Year: 1879

the people of Tennessee have no il
terest in their railroads. AS a MAJ
ter of fact, the man who looks upo
society and leaves ont . part of
so absolutely essential as its system
Of transportation, 10 not capable Q
reasoning on the subject at all. On
who, possessing interests as a Ia
borer, or producer, property owner
or receiver of wages or a salary
any man who is not simply loafer
} strikes q blow at these interests


strikes q blow st his own livelihood


Grant that they sometimes pursue


their own interests to the injury o.


others, as all corporations, all com


panies, all men do, the cure for that


is to apply such remedies as can be


devised. We do not know that


Tennessee roads are accused oi


trampling upon the rights of others,


but we accept as general principle


that all men pursue their own in


terssts, and expect others to'dO the


same. We are not their champion


or defender; but we have steadily


urged dealing with all railroads and


all other interests as if they were,


as they are, parts of our social and


economical system, indispensable to


every interest in it, entitled to just


and fair dealing.


1t is difficult for the citizen to see


how much he owes to this system.


He enjoys the advantages as he en-
joys air and water, only knowing
they exist when they are vitiated.


Who ever thinks Of the part of q
railroad in bringing cheap fuel,
cheap goods, enabling one to reach
distant markets and highest prices
for products? Blot out the roads,
to take Nashville as an instance,
and we do not hesitate to assert
that an estimate Of the cost Of fuel
alone would demonstrate the abso.
lutte impossibllity Of years exis-
tence for this city. Nashville did
live once without all these coal
bringing roads, but then the rest of
the world was on the same plane.
Now it would be absolute destruc.
tion. Whoever thinks Of this? 1t
is just an incident of daily life.
which has become a natural advan-
tage. What county in Tennessee
would exist and produce if its pro-
ducts could not reach a railroad?
Not one. People would dwell in
all Of them, but their mansions
would be cabins, and their chief
possessions a three -gourd martin
box, an ash-hopper, string of red
pepper, a punger gourd, and pos
sum dog. Where it would cost the
price of bushel of wheat to trans
port it to market, it is easy to see
that it would not be produced.
These transportation lines are the
Yeins and arteries of our system,
and without them no life.bloOd flows.
They are essential, absolutely so,
to every interest, great and small.


To leave them thus exposed to
an unjust suit, which will cast the
whole system into inextricable con.
fusion, damage every avenue of
trade, and cause general derange-
ment in our commerce and transpor
tation, 10 piece of folly which only
the deepest ignorace could render
possible. It has taken the years
since the war to build up a system
of transportation of which the roads
and the mere running are only a
part. Few have ever thought, per-
haps, of the infinite interests at
home and abroad to be adjust ed in
order to perfect the freight carriage
system. Government is nothing to
it. For infinite detail, infinite vars
iety of interests, to be adjusted,
correction of injustice done here,
repair Of loss done there, nothing
on earth compares with it. To bring
the Tennessee system into harmony
with that of the rest e. the country.
to secure harmony and to preserve
independence and justice to the
roads and the people, has been
work Of vast proportions. Perhaps
few have ever thought of it, To
keep it in this condition is an equal
task entrusted to the men who have
brought it to what it ia. Now it ia
proposed by leaving the State debt
nncompromised, to cast all this labor
to the winds, TO have it all TO do
over again. to produce inextricabIe
confusion in our whole commercial
and industrial life. The farmer in
the country may think he has but
little to do with this system. On
the contrary, there is not man in
this State, producer or loafer, who
is not connected with and depend
ant on it, for even the loafer would
have nothing to beg or steal if this
system were brought to a sudden
stop. Every surplus egg, chicken,