The commercial. (Union City, Tenn.) 190?-193?, 1903-02-27
COMING TO THE POINT.

where something has to be done *
keep in the procession, CONNER
cially and indnstrially, or take
back seat. We mast be up anc
getting move on ourselves, or bt
distanced in the race for suprema
cy. We must do something but
what can we dog That is the ques
ton. All are agreed that we are
"sick unto" perhaps not death
but fine case of stagnation. The
/ Commercial Club has been doing
its best, but really, coming down
to bedrock, we have no advantages
to offer in the way of inducing
new factories to come here and 10
cate. The offer of non taxation,
free water and lights is practically
nothing to a concern worth getting.
What is, say one or two hundred
dollars to induce a man to locate
in any towns The matter Of Civ
ing a lot, worth, perhaps, a few
hundred dollars, would not turn
the scale in our favor. There are
literally hundreds of towns now
offering the same things. This
writer is not a pessimist-not by a
whole lot-but a born optimist,
who never had the "blues" or the
''bots" in his life. and never ex-
poets to. He believes that it is
utterly impossible to induce any
factory, worth having, to locate
here. Whys Why should theyg
This day and time the difference in
equipment and facilities for doing
business means profit, success or.
failure. Factories away from here,
seeking new location, want all
the facilities they can get. What
chance have we with the cities?
While it costs trife more to get
raw material, the difference in
skilled labor, transportation, low
interest and cheaper insurance
more than outweighs advantage in
what we might have in cheaper
raw material. How is 1t, and why
is it that the skilled Massachusetts
Yankee can haul his iron ore from
Michigan and his coal from Penn
sylvania, and make articles and
sell them in the city of Birming
ham, Ala, cheaper than they can
be made there, when Birmingham
has coal on one side of a mountain
and iron ore on the other? Whyg|
Because the Yankee has the facili-
ties and knows how. 1t is out of
the question to induce people
from distance to come here and
put up factory, when they can
60 to a place which can offer more
advantages. There is a number of
local concerns here, owned and
operated by home people, and
would it not be better idea to
them to enlarge their
plants, and build up and foster the
industries we have, and try and
get more home people to put money
in such things that we know some
thing about9 Before we 60 out to
get in outsiders, let's improve
what we have. Let's make our
town grow. When we get the size,
you can't keep people away from
us. Nothing succeeds like success.
There is but one hope for this town
to ever become larger. 1t must
depend on it's schools, and its mer-
chants, and upon It's agricultural
and what few factories
it now has.
By using these means for all
hey are worth, we can grow and
flourish. One thing we can do,
md one thing that would be more
20 Union City than anything else:
Is to build a railroad from here to
riptonville. This is practicable,
and sensible. The build
ng of this road would give us
supremacy in West
Tennessee, outside of Memphis.
This road would handle at least
IS per cent. of the entire product
If Lake county, cotton, corn,
umber, wheat, etc. This would
mean a lar0e number of new busi-