The Pulaski citizen. [volume] (Pulaski, Tenn.) 1866-current, 1885-10-22
War Against Railroads.

III IS lnblI0aOeu buaI bIc WdI upOA
the railroads will be resumed il
Mississippi at the coming session o
the legislature. " e hope this is {
mistake. Surely Mississippi is not
in a position to antagonize tht
mightiest power for the develop
ment of country nov known. The
influence of railroads in the devel
opment of a country is almost be
yond calculation. 1t is utterly use
less for any state or section 10 hope
for prosperity, for immigration, and
for the development of its natural
res sources, he they ever so great
without adequate transportation
facilities. Natural wealth, however
boundless, whether it be in vast
forests of magnificent timber, in eX
haustless beds of coal and iron, in
productive soil, in a genial cline,
or in all combined, will be of com
paratively little direct pecuniary
value unless there are sufficient
transportation facilities to open up
these resources to the business
world. The south has all these ad
vantages, but what will they avail
her if by antagonizing railroads,
they cannot be utilized. The in
dustrial and agricultural growth of
the south since 1880 has been
great, it is true, but we have only
made very small beginning when
we compare the results already ac-
complished with the magnificent
possibilities of the future. But if
these possibilities are to become
realities, encouragement must be
given to the railroad interests that
capitalists, local as well as foreign,
will feel secure in investing money
in new railroad enterprises. How
car it be expected that men having
any judgment whatever will put
their money into any enterprise
over which they have no control.
Surely a man would be lacking in
sense who would invest his money
in building a railroad in any of
the two or three southern states
which have shown such decided
hostility to all railroads, so long as
the iniquitOus laws against this
class of property are permitted to
remain on the statute books.
"We invite you to come and
spend your millions in building new
roads; in improving old ones; in
opening up territory heretofore
facilities for travel or traffic;
in causing the development of coal
and iron mines; the building of
furnaces, factories and mills of all
kinds; we invite you to give us
these blessings that will furnish en-
ployment to thousands of laborers,
skilled and unskilled, that will ena-
bic our young men to find profita-
BILE employment at home, instead of
going west, as in the past; that will
add largely to the population
and wealth of our state; that will
furnish home market for farmers,
and thus help to relieve them from
the curse of the all-cotton system
these and many other blessings we
ask you to give u.s." is the invita-
ton extended by the south to rail
road capitalists; "but we wish you
TO understand" says some of the
southern states, 'that while we
ask all this at your hands, we will
do all in power to return evil for
good; we will take the control of
your property from you; we will
To
be unremunerative, and from the
decision of a few politicians, good
or bad as they may be, you shall
have no appeal; in other words, we
will endeavor to create hostile feel
ing against you and your property,
and to make your investment an un-
profitable one" This is really the
condition of affairs IN the south
Georgia has tried it, and her peo
people have found out to their sor-
row that their arbitrary laws have
kept millions of dollars out of the
state. Tennessee adopted the same
policy, but soon saw that a big
mistake had been made. South !
Carolina tried it, and the enact
nent Of her laws on that subject
prevented the expenditure of $5
100000 or $6,000,000 that had al
'eady been secured for building a
on which work was to have
been commenced just at the time
her railroad commission was es
Is it not time for the south to see
,he wisdom of Offering encourage
nent to capitalists to build rail
'oads within her borders, and to
'egard them as her greatest bene-
factors, rather than to drive them
away by unfriendly and unjust leg
slation?-Baltimore Man. Record.