The comet. (Johnson City, Tenn.) 1884-1916, 1891-11-26
Importance of Both Lines to
this County.
A Clear and Logical Statement from
Judge Hacker
As TO the Immediate and Remote Ell.
fects the Roads Will Have.
JoNEsBoRo, Nov. q.

whether or not this county shall grant
aid to the Louisville, Cumberland Gap
and Atlantic Railroad Company and
the Unaka and Nolachucky Railroad
Company. The triumph or defeat OF
this proposition is, in my judgment,
fraught with the most momentous
consequences to our people. If we
vote the aid, these roads will both be
built. If we refuse to vote the aid, in
all probability neither will be built.
It is certain that the first named road
will not be built through this county,
if the proposition is defeated. 1t does
not require any great financial fore
sight to foretell the great advantages
of both these roads to Washington
county. A railroad from the Atlantic
seaboard entering this county east OF
Johnson City, passing through john
son City Jonesboro and Fall Branch,
entering Hawkins county and passing
down the Holston river, thence by way
of Beams Station and Cumberland Gap
to Louisville Kentucky, will certainly
prove to be one Of the most important
railroad lines in the South. 1t will
Enthusiastically afford competing line
from the Atlantic seaboard to the west
ern cities, and in the one item of
cheapening freights will ultimately
mere than repay the people of Wash
iugton county, the amount Of aid re-
quested. The Unaka and Nolachucky
will certainly be very important
line. II bonds are granted, they cannot,
under the contract, be delivered, until
these railroads are completed through
the county. Just 80 soon as these rail-
rods are completed they will be liable
to taxation. The taxes on the roads
will pay the interest on the bonds
two or three times over. The
general enhancement in the val
ues of property along the railroad
line will, Of itself, increase the assess
ment sufficiently, in few years, to
moro than pay the interest on all the
bonds asked.
Towns and villages will most GER
tainly spring up at the stations oil along
the lines. New life and new energy
will be infused into the population
touched by them, and in less than five
years the man who would condemn
the action of the people, in voting
bonds, would be set down as an old
fogy and hooted out Of the community
Railroads have always been the har
0ingers OF other enriching and civiliz
ing influences. Build these two roads
and in less than five years the popula'
ton OF Washington county will be
doubled-the wealth of her people
will be quadrupled--the old iogies and
drones will seek more congenial chimes
ard a new and vigorous population
will take their places. New enter
prises will spring up by the hundreds
all along these lines, labor at fair prices
will be furnished to the laboring man
and the farmer will have a good mar
ket right at his door for all the surplus
he can produce.
This is no mere utopian dream. Il
10 simply what the New England PEG
pie, in their cold sterile cline, have
done, by fostering such public enter
prises. 1t is what Pennsylvania, the
greatest railroad state in the Union
has done. 1t is what Illinois and 9th
er prosperous western states have done
Shall we 60 to sleep, and let few un
thinking croakers rob us of thi'
golden opportunity to enrich oul
county, Shall we not bestil
ourselves between this and the 18th O
December next, and see that the PEG
pie are enlightened as to these mat
tiers? Let every man see his neighbol
and II he is not right on these ques
tions, try to get him right, and ther
get him to the polls. 1t will be too late
to bemoan our misfortune when the
proposition has been defeated, anC
when one Of these roads has been 10
Gated through an adjoining county.
Some misguided men are appealing
to laboring men and men of small
means, to vote against the proposition
If there is man in the county, who
above all others, ought to advocate anC
vote for the proposition it is the lab
orer, and the man who pays little Of
no taxes. The laboring man want:
that which will bring him employ
ment, and that, too, at remunerative
prices. These railroad enterprises viii
certainly do this. The man who paws