Clarksville weekly chronicle. (Clarksville, Tenn.) 1873-1890, 1884-08-30
FACTS AND FIGURES.
The Result of the Railroad
Commission in Tennessee.
Injury Inflicted on the Industrial
Interestingly Charters
Dead Letters.

That industry which more nearly
contains within itself all the elements
OF scientific development, embracing
the whole scope of the intellectual
business requirements, is the railroad
industry OF this country-a national
pride, the power. and strength
OF the land, which perneates the
whole internal economy Of the coun-
try, and magically spreads prosperity
and activity from its approach as the
sun does light and heat to the dawn.
ing day.
From afeeble, struggling line, looked
upon with Indifference and subjected
to disastrous prophecy, the railroads OF
the Union have gathered the peoples
OF the earth together, built cities, es-
tablished prosperity and made desert
places bloom. At single bound the
vast continent is spanned and spider
webbed with inyigorating lines, which,
like arteries, grow tense and full with
glorious life. Prosperity, energy, &C
tiylty, intelligence and wealth are all
handmaideDs of this queen OF modern
industry. What land, what people.
what nation, what state, what county,
village, hamlet, neighborhood or man
dares in the face of its grand accom-
Pllshment eoolly to reject such an en-
terprise?
In the light of present political sur
roundings in Tennessee and in the
gloom OF its present railroad future, the
answer is that, like Georgia and South
Carolina, Tennessee covers and cringes,
falters and mumbles out, that she has
added herself 10 the list of the In
glorious, and frowns upon them with
In her borders. She puts it into the
history of her people that, in 1882,
misled, blinded and stultified by the
voices of a score of minded zeal
OTIS, she put an extinguisher upon the
glowing flame of railroad advancement
and planted her foot upon its prosper
ity and growth, by inserting in her
Democratic platform the plank for the
commission advent She heralded it
10 capitalize most sensitive financial
plant, which anything less than a
breath closes-that not only does she
intend to cripple those roads which
code of doctrines, that she will prevent
any further lines from being estab-
Hshed in her borders. She says to en-
terprise, energy and commercial pros
perity: 81 inrite you Nth my left hasd
and cut your throat with my right"
She proposed, in that year of all
misadventure, to say to all railroad
projectors that they might come and
toll and build, but when completed
they should have foisted, as overseers,
over their skilled and experienced
servants, the arbitrary, unlearned and
prejudiced judgment of three men,
not one of whom had had the least
training for their special forum, and
who should WELD unlimited and des-
potic powers. What has resulted? ?
Statistics. illustrate the disasters
which have followed, and which will
continue, unless sober and cool judg-
ment is sprinkled upon the passions
OF such leaders as have put this folly
in existence. In 1882 the war upon
The railroads was inaugurated. Its
baleful effects are to be seen when it
c nsidered that, of nearly one hun
dred railroad charters now on file in
the Office of the Secretary of State,
less than one hundred miles of rail-
road have been built in Tennessee
since that period.
In 1888 there were built in the
United States $50 miles of railroad,
of which the Southern States received
l,716 miles. The effect of commits
sions upon railway construction can
be fairly illustrated by a comparison
OF three Southern States which have q
mandatory commission with three
others which have none, to-wit:
With Commission. without Commission.
Miles. Miles.
GeOrgia............ s. Florida............... 245
Tennessee. 10 Louisiana........... 29s
BY reference to Poor's Manual of
the railroads of the United States for
1884 we are informed by the Statisti-
clan that there were at the close of
the fiscal year 1888 in the United
States l20, $50 miles Of railroad, and
according to the report of the Railroad
Tax Assessor of Tennessee for 1884,
there were il the State of Tennessee
at the same period emily 2,1034 miles;
distributed among the counties in the
three divisions of the State as follows:
wEsT TKENEssKE.
Miles.
Benton ......--....-....'..'. 241s
Carroll. ~