Clarksville weekly chronicle. (Clarksville, Tenn.) 1873-1890, 1880-02-07
Railroad Conference in Nashville.

Railroad Conference I'm Nashville,
Nashville American, Jan. 0.
A meeting of citizens, a majority
of whom were merchants, was held
at the Merchants Exchange at % p.
NJ. yesterday. The attendance was
quite large, and deep interest in the
questions discussed was manifested.
In the absence of President Hens
| ley, Vice-PreSident Sperry called
| the meeting to order and introduced
| President Standiford, of the Louis
vile d Nashville & Great Southern
railroad. President Standiford said:
Gentlemen and citizens of Nash
vile: / have been panied to learn
that some feeling exists against the
Louisville q Nashville & Great
Southern railroad, because we have
purchased q majority of the stock of
the Nashville, Chattanooga 4 ST.
Louis railway. 1t has always been
my pride and my study to do what
ever / could do in building up your
city. | have given it many an
hours thought. / have adopted a
line of policy-and have instructed
my agents To carry 1t QUITO give
to each locality what it is entitled
to by its location. There may have
been, and doubtless have been, some
mistakes, and as will occur in any
wholesale grocery or drygOOds estab-
Hshment with your clerks. The
policy, if the road passes under our
control, will be a liberal one to
Nashville, and not a gentleman
within the sound of my voice will
regret it in twelve months, and for
all time to come, 1t is to the inter-
est Of the line, If for no other reason
than that its interest would compel
US to build up the city of Nashville.
If a fire were to sweep away the
city tomorrow and lay It In ashes,
who would be the heaviest loser?
Why, the system of roads over
which / have the honor to presude.
In building up your city and increas-
ing it's commercial interest, to add
to its population, is to help our
company. If you had population
of 200, 900 inhabitants, and did four
times the amount of commercial
business that you do now, you would
proportionately help our line. 1t
is, therefore, plain that it is our in
terest to protect you in everything,
Though we reside in the city of
Louisville, we have more money
invested in Tennessee than in Ken
lucky. Some of our largest stock
holders are in your State. We are
bound to protect you, and want to
do everything In our power to do
so. Whilst we speak of Louisville
as the northern terminal point, we
represent more capital than thecity
of Louisville is worth, more capital
than the city of Nashville is worth,
and we cannot afford to sacrifice
that capital; we don't propose to do
it, and if we sacrifice you we sacri-
fee ourselves. -.4u.s m
1t will be the policy of the road to
extend every facility to you; to
open up new territory; to aid in the
development of the agricultural and
mineral resources of your city,
bringing business to it and carrying
business for 1t. We have made q
contract to put on line of steamers,
from which Nashville will reap
more benefit than Louisville, per-
haps. 1t will carry your manufact-
ured products and provisions, and
everything, from this section to
Havana, to Vera Cruz, perhaps, and
even South America. Few gentle
men in this house, perhaps, know
that the import business amounts to
5000, 100000 per annum, and the
United States ships do not furnish
more than $40, 100000 Of it. We
can produce cheaper things than
any section of the world. IT has
not been three months since lot of
English gentlemen called to see me
and said that they wanted to put on
a line of steamers at Pensacola and !
carry live stock and grain to Eng
land. They wished to do this in
order to get their supplies from the
United States. You will be bene- |
fited by it. Tennessee is an agri- |
cultural country it has fine mineral |
wealth, and so has Kentucky. Un-
der one line of railroads and steam
ers we can give bill of lading from |
here to Liverpool. You can reap as |
large a benefit as any other section
of the country. 1t has been our
policy to aid in developing every |
thing that would add to the revenue |
Of our road, 1t would be our pride |
to aid each and every merchant in |
building up his business. As an |
illustration of what / have said, / |
need only tell you that the largest |
amount of business done on the