Clearfield Republican. [volume] (Clearfield, Pa.) 1851-1937, 1873-09-03
SPEECH OF
HON. VIM. A. WALLACE,
Vice President Of the Texas and Pacific
Railway. at the Shreveport Cele-
hratIOn. August Ii. lH73.

y
the completion of the connection be.
tween the cities of Shreveport and
Dallas. This link enables the products
of Central and Southern Texas TO find
with case and economy of transit
their natural market. Tho rich val
leys and teeming praires at the heads
Of Sabine and tho Trinity, concentra-
ting their productions at the one city,
will pour them in an ever-increasing
stream through the other to the com
mercial centre of the southwest, and
but few months will elapse until a
north eastern and an eastern outlet
will be added TO the facilities now
yielded you by your great river. No
man can at this time justly estimate
the size and volume of that tide of
production when at its full, for no.
whore else upon this broad continent
is found territory that can equal its
capa city TO sustain an enormous pop
ulation and to yield in rich return the
labor there expended. The richest
valley in my native State does not
equal in productive capacity the soil
that lies, fat, black and waxy, on the
head of the Trinity. The agricultu-
rist who tills the rich praires of H.
linois or Iowa, boasts Of his enormous
yield of grain, but his largest crop is
his poorest profit, for reproduction
and cost Of transportation, are barri-
ers to high prices, while in central
and northern Texas all the grain need
cd for local and personal purposes can
be successfully raised, and upon the
land not needed for this, cotton is a
sure crop and is ready sale. In the
bleak winters of Kansas, Nebraska,
Iowa and Minnesota, the live stock of
the farmer must for FIVE months be
housed and fed, while in this favored
region they grow into money without
shelter in winter, and with tho small
est modicum of care. In these two
essential points arc wealth for the pro-
ducer, population for the locality,
trade for the cities, and just return
for the capital invested by the trans
porter. Placing implicit reliance up
on the results that are to flow from
the inexhaustiblo riches of the coun-
try thcir lines traverse, the men who
are building tho work and control the
policy Of the Texas and Pacific, have
here done that which has never before
been performed on this continent
In less than ten months they have
graded and bridged nearly four hun
dred miles of railway, have laid the
track, built the machine shops. ware
houses, section houses and tanks, and
fully equipped with engines and other
rolling stock nearly one-half thereof,
have .he iron and the ties upon the
ground to complete the whole before
the LIST of December, 1878, and have
changed the gauge and fully equipped
an old line OF sixty.six miles, so that
by that date they will have in full op-
GRAFTON nearly five hundred miles of
railway within the State OF Texas
In doing Ahis they have expended
about sl0,00O,000, and neither bond
nor mortgage to the extont of one dol
lar has been executed for this purpose,
but men Of large fortunes, OF indom-
table energy and of undoubted integ-
rity have devoted their personal means
to the task, and thus endeavored to
show their faith by their works. Such
men do not contemplate a failure
Their enterprise, too, is in every sense
national one, and is recognized as
such by governmental creation and
endowment.
With It's main line reaching tho Pa.
cific at San Diego, and its branch to
San Francisco, uniting with the main
trunk in southern California, and
thence crossing the Colorado OF the
West at Yuma, following the Gila
through Arizona, traversing southern
New Mexico TO the Rio Grande and
entering Texas at FL Paso, its locomo.
tive will be the audnt courier of civii-
zation to large territory of now in.
bospitablo and waste land. The in
flux of population that will follow in
its wake will save TO the Government
the enormous sums of money annually
expended in protecting the frontier
and rcpressing Indian depredations,
whilst the facilities it will yield for
transporting machinery and supplies
TO develop the vast mineral resources
of the country it pcnetratcs, and Of
the northern provinces OF Mexico,
will bring a large addition to the ag.
gregate wealth Of the nation. With
its direct eastern connection now al
most assured from this point TO Vicks-
burg and Jackson, its limo from ocean
to ocean will be six hundred miles
shorter than that of any of its rivals,
while the ease and cheapness of trans.
portation found here and at Vicks-
burg, by water to New Orleans and
the gull, as well as the line of road
projected and certain to be made,
hence to New Orleans, will enable
ores and other heavy articles to reach
the Northern cities at cheaper rates
thar by any other lines. In tho com
pletion Of its rans-continental divi.
sion from Sherman to a junction with
the Cairo q Fulton road, which will
be effected by December, 1878, tho
peple of the northern portion of Tex
as will find, for THEN cotton and cat
tie, easy communication with St Lou.
is, Memphis and Cairo, by way of Lit
tic Rock, and the same date will find
the Jefferson division at the same
point Of junction and your city and
New Orleans will share in the profits
certain TO be drawn from tho rich re-
sources of the Red river counties of
Texas. In the completion of the lat
ter division, communication between
Galveston and ST. Louis will be made
one hundred and fifty miles shorter
than by any existing line, and the
people of the whole Of Texas will
thereby have speedy and short
limo north. Competition for business
brings cheaper frcights to the people,
and the completion Of these lines
brings into the field an earnest CON-
potitor for your trade.
Ho,ato, Hoaroo na1i., o.l Cko.