Knoxville daily chronicle. [volume] (Knoxville, Tenn.) 1870-1882, 1881-02-12
here who are looking out for commercial
Ill MI, "a

here who are looking out for commercial
connections should know, however, what
thew have to rely on to procure, in pushing
such an enterprise. the aid of Northern
csnital The mineral wealth along such
lines represents to them certain and un-
failing sources of profit, while our people
ara looking more to comm cree and mark
through the richest of the Cumberland coal
fields while it will bring, with its connec-
tons, the ores of various counties into the
power of iron men to concentrate them at
Knoxville or Nashville, or even Chatta>y
nooga. 1t matters not at which ofthe three
points, this road will have all the coal and
iron freights it can handle. While it takes
over thousand miles to cover the range of
PiLtsburg's reaching out for ores. this road
will bring larger variety and greater
quantity of ores within compass of three
hundred miles than Pittsburgrhas within
a range of at least one thousand miles
Taking the great western iron belt as the
western limit lying within twenty miles of
Nashville, and the vast cranberry deposits
of North Carolina as the eastern limit the
quantity and variety of ore represented
within that range is simply incalculabie.
This little link of one hundred and twenty
miles completes a system which completes
the Don er to concentrate tennessee ores,
North Carolina and also of Alabama
Tnen can be reached the ores of Cooke
county, those of cranberry, those along the
Maryville road, the Cumberland Mount
ain deposits, and the ores of that, which is
perhaps the greatest and most valuable Of
all deposits in Tennessee, the gre t western
belt. We believe that it will only re uire
that the capabilities of this line be set out
as they are, in connection with the existing
If a. in a at To "a l.
tai how it is merely necessary supple
mentary line which must pay from the
day when it fl rst carries q pound offreight.
Nashville should move 10 this matter, not
alone because it will be an advantageous
line for the trade of Nashville, but we have
more than equal chance to secure lar
ger share of the advan ages whIch VIII
accrue, moro or less, to all on the line, or
| connected with it, We shall not dispute
| with any other city on that point. Naturai
advantages will settle whlI b shall reap Inc
largest benefit, and we need not concern
ourselves greatly aboutit We only hold
that it will benefit all and develop J en>
nessee more than any other road that can
De built But Nashville has this advan-
tage, the coal of Kentucky on the north,
that of the Cumberland coal fields on the
east, and that of Alabama on the south, all
~ithin convenient distance, a d, inc uding
the near western belt of iron deposits, more
iron within convenient distance than any
a. her city in Tennessee. or perhaps in the
United States We have not alluded to
either the Kentucky iron deposits of Crit
tenden and other counties, VIII CHI are out of
the wOrlt and almost unknown, and yet
on y about one hundred mi es from Nash
vile. AS to most that could be said about
the advantages of this road, the ore is
present. AID not something to be realized
in the future or merely prospective, Iron
manufacturing and the use of coal have
reached su h proportions that should
Nashville elbow others to use her advan-
tages as a manufacturing point for iron
forever, it would still have all it could do
in hauling ores and coal to other points.
W. admit that it is not possible to say
notwithstanding apparent advantages. ex-
actly where all these great manufacturing
interests are yet TO be concentrated. 1t is
clear that the road will pay, and clear that
1t " i'll benefit Nashville whether Nashville
shall avail itselfof all it's advantages or not.
Now is the favorable time, to strike while
capital is az the vein.''