Clarksville weekly chronicle. (Clarksville, Tenn.) 1873-1890, 1882-02-18
WHAT SHALL WE DO NOW ;

debt devOlves upon the people OF
Tennessee. What shall we now do?
is the question of the hour.
The decision settled only one
question, and that is that no settle
ment can be made that undertakes
to make the coupons receivable for
taxes.
The public debt of Tennessee is
again to be settled. For six years
the public mind has chiefly beer
occupied in discussing its validity
and obligation. While the 1908
settlement was not just such settle
ment as the people desired or ex-
pected, yet large majority of them
would have acquieseed in it, as In
finitely better than perpetual agita-
ton, and for that reason would
have opposed any effort to nullify
it. But that settlement is thing
of the past and we are again called
upon TO say what shall be done with
our public debt. The question will
not down. 1t will forever hang
over us until it is disposed of to the
satisfaction of our creditors. We
cannot repudiate it, were majority
of our people so disposed. Until it
is paid, it will ever be springing to
the front and demanding settlement.
That we owe it and every dollar OF
it, not one in ten honestly doubts.
That honesty and fair dealing de-
mands its payment, every right
thinking man, who knows it to be
valid debt, knows and says. That
every idea of true State policy de-
mands its honorable adjustment,
every man who has reflected upon
the consequences Of dishonesty and
wrong-doing even in this world,
will admit. 1t is, in State afElirs as
in private affairs, the best policy to
deal honestly and squarely. Since
we have ceased to pay interest on
our public debt and the ear of the
public has been filled with the din
and clamOr Of the demagogue preach
ing against this debt, we have in
diminished prosperity, in declin-
ing values, in impaired commerce,
twice over paid it, principal and in
tereSt.
For two years tide of prosperity,
such as the oldest inhabitant has
never before known, has swept over
the whole country North and South,
lands have advanced in value, bus
iness has increased a hundred fold,
manufactures have developed in a
surprisingmanner thousand miles Of
new railroads have been construct
ed, stocks and bonds of every char
acter have appreciated in value be-
yond any rational expectation. But
alas, this tide of prosperity and pro-
gresS never crossed the frontiers of
poor Tennessee. AS if surrounded
by a Chinese wall, we have been
shut out from all the din and cheer
of this wave of prosperity, and can
only hear its hum and shout as it
reaches us over the dead line of our
frontiers. We proclaimed to the
world that such was our poverty
stricken condition that we could
not bear a State tax of forty or tif-
ty cents upon the hundred dollars,
to pay the interest upon our public
debt, until the world has taken us
at our word. Immigration does
not seek such a State, capital does
not 60 where there is no field for it,
railroads are not built where COM
merce is declining and wealth di-
minishing. More than this, those
who have not believed in the truth
of this alleged poverty, have ascrib-
ed our action concerning our pub
lie debt to downright dishonesty.
Neither capital nor enterprise ever
seek a field where public honesty is
at q discount. The repudiating
countries of Europe are Spain and
Turkey. They, like Tennessee
have for years defaulted. The debt
paying countries are England.
France and Germany. Compare
their condition, compare their
progress and chose between them.
furthermore private confidence is
impaired by this state of affairs.
Go among your merchants, among
your bankers, among your manu-
facturers and ask them what has
been the effect upon the commerce
and business of the State, resulting
from this agitation against our
State debt.
We may never pay this debt to
our creditors, but if we do not, we
shall in diminished prosperity and
declining wealth pay it ten times
over. No civilized State can in this
day and generation afford in the
face of christianized and civilized
world, to repudiate its public cbli-
cations. We cannot prosper, when
in the defiance of the opinion of a
whole world, we boldly refuse to
pay our public debt just because we
cannot be compelled to pay it. \
Just God can never bless us with
prosperity. Who wonders that our
fields have been burned with the
hot sun, our crops blasted with the
drouth; that neither the rains nor
the sunshine have been propitious.
The time for delay about this
matter has passed. The defeat of
the 1908 settlement only calls for
renewed determination and renewed
zeal. The State must be saved.
The timid, the cowardly, the time
server may grovel before this crime.
\ few may resist. n few more
may retire from active participa-
ton in the coming struggle. Let
all the weak go to the rear; Tennes-
see must be saved from disgrace,
from dishonOr.