Public ledger. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1865-1893, 1882-06-01

out toward the hills, and the custom
house may be in the heart of the city
long before another centennial.
------.---..----...--.--
AFTER copying an extract from
recent editorial in the LEDGER, the
Chattanooga Times, On able and en-
terprising paper but always wild on
the State question, comments as fol-
lows:
Sooner or later every repudiating
city, State or Nation, pays its debts,
in some form. One form Of payment
is in the loss of credit, the incurring
Of the contempt and suspicion Of the
whole commercial world. Memphis
has had hard luck" frightfully hard;
but recklessness of obligations has
done the town more harm than all the
epidemics which have decimated her
people. The LEDGER'S advice to the
Memphians to cease boasting Of their
pauperism aud the unhealthiness of
their town, and set about doing some
thing like the honest thing with ref
erence to their debt, is good. 1t is
equally applicable to the State and her
debt. The wretched demagogues who
have advertised Tennessee as a poor
farm on a large scale have done the
State more damage than would the
payment Of double the debt she owes,
at par and full interest.
The Times is one of the papers that
for some unaccountable reasen
misrepresented and abused Mem
phis in the hour Of her darkest
trials. This is remembered, however,
in no spirit of resentment or uukind-
ness. We maintain, all the same, that
the people OF this city are as honest,
individually and collectively, as any
other community, and understand their
own affairs and have all along better
than outsiders, who have not gone
through similar trials and sufferings.
The wonder is that there is city left
at all, or any hope for the future. As
to the repeal of the city charter, that
was a measure necessary for self pres
ervatiOn, and not done in a spirit ot
repudiation, although the stale and
false charge has been made
a thousand times. 1t is
only a question of time when the
better, healthier sentimentof Memphis
will demand and secure compromise
of the ol% city debt. Some think il
should be done at once under an act
passed by the last Legislature at the
last extra session; others think we
should wait until the next Legislature
meets, and secure a mere clearly de-
fined act conferring power of settle
ment upon a special board, such li
now exists outside of and distinct from
the present city government. Others
think that it is all important to
concentrate every energy upon the
work of sanitation for two or four
years longer, and then that it will be
time to deal with the old city debt.
There are differences Of opinion as TO
what should be done and when, but
these are in regard to details aud meth
DDS. "Recklessness ofobligations" does
not exist and never has. One symp-
tom at least of this condition Of the
public mind is the position of the
LEDGER, which is certainly recog-
nized as an exponent somewhat
of the low tax elemen and sentiment
of the city and State. However, that
cuts no special figure in the matter,
only as so much circumstantial evi
dence. That Memphis will overcome
the result OF her various misforluncs,
adjust her debt troubles honorably,
and take a fresh and successful start
in the race for commercial supremacy
in the Mississippi vslley, we have the
utmost and calmest confidence, base
upon a knowledge of the situation and
the temper Of the people.