Clarksville weekly chronicle. (Clarksville, Tenn.) 1873-1890, 1884-05-10
THE BUSINESS OF GAINESVILLE.


trated with cuts representing our
public buildings of all sorts and
our street architecture generally, in
Guiding the more prominent OF our
business houses.
In making the inquiries which
will furnish the foundation of this
statement, we have satisfied our
selves that, in spite of much croak-
ing TO the contrary, the business of
city has never been so extensive, has
never rested on firmer basis of capt.
tai invested in it and has never been
more profitable than it is at this
moment. The stock In hand is
more abundant and OF a higher
quality than ever before, sales have
been quicker and larger, and have
met the demand from wider and
more populous area of territory, and
still have been effected with a de-
gree of prudence and wisdom which
has reduced the drawback arising
from bad debts within narrower
limits than in former days in brief,
transactions have been larger and
more numerous and returns more
prompt and certain than ever in
former days. We have not made
these assertions without taking
measures To verify our statements,
and since writing the above we
have solicited interviews with some
of the leading bankers of our city.
These gentlemen have uueXception-
able means of knowing whether
our statements are correct or
not. and they unanimously confirm
our position they agree in the state
ment that all departments of BUSH
ness have been greatly enlarged dur
ing the past winter and some of
them to an enormous extent. They
also agree that this Increased bust
ness has been tra nsacted on firm
and reliable basis of capital wisely
and prudentiy Invested.
Let it not be supposed, how
ever, that we say this in spirit
of aimless Boosting; our influence
would be evil rather than good if
anything we have said should lead
men to think that because much
has been done nothing remains to
be done The much that has been
done in the past raises in itself the
demand for much more to be done
in the future, for If GAINESVILLE has
increased her business and the area
over which ii extends, competition
has also increased in extent and
activity. In nation as progressive
as ours there is no standing still,
the man or the community who
halts in the race will soon fall out
of it altogether. If we have opened
wider fields OF commercial enter
prise, we must extend its range
still further; If we have established
new forms of industry, we must
increase and vary them continu-
ously.
Let us then consider what avenues
for the further extension of our bus
iness are open to us. Well, for one
thing, we have new railroad en-
terprise before us and we are san
guine that it will be soon pushed on
through highly productive region
to Princeton. Even before it reach
es that terminus, it cannot fail to
bring much additional produce to
our market, especially tobacco, and
those from whom we receive it will
doubtlessly add to our trade here
by making many and varied pur-
chases of our merchants. But can
we stop here? This much will
probably gain all for GAINESVILLE
that tobacco can do for it; but we
must try to work at something else
besides the tobacco business. We
must vary as well as extend our ac-
tivitIes; it is when the new railroad
is pushed beyond Princeton to the
coal fields of Western Kentucky
and beyond the Cumberland, South
ward to the ineShaustible iron
mines of South Tennessee that it |
will furnish to GAINESVILLE its great |
precisely the same OPP |
which was so promptly |
seized upon at Chattanooga some
years agO-the opportunity that has
made Birmingham, Manchesteran and |
Pittsburg-the opportunity namely
that always goes with the synthesis
Of coal and iron.
The opportunity we say; not the
and intelligence required
to make it productive; that must
spring from ourselves, or it will
avail us nothing. We must estab-
lish and prosecute the various in
dustries that depend upon the COM
ing together of these two invaluable
mineral resources Orwell. what
then ?-why, somebody else will do |
it for US and we shall be left in the
lurch. 1t was not by Dragging of
their advantages but by going to
work to utilize them that Birming-
ham and Manchester and Pittsburg
and Chattanooga have grown to be
active manufacturing centres, and
we can in time achieve the same re-
suits by doing likewise.
DEFEAT OF THE MORRISON BILL.
The Morrison Tariff bill has been