Memphis daily appeal. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1847-1886, 1882-05-10
OURSELVES AS OTHERS SEE Us
What Two East Tennessee Papers Think
of the Results of the Recent
Memphis MeeffGg.
The Effects of fhe Constantly Reiterated
and Degrading Cry OF Poverfy-A
s.Hot-Bed'' OF Reputation.
Chattanooga Times.

fuss about any decent State debt settle
ment, raised in Memphis, is very much as if
convention of boss bagnio-keepers were 10
attempt fixing the standard of woman's vir-
tue. That city had better sweep its own
door-yard before it raises a row about efforts
for too high altitude Of State credit. Cap
tain Rule, in the Knoxville Chronicle, refer
ring TO some resolutions passed at meeting
in Memphis last Thursday night, M axes these
Just remarks:
1t will be seen that they oppose a settle
ment on this basis (60-4 So because it con-
cedes too much TO the bondholders, and
because, as they say, it is more than the
crippled industries OF the State can bear"
This may be true as to that city, but it is
libel on the State. III it is true as to the
city, it is the duty of those who reside there
to make public procla nation of its poverty
to the world and warn outsiders to remain
away. city that cannot pay State tax
OF three or four mills to the dollar is no
place to do business and whenever the en-
lightened press of Memphis boasts of its re-
sources and advantages, it is guilty of
gross misrepresentation. No man who has
capital TO invest in manufacturing wants to
invest 1t in such poverty stricken COM
munlty, and to induce such an one to
do by misrepresentation is down.
right robbery. But we do not believe
this. We believe that such a senti-
heHI Is NolCeu ny ueslSnlnS pOlltlclanS,
or by misers and skin fiints, who 2 u}gingly
pay taxes at any rate or for any purpose 1t
ls libel, at least, on other portions of the
State. The man who says Tennessee is I'M
able to pay tax az large as that paid by
the States OF Georgia, Alabama, Arkansas,
Florida or Mississippi, ISLANDERS State
Our territory Is not an unproductive desert,
inhabited by sem-barbarians, too lazy and
too ignorant to make a decent and honest
living, and while the people of Memphis
may publicly parade before the world their
poverty, their want of industry or their in
difference to their private or public obliga-
tons, we protest that they have no right to
drag all other portions of the State down
into the mire in which it seems their poll
ticians are content that they shall wailow.
We admit that through extravaganza, cor
ruption and mismanagement the city of
Memphis is burdened with large city
debt. Instead of trying to pay the debt, those
who have acted as leaders have exercised
their ingenuity TO avoid its payment. 1t is
not creditabIe to the State that the Leeis-
lature has aided Memphis in these dishonest
proceedings, going SO tar even as to abolish
the city's municipal charter. The city has
gone on from bad TO worse, until it has be-
come spectacle for honest men to blush at
And this is why Memphis is such hot bed
of Reputation.
These structures are compile tely just. The
Memphis politicians ought to be excluded
from convention of either party unless they
leave behind them their scandaous records
Of State and municipal dishonesty.