The Dallas weekly herald. [volume] (Dallas, Tex.) 1873-1885, 1874-08-08
Freight Charges.
To the Editor OF the Dallas Herald:


desire, through your columns, to
call the public attention to an enorm-
Gus injustice practiced upon the wheat
growing region of Texas. The injus-
tice complained OF will be self-evident
by the bare statement of two facts.
The one is that the Central read
ships wheat from Dallas to Austin at
seventy dollars per car load, and
charges for -four to Austin one hun
dred and forty dollars per car load.
The other is, that the charge upon
wheat from Kansas City to Galveston
is sixty cents per one hundred pounds,
to Houston fifty-five cents, and to Dali
las sixty-five cents.
The question comes up, why these
odious determinations? 1t is fact
well known that the design has been
long premeditated by Houston, and re-
Gently by Galveston, of subordinating
the wheat growing interest fall north
ern Texas to the ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
of those cities. Mr.. Cave was on the
ground when the advent of the Central
railroad was celebrated in Dallas, to
graciously inform the people that
Houston would build mills and grain
elevators, etc., for their benefit. An
out of the way place, with no natural
advantages, it seeks to sustain its ex-
istence by adventitiOus props. The
yery exigencies of her surroundings
has made her people a little the
sharpest in the state, and if they can,
by any means, transfer the entire busi-
ness of manufacturing flour from the
wheat section of the state to their own
city they would be delighted, and the
Central railroad would chuckle ut the
opportunity of freighting flour back to
the people who grow the wheat.
Other things being equal no one can
deny that the fittest place for the man
ufacture of -four is in the region where
the wheat is produced. The direct
tendency of the present rail-
road charges is to break down the
milling Interests of northern Texas
and force surplus wheat below the
region of its production to be mann.
featured into -four. This process In
turn forces the millers of this section
to take from the price they Pay for
wheat the sum of these excessive
charges. And what is the next result?
Why, that the millers thus deprived
of the ability to enter into fair compe-
tition must sooner or later abandon
their business and leave Galveston and
Houston to take the wheat mt such
prices as will give them enormous
profits, or they must seek to get such
reduction upon railroad freights as
will enable them to draw their sup
plies of wheat from st. Louis, Kan
sas City, or both, as may seem best.
The writer has no sympathy with
any eXtraneous influences that may be
adopted.to divert trade from its natural
channels. The violation of any OF ma
ture's ordinations whether in religion,
ethics or commerce, is always at
tended with evils and wisdom would
dictate cooperation with them rather
than opposition. But what does the
greed of Houston and the Central rail-
road (for they are identicaD care about
the natural laws of commerce? What
do they care for the general welfare?
And here we would remark that Gal
weston, that has always heretofore act
ell as check upon the cOrmOrant pro.
pensities of Houston and the Central
railroad, is now with singular faulty
cheek by jowl with them in trying to
eviscerate this region of the state.
She has so acted as to destroy the nat
ural sympathy that should exist be
tween her and this section until
now, If straws show which way
the wind blows, she is ripening hos
tility and positive hatred towards the
infant city of Dallas. Can it be sup
posed that Dallas or this section of the
state will tolerate the odious discrimi-
nations now existing? No one exr
pected anything but intense selfishness
| from Houston and the Central railroad
But from Galveston, aspiring to be the
emporium of this great state, much
disappointment and modification Is
felt that she should be playing second
| fiddle to the little, narrOw.minded pol
lev of Houston. The friends of Calves
ton expected her to rise superior to
petty interests and prejudices, and to
throw the whole weight of her intlu-
ence i'm behalf of equal justice and fair
dealing to all sections of the state,
but 1t would seem that she has
been overreached, and is tied on to
the tail of Houston, the patron saint of
the Central railroad. No people hav-
ing the common elements of manhood
would tolerate such wrongs, and we
must take these questions to the next
legislature. We must there, before the
people Of the state, see If there is no pow
er to mete out justice to this section
of the state. The public odium that
floats around the Central railroad
can be brought to bear successfully up
nn A and AZ rnt,st ha dono No cOrDO-