Public Ledger

The Knoxville Tribune says: Nature has unquestionably marked out the site of Memphis as a grand trading and shipping point under the present regime, but, we seriously question whether if circumstances should hereafter impair her importance in that respect, her present site would be either an eligible or desirable one for manufacturing purposes.

Manufactories, in order to be successful, must be located at points at which the operatives can remain during the entire year. The capitalist in seeking an eligible site for a cotton factory will never pass by Knoxville, in the same State with Memphis, and give the preference to the latter. Long before the day of railroads a cotton factory was successfully operated at this point, and now with our increased and rapidly increasing facilities, there is not on the continent a point which combines so many advantages in that respect as Knoxville. We hope to see some of the enterprising capitalists of Memphis turning their attention to Knoxville as a point within their own State where their pluck, talent and energy will receive "a just recompense of reward."

We have no doubt that Knoxville will be as large a place as Memphis is now at no distant day; by that time we hope that Memphis will have a population of over one hundred thousand people.