Public ledger. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1865-1893, 1881-11-16
The Memphis, Selma d. Birming-
ham Railroad.

ntil UhhAEOGNs
If we are to have a new railroad the
managers of the company will best
consult their own interests by build
ing it Immediately. The crops in this
portion of the country are all gath
cred, and the amount Of idle material
for labor will remain unprecedented
in this State until next Friday. Not
only is the number of unemployed
laborers exceptionally large, but ow-
ing to the hard times it is extraordi-
narily cheap. The company propos-
ing to build this road, ii it be actually
in earnest, will save thousands Of dol
lars by going to work at once. There
are thousands Of idle men along the
proposed line who will be glad to
work at almost any price, but who
cannot be controlled if the company
continues its policy of mastery in
activity" until the time Tor planting
cotton again arrives. The golden OPP
portuniiy Of the company lies in the
present hour Holly Springs Re
porter.
The people along the line Of the
Memphis, Holly Springs & Selma
railroad, who we're SO much elated a
few months ago by tho b~ombastic
speeches Of Mr.. Wolfe, the President
Of the new company, have at last be-
come distrustful of the sincerity of
his expressions in reference to the
building of the road, and tae Mem
phis Appeal, as well as the Holly
Springs Reporter, has intimated that
this dilly-dallying in the matter was
begetting impatience and disgust. A
man who means business don't waste
time in blowing his bazoo,- [Tupelo
journal.
Both the papers above quoted know
nothing at all Of what they are com
plaing about. In the first place, the
Holly Springs Reporter must certainly
know-if its adipose and p~ouderous
editorial mind is capable Of knowing
| anything at all-that Holly Springs
has already had favOrs beyond its COM
mercial merits. 1t is a little town Of
some fifteen hundred or two thousand
in inhabitants, situated way up in the
sand hills of Marshall county, remote
from any interests beyond that of
some very good schools and a few
candidates for Office, and is only i'm
portant in a ! legal point of view in the
Carotti case,
We happen to know that the road
between Memphis and Selma will be
built. We happen to know bat Mar.
shall county resisted the payment of
the bonds voted in good faith by its
citizens to aid in the construction OF
the road from Memphis, by the way
of Holly Springs, to Selma, Alabama.
We happen to know still further that
Holly Springs carried the bond case
of Marshall county into the courts and
plead for a Judgment in her favor,
| based on an Indiana decision against
the right of corporate taxation. In a
word, we happen to know that Mar.
shall countyd did this while Shelby coun-
ty, in Tennessee was wasting a five hun
bred thousand dollars sub .cription in
the efforts of Gen. Forest to build the
road through to Selma. The road
between Holly Springs was graded and
furnished with cross-ties and could
have been easily completed if Holly
Springs had shown sufficient spirit OF
enterprise to desire it. The cross
ties we're allowed to rot or furnish fuel
for negro cabins, while the eartEwork
filtered through the sand asd mud Of
Nonconnah and ColdWater, ~equalled
in their sluggish course only by the
sluggish nature Of those that are now
crying out against Wolfe for not
building a road in two or three
months which they could not have had
the remotest chance Of ever obtaining
without him, and which they permit.
ted for ten years to be in utter waste
and d~esolation. If the Reporter and
Tupelo Journal will but consult the
facts in the case they will see that Mr..
Fred Wolfe is pushing the work from
Eutaw on towards Memphis as fast as
money and the labor obtainablc can
do it. The sincerity Of his purpose
is manifest in his acts, and they speak
loudor than words. The Memphis
Appeal ought to know better than 10
have misgivings in the ultimate inten-
tions of the Erlanger Syndicate %
build the road, since it could have
read the last report made to the Syn
dictate in London and which specially
mentioned the importance the man
agement attaches to the early compile
ton Of the Memphis and Birmingham
connection in their vast Southern
system. Butthe Reporter and Journal,
not having by nature or otherwise any
extensive source of information, can
be readily excused on the ground of
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