Southern standard. (McMinnville, Tenn.) 1879-current, 1883-03-17
MATERIAL DEVELOPMENT.
Hints to Home Capitalists from q
Veteran Manufacturer.
70 the American.

tennessee. All that you have SAID or
may say in keeping herewith, has
met and will meet with my approval.
l endorse it most heartily, and will
strike hands with any gentleman, who
labors as you have done in the columns
Of your paper, to develop the thrift
and enterprise Of our people.
Labor is honorable. 1t is the lever.
age through which prosperity and the
higher type of civilization lifts itself
prominently above sloth and barbar-
ism. Labor conquers all things, was
an aphorism, accepted and acted upon
by all of the ancient races of mankind
who made themselves great, either in
craftsmanship, literature or material
progress.
& 1t is labor which has gwen to the
moderns the power of steam, the iron
horse, the electric wire, and all Those
grand improvements in machinery,
which is the browning glory ofthis age.
New England, by nature sterile and
bleak, in her early history struck upon
the golden key; and to-day in material
wealth and thrift she scars above her
neighbors living under otherw Sc hap
pier skies. Why is this? 1t is because
her water power and her forests, which
God gave her with no sparing hand,
have been utilized in the interests of
labor. Her mile, with their almost
innumerable hosts of operatives, are
busy day in and day out in the manu-
facture of fabrics which the world
needs aud the world must have. The
wealth of nations aud the treasures of
Princes flow into other Golfers. Is it
strange that she has become rich and
sucked from other countries their
prosperity, when every citizen, yea even
. the women and the children, like bees
in a well-fitted hive, are busy in adding
to the common store? You in Middle
md East Tennessee are not behind
these New England States either in
unfelled forests, or in water facilities
or water power In these We have a
treasure equal to the miues in Peru
or the tabled wealth of a Cresus, YET
they stand mdeveloped, and laborer'
by thousands in the good old Common
wealth are standing idle and with fold
ell hands, because no man has oallet
them to work in the harvest. Wher,
are the lords of the land, the capital
lists of our State? Why do they no
open their purses, construct mills OF
these water courses, and convert int
lumber, furniture and implements o
industry, as well as ornament thes
standing forests? Why not bid tn
needy poor of their native State t
come aud acquire for themselves am
their wives aud little ones, by hone,
toll, the subsistence which God il
tended for them to have, and whic
they woulG have were the capitalists {
our country alive either to their dut
or their interests The owners Of thi
capital stand on perilous height
They are but the stewards Of the Mos
High. If they use it but TO satisfy
selfish greed-if they refuse, when
their power, to open with it employ
lnent for the less favored-as sure {
the sun shines in the heavens there is
power able to avenge who will hei
and heed their cries.
1t seems to me, Mr. Editor, that
common humanity, the pride of citizel
ship, and even the thirst for gold itse
should impell our moneyed men to il
vest their meaus in such industrie
when figures and facts demonstrate cor
p!eteiy. that like the three graces, the
form triple alliance and as enc al
iuseparable.
AS the onset. again repeat ! a
with you heart and hand, in all la
\ dable efforts to build up the coal al
iron interests of Tennessee, But
doing this let it never be for5ottt
that there is another field Of enterpri
awaiting development in our much b
loved State, Of paramount importanc
and which when accomplished W
gladen the heart like the rainfall
the end of q drouth
! do hope for the honor Of o.
country, that the unnatural estrang
ment at present existing, on the pa
of the many capitalists, against the i
terest of labor, will soon subside, al
that the hAlcyOn day of this Union W