The Columbia herald. [volume] (Columbia, Tenn.) 18??-1935, 1900-09-21
FOR ANOTHER RAILROAD.

An average OF 60 cars Of phosphate
rock are being shipped daily from
Mt. Pleasant, even this dull season.
This alone gives the l.. Il N. R'il-
road Co. monthly business OF $50
600. But this Ia only about half the
business they did last year, their
freight receipts from that point !
being nearly one million dollars.
From Mt. Pleasant on to the Ten |
nessee river new line of railroad
could be built that would reach !
other rich phosphate fields and al
most inexhaustible timber lands.
Is that not an inviting field for
capitalists? And what more con
Germs us, Is that not an easy way for
Mt. Pleasant and Columbia to get
from under the dominion and con-
troll OF the L. & N? Why should the
phosphate dealers at Mt. Pleasant
pay one million dollars a year to the
l.. & N. Railroad Co. when, with a
competing line, they could save at
least one-fourth of that? 1t would
not take many years for that saving
alone to build and equip the new
railroad.
But that world not be half the
saving. Think of what the mer-
chants of Mt. Pleasant and Columbia
would save. Think of what the
potatoe growers at Ashwood would
save. Think of what the horse and
mule and cattle dealers would save.
Think, ifyou can, of the thousand
and one things, corn, oats, hay, pro-
duce and podltry, upon every one of
which overcharges are made by the
l.. & N, and then remember that
"money saved is money made" and
you can begin to estimate how much
money the people of this county
would make by interesting them
selves in the building of new rail-
road from Columbia, via Mt. Pleas
ant, to the Tennessee river and to
other connecting railroads indie
pendent of the L & N.
| Nobody will deny the benefits to
be derived from another railroad,
entirely independent of the L. & N.
and connecting with other independ-
ent lines. And few If any will ques-
ton the statement that along the
proposed route is an inviting field to
capitalists. The trouble, almost
everybody will say, is to get the
money. But in this we do not agree
with almost everybody. The big
gest trouble, as we see it, is to get
the people of this county actually
enough interested to try to get the
money.
If ten or a dozen men from Mt.
Pleasant, and as many from Column
bia-men of affairs and financial
standing would meet and prepare
paner setting forth all the advan-
tages and prospects new road
would have, and appoint a commit
tee of two or three from their num-
Der to go to New York with this
} prospectus, and instruct them to
} stay there a month if necessary,
showing and explaining it to New
, York and other Eastern capitalists,
they would come back in a measure
successful, and work would be be-
gun on that new road next spring,
and finished while the l.. & n. is
talking about building a new depot
at Columbia.
Our Chamber of Commerce efforts
in the past have been too scattering.
We should start this movement
with one definite object in view (;
that is, new railroad. And the
services Of one thoroughly compe-
tent, experienced man (not in rail-
road matters but in business affairs
generally should be employed to
. devote his entire time and attention
to that one object.
Il IL YOU Gan Cou'luCo Vie bdsG5I II
, capitalists that it will pay; if YOUR
facts and figures will make them ac-
tually believe that, it would be as
8 easy to get enough money to build
the proposed railroad to the Ten
2 nessee river, as it would to build a
4 spur to one of the phosphate mines
{ near Mt. Pleasant.
What we need, and all we need IL
o intelligent action, and enough work.
Y ing capital to employ the services
J., and Ray the expenses OF capable,
e conscientious, energetic man to at
@ tend to the business for us.