The Columbia herald. [volume] (Columbia, Tenn.) 18??-1935, 1900-11-02
THE GRIP OF MONOPOLY.
Mr.. Jere Baxter's Arrangement of
the L. g. N. Railroad.

When the new terminal station at
Nashville was ded icated IN was made
the occasion by the l.. q n. Railroad
Co.,,fVny amount ut >, li-laudation;
and aay one wuu heard the sp 'echeS
or lead them, and knew nothing
more of the facts AMI circumstance,
wouli have thought, as indeed 4
was openly claimed, THAT the l. d n.
Railroad Co. was not only the most
powerful factor in NA-hville's If
aud history. but the clty's most un-
selfish, pdol'c spirltei aud LIBERAL
beneGactOr.
But concerning some important
truths the speakers were discreetly
silent. For Instance, they did not
tell, neither Will either of the l. "
n. Nashville organs, or for that mat
ter tn cir organs Elsewhere tell, that
at the very time their -pellbinderr
were rehearsiug their parts, the l.
& N. management was doing its
level best TO prevent another rail-
road from entering the forbidden
territory of the Capital city OF Ten
nessee.
They didn't tell that Neither did
they tell how for twenty years THIS
same railroad monopoly has throt
tied by fair means or foul, every new
railroad enterprise that sought to
invade its sacred territory Of Middle
Tennessee.
But Mr.. Jere Bax er, in pamph-
let he has recently published, oy re
quest of the Citizens Railroad Com
mittee of Nashville, tells 1t all, and
tells it so entertairly that we
thought our readers would find it
interesting reauIng. Fer their bene
cit, therefore, we have borrowed at
some length from Mr. Bakers book
let. He says, speaking of Mr.. Ed
Baxter's after dinner effort, "he at
Temps by vulnerabe argument to
make people almost on the eve of
revolution, patleut and satisfied
with commercial condition whose
humiliation is no longer toerable. ("
These are strong words, but they are
true.
Speaking of the period in Nash
ville's history when she had six in
dependence lines of railway, to wit:
n. e. c., l.. q N, Tenn & Pacific,
Edgefield q Kentucky, Nashville q
Northwestern, Nashville q Decatur
-(before the l.. u N. combined
them into one monopoly under one
management speaking of this
period, from 1871 to 1880, Mr.. Baxter
sayN:
"This decade was the most pros
porous in the commercial annals of
our city, when tie census Their
mometer rose to the highest degree
ever yet recorded in the matter OF
increased population, touching the
maximum point of 776 per
cent. Now let us compare
the condition OF our city in the last
decade of Louisville and Nashville
rule with that period of independent
transportation facilities above re.
tered to. We will fluid, instead of a
growth OF n 6 per cent in our popu
lation, as was the case from 1870 &c
1880, the mist bile statement by the
national census that our Inhabitants
have increased i'll number only 6 pei
cent--in fact. not representing even
the logical births during the decade
which shows hat some of the babie'
have actually crlwled away. The
discovery that we are isolated ii
this condition makes the revelation
more painful TO every patriotic citi.
ZEN; for look at the g'owth of sister
cities that have the average of com
petition in transportation facilities
Memphis has grown 81 per cent; At
lanta, u per cent; Birmingham, II
per cent; Knoxville, 45 per cent
while the average OF the cities of the
whole country has been five times
that of Nashville, or 30 per cent. Ii
1885 both Chicago and Nashville
had population of 5000, but nov
Chicago contains about as many PEG
pie as the whole Of Tennessee bu
Chicago Is the hub Of 10000 miles o
railroad and has 1926 trains daily.
"Exhuming the skeletons In ou
graveyard little more in detail
what do we discover? First, tina
our merchants are not prosperous
For our tax books record only tw,
names of persons possessing over$2O0
900 OF real estate odt of a population
of over 80 600, and our manufacturin,
institutions have Jared no batter
and I dare say that many of GU
large office buildings, for want o
tenants, DO not yield their owners
per cent. on the original investment
The price of steam coal is cents
'bushel, of which . cent goes to tn
local dealer, cent to the min
owner, and cents to the railroad
This is the coal that makes tn
steam that turns the wheels of tn
factories. On the Cast of the turn 0
that axle depends prosperity or fail
ure. The assessed valuation of prop
erty has decreased from 1891, show
ing a loss of $3.50 635. When yo
compare our banking capital an
deposits with other cities of tn
South, we find that, per capita, IL
this regard we rank among the al.
leading cities OF he South the mos
Impoverished, as will be seen from
the following table, in which we up
pear in the deposit column, pc
capita, as the smallest, showing tina
our people have less money indi
vidualiy than any community in til
Soutk among the large cities: