The weekly democratic statesman. [volume] (Austin, Tex.) 1871-1883, 1876-07-06
A LION DISGUISE.

" AN ACT FOB THE RELIEF or RAILROAD AM OTHEE
INTERNAL IMPROVEMENT COMPANIES
"SEcTIOS /. BE Il enacted Ly tie Legislature
Of tie Stdte IF Ierds, That the first thirty dav.
after the adjournment Of the present session oi
this Legislature shall not be counted against amy
railroad company other internal improvement
company which has commenced its work in good
faith: and any such company completing
within thirty days after the adjournment OF
this session of the Legislature any work required
by law TO have been done prior 10 that time
shall be considered as not having forfeited I~
grants, rights, and franchises under the terms OF
its charter or charters.
"SEC. 2. There being emergency that
works Of internal'improvement may not be im
peded in their construction tins act shall take
effect and be in force from and after its passage.
1t is not our purpose to be sensational in what
we have to say in reference TO this bill. 1t is a
bill of the very gravest import to the people OF
Texas, and it seeks to accomplish a most i'm
portant private end under the guise of general
and generous legislation. In order to have made
the caption of this bill express its real object it
should have been entitled g An act to relieve the
Texas and Pacific Railroad Company against a
forfeiture of the lands heretofore granted them
and the reservation of the public domain hereto
fore made in their BEHALF
We are not afraid to trust the representatives
of the people in this matter; but the press has a
duty to perform and we shall not cease to de-
mand that this great corporation that has been
80 highly favored in the past shall be held to a
strict account, and if it be found not to have per
formed its undertakings, after having received
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legislatures, that it be put on the same footing
with other companies that have built and are
building roads in Texas What is the history of
the Texas and Pacific Railroad Company? What
has it accomplished? What does it now pro
pose?
This company was chartered by the national
government to build railroad through Texas
to the Pacific ocean. The two rival roads in
Texas were consolidated and made apart of the
scheme. The Twelfth Legislature made grant
of six millions of bonds to these two companies,
three millions to the Trans Continental and
three millions to the Southern Pacific. with a
proviso in the bill that the State might substitute
lands for the bonds when the constitutional in
hibition against granting lands to railroad COM
panies was removed The constitution of 1869
was amended, authorizing the Legislature to
grant lands to railroad companies. In May, 1873,
the Legislature passed the act adjusting and de-
timing the rights of the Texas and Pacific Rail
road Company within the State of Texas. This
act granted to said company twenty sections of
land for every mile of road 10 be built on the
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to Fort Worth and on a single line from Fort
Worth to FL Paso. This act also set apart for
the benefit of said company an immense reserva-
ton of public lands. The act MAY ., 1879 re-
quired the road to be built from Marshall by way
of Jefferson and Texarkana to Sherman by the
first of July, 1874; and from Sherman to Fort
Worth by the first day of January 1875, and
from Longview to Fort Worth by the first
day of July, 1874. The company failed to COM
ply with these original conditions, and on the
thirtieth of April, 1874, the Legislature passed
general law extending for a period of twelve
months the time within which companies prose-
cutting works of internal improvement were re-
quired by their charters to complete their under
takin2s. The Texas and Pacific Railroad Com
pany failed to comply with the requirements of
this act of April 30, 1874, and on the fifteenth
of March, 1875, the Legislature passed another
general law extending the time for Constructions
of works of Internal Improvement. This last
law contained four provisos in reference to the
Texas and Pacific Railroad Company but space
only permits us to call attention to one of them.
1t was provided by the said act of March To-
lsT5,' that the Texas and Pacific Company shall
construct and put in running order as much as
twenty miles of road between Brookston and
TeNarkana by the first day of November, 1875 -
Now we believe there is no pretense that one
single mile or foot of these twenty miles was
built by the first day of November 1915, and
we assert that on the first day of November,
1875, the Texas and Pacific Railroad Company
forfeited all right to any donations of land or
of lands, except upon its completed
road" for the original condition on which the
lands were donated and reserved continued in
full force whenever the company failed to com
ply with the requirements of tie law in refer
encc to construction. Some have thought that
the convention relieved against this forfeiture;
but this is not so. The convention ordinance
provided that in view of the financial misfor-
tunes now existing, no railroad company char
tered or holding grants under this State, which
has heretofore organized and commenced work
in good faith, shall be considered as having lost
any of its rights, privileges or. grants prior to
the close of the next session of the Legislature
of this State by virtue Of lapse of time 5etgce,n
R0'c and that time" This ordinance was passed
November %, 1875, twenty-three days after the
company had incurred the forfeiture This is
plain statement Of the case, and it is not, to say
the least candid and ingenious on the part of
this company to come before the Legislature and
ask the remission of forfeiture under the guse
of a general law asking for an extension of time
for the brief period of thirty days Is this, in
fact general law? VIII it benefit any company
in Texas except the Texas and Pacific? Does it
not evade the constitutional requirement that no
lice Of an application for passage of a special
law shall be published in the locality to be affect
ed by il for thirty days, SO that the people may
be heard from?
But we say this extraordinary grant of land
aud this reservation of the public domain was
made to secure the construction of a
Pacific rlad, aud there has ceased TO. be any
probability that The Texas and Pacific Company
will ever~buid a milo of road west Of Fort
Worth. Col SeOttis asking Congress to guar
nnty the interest on bonds to the amount of forty
thousand dollars to the mile TO secure the con
'truction Of the road, and he is reported to have
said very frSnkly to the Congressional committee
ihat the road could NOT be built by his eompany
without this guaranty. Now, every sane man
Knows that Congress is not going to commit the
soverument to any such obligation. and it fol-
lows that Texas cannot hook TO this conpany 70
build a Pacific road. The Legislature should
therefore resume the control of the vast body OF
The public domain reserved for the benefit Of this
eo@p~uy. Il Is in our opinion very. doubtful
whether the Legislators, has IN, .,,,-..r n ral;..-