertile
enough to supply all the demands
of home market, even when her
population shall have been trebled,
she can never expect to become an
agricultural country in the full &C.
ceptation of that term. The min>
eral wealth now lying buried in the
bowels of our hills and mountains is
positively incalculable. We can
supply the markets of the whole
world with coal and iron,
not to mention the less
extensive mineral deposits, for
hundreds of years. The only thing
necessary to bring these mines to
the light is a sufficient number of
railroads.
The Knoxville and Cincinnati
Southern is the key to the whole
situation, for the following reasons:
() 1t being completed, We have a
direct connection with Cincinnati
without the long detour by way of
Chattanooga. ~ We will have a
short-line to the inexhaustibIe coal
fields about Winters gap, and, with
the Knoxville and Ohio, two CONS
peting lines to coal. (3) The Knox
vile and Augusta people are pos
sessed Of practically unlimited
capital, and as soon as it becomes
evident that they can procure
connection with Cincinnati,
instead of being blocked at this
point, that road will be built i'm
mediately, This is not specula-
ton, but solemn assurances have
been made. a. The Western North
Carolina road, whose completion is
certain, can save at least thirty
miles of road by coming down to
Knoxville from Paint Rock through
Sewer county, a county which, by
the way, can not be beaten IN any
material respect by any ia East
Tennessee, and should the Knoxville
and Cincinnati Southern be built,
they will do this, inste ad of going
by Morris to wn. (5) Louisville, af-
ter having invested so much in
southern railroad systems, can not
preserve her grasp upon the situa>
ton without Knoxville connection.
She must either build one or see
her rival, Cincinnati, walk away
from her. This she will never do,
for with the Knoxville and Ohio
road and the road she has already
built to London, there would be a
gap of not exceeding one hundred
miles to complete in order to obtain
it. (6) The road from Nashville
to Knoxville is sure to come in time,
and the Knoxville and Cincinnati
Southern will hasten i. by half
dozen years. There will be but
about one hundred miles of this to
build, as the rails are already laid
from Nashville to Lebanon, dise
lance Of thirty miles, and the route
from this point to Knoxville will be
along the Emery Gap road for its
whole extent, thus saving forty
more miles. If the road from
Knoxville to Nashville should
be built, it would be
pushed Immediately to Jackson,
and as soon as it reached this
latter place, the Memphis merchants
would complete it to the Bluff City,
thus giving connection with tie
Memphis system Of roads.
This, in as few words as possible,
is description Of the railroad map
as it would be made by the filling
up of the short gap Of forty miles
from here to the Cincinnati South,
ern. This is no fancy picture,
either, for everything is based upon
the best information and facts OBJ
tainable Placed in such posi-
ton, what future is before Knox