Clarksville weekly chronicle. (Clarksville, Tenn.) 1873-1890, 1885-11-14
Mel. ssahlman On Tie MN Question.
40 fha ftataa.

tlertook 10 show that tho milling inter.
est al Nashville was being crippled by
the railroads carrying -four from wes-
tern cities ito tho lar south" M such
rates that our homo mills could not
compete, and, therefore, flour was be-
ling piled up in Nashville, putting the
amount in millers' hands Mt $4,000
barrels. The millers promptly respon-
ded to this absurd charge, showing
that il was untrue, and that the roads
We're doing Nashville millcrs full JUS
tice.
In its issue OF Sunday morning that
paper takes another chute and endeav-
ors to show that the roads are doing
too much for the millers, bringing
wheat here too cheap, greatly to the
detriment OF the Tennessee farmers.
Such miserable lodging and flop
Plug has never before characterized a
Journal making any pretensions to fair
dealing.
Anything, in fact everything done by
the roads, or things not done at all, are
a crime in the eyes OF that paper.
In its Sunday article quotations OF
rates on wheat are given from Pulaski
and Columbia, Tenn, and Hopkins
vile, Red River and Adairsville, KY,
to show that the rates are higher to
Nashville than from Detroit, Mich.
This it pronounces discrimination
against the farmers of Tennessee. Let
us look at this moment. Even when
the Tennessee crop OF wheat is good,
very little of that grown near Pulaski,
Columbia, Hopkinsville, Red River,
or Adairsville comes to Nashville.
The large milling interests of those
towns, including Russellville, KY, are
able, as a rule, to consume the wheat,
shipping the -four to southern markets.
But the wheat crop of Tennessee and
Kentucky this year was failure; many
fields we're plowed up; the country
did not produce enough to supply
home consumption; not one in ten OF
the farmers had a bushel to sell; many
not enough to supply their own imme-
diate wants, large number being OBJ
liged to buy even for seed. The towns
of Pulaski, Columbia, Hopkinsyille
and RusseIlville, all good milling
points, have not been able Ito buy
enough home wheat to keep their
mills running. Instead OF those Sec
tons shipping wheat for sale, the mills
are obliged to import; in fact, Ten
nessee and the whole country south of
us must import both wheat and flour
this year, and that very largely. So
general was this failure of crops in the
winter wheat sections that even Him
OILS, Indiana and Ohio were largely af-
fected. Nashville had mills; so had
other points in Tennessee and Ken
lucky The question to determine was
whether wheat should be brought
here from abroad to keep our mills
going and furnish breadstuffs to our
unfortunate people Mt a reasonable cost
or whether the roads should demand
such rates as to stop our mills, throw
large number of people out of en-
ployment, and thus force our people TO
go abroad for their flour, and pay wes-
tern millers such prices as they might
see fit to exact, adding such rates of
freight as -four should bear to the rates
on grain, which, under the Americans
theory, would have added fifty to
seventy-fve cents per barrel to the
present ruling price of flour here.
An intelligent view of the situation
said: Bring the wheat; keep the
mills running; give employment to
the large number of poor people en-
ployed by the mills; give those who
failed to make crop their bread on
as reasonable terms as the condition of |
things will permit and let the surplus
flour made by our Tennessee and Ken
lucky mills go "to the far south to |
keep up their trade, rather than let |
the wheat go from Detroit or other
western points to Baltimore on the |
low trunk line rates to be ground into
-four and the south supplied by steam
ers through Charleston and Savannah |
in chat wav. This course seems to
have given great oilense to the Ameri
can. 1t would have had the railroads
put high rate on wheat and flour
from the west, and thus enabled it to
raise the howl that ''these monster
mOnopolies, unmindful of the nlisfor-
tunes OF the producer and the poor
people of Tennessee, were making
the most of their opportunity by eX-
acting outrageous rates on the neces-
sarieS OF Ife.n But, thanks to the peo-
pie and the last legislature, which OBJ
served its instructions, the railroads OF
this state are not being run or con-
trolled by the Americans machine"
they are still in the hands of their
owners, who have an interest in com
mon with the people, and are willing
to help bear their misfortunes. Assum-
ing the air of public benefactor Sor
saint, the American, in closing Its arti-
Gle, gives utterance to the following
These facts are given in no
spirit of personal hostility to the
road" Of course not; it was done
from a pure sense of duty; everybody
knows the American bears no hostility;
its columns have been full of love and
praise OF railroads; it only wants a
political machine to
wreck property belonging to other
people in the interest of boss rule"
and machine politics." Tha's all;
there IS no hostility in this.
f. B. STAHLMAN.