The weekly democratic statesman. [volume] (Austin, Tex.) 1871-1883, 1877-04-26
.OUTHERN TEXAS AND FREE
I TRADE ACROSS ARKANSAS.

Kentucky and Virginia and Tennes-
see railways converging at Memphis
have sought in vain to arrange equita-
bic freight and passenger rates across
Arkansas. st. Louis owns the Cal 70
and Fulton and Texarkans and st.
Louis roads. Properly enough st.
Louis guards her own interests and
forces into her own warehouses and
streets the whole wealth Of Eastern
and Southern and Central Texas. st.
Louis does not propose, after investing
twenty millions in Texas road, to sur
render any share OF the riches gained
by the railway to other commercial
marts. Practically, as passenger trains
are managed and rates are fixed, the
shortest, quickest and cheapest route
from Texas to New York and Chicago
lies through St. Louis. AS a geogra-
phical fact the shortest route lies
through Little Rock, Chattanooga and
Bristol. The railway distance through
Memphis and Louisville is somewhat
greater than ria Chattanooga and Bris-
toll. Bat St. Louis holds the key to
the trade Of Texas by owning the road
from Texarkana to Little Rock and
cities South of the Ohio are apparently
impstent. The Iron Mountain road
is we'll and wisely managed and the
international and Texas Pacific and
. Sunset routes are its feeders and st.
Louis is aggrandized by all the riches
gathered in by these widely divergent
railway lines. In view of these facts
it is asserted by st. Louis newspapers
that the Louisville and Nashville Rail-
way Company have caused proceedings
to be instituted for the purpose of
placing the Iron Mountain road In
the hands of receiver. The
Courier. Journal says that st. Louis is
30 desperate in its determination to re-
tain this supreme power over the wealth
and fortunes OF Texas that the papers
of the great city are appealing wildly
to its citizens and trying to manufac.
ture pubic opinion strong enough to
influence the courts, before which ju
dicial proceedings have been com.
menced, to deny to the bondholders OF
the Iron Mountain Company the simple
right given them by the Constitution
and the laws Of the countryside right
to their own.
The allusion made regarding the
Louisville ana Nashville road needs,
perhaps, little explanation. The route
TO Northern Texas from Louisville
Cincinnati and the East is $50 mile!
shorter ola Memphis than Uia st. Louis
and this gives the former route the adj
vantage OF geographical position o.
great value now and of incalculablt
magnitude in the future.
To overcome this natural advantage
: OF Louisville and Memphis, the St.
Louis and Iron Mountain officials, who
are as much interested in the prospect
ty of st. Louis as in the road they man.
age, fix, the Courier-Journal states, ar
arbitrary rate on all traffic between
Little Rock and Texarkana that doel
not pass over the length of their lint
to st. Louis. This arbitrary rate is made
high enough to force everything fo
the East from Texas into st. Louis
and, as usual in such cases, it make
that city the great commercial mart o
Northern Texas, thus enriching it a
! theexpense Of Texas and Arkansas.
The officers of the Louisville ant
Nashville and East Tennessee and Vir
Eiafa roads have endeavored for tn
past year to obtain from the Iron Noun
tain people an equitable arrangement
that would secure to them portion o
the trade of Texas. All efforts, how
ever, have proved unavailing, the Irol
Mountain people invariably ignoring
all advances looking to compromise
and the alternative is presented tn
Louisville and Nashville, the Memphi
and Charleston and Memphis and Littl
Rock, in common with four thousan,
miles of other roads east of the Missis
sippi, to retire from the contest to OBJ
tain traffic justly their own, or bail,
parallel road through Arkansas an,
Texas to Jefferson or Shreveport. t
retire from the contest would end In
result very prejudicial to the interest
of Cincinnati, Louisville, Nashvill
and other cities, as it would also be t
those OF the people Of Northern Texas
A large proportion of the latter emf
grated from the States east of the Mis-
sissippi, and are allied with us in socis
relations, aud, all other things bein,
equal, they would prefer to trade witt
their former friends and neighbors
and they must build the road from ID
Val's Bluff to Camden and Jefferson
II Is insisted that the Louisville an,
Nashville Railroad people are not, a
has been charged, parties to the move
ment to place the Iron Mountain roa
in the hands of the bondholders, t
whom it now in equity belongs, still
they are anxious to obtain what is du
them in the movement of railway trsi
fic to the great centers, and in gettinI
their share they will take all prope
means, and in this they should hav
the support of the people of Cinciu
natl, Louisville, Nashville and all tn
towns along the line Of the road. ]
should not be forgotten by the mans
gers Of Southern railways east OF th
Mississippi that the proposed roa
from De Walls, on the Memphis an
Little Rock road, to Camden and JET
ferson, Texas, pene.rates the riches
farming districts of Arkansas or of tn
South, and that the Iron Mountsi
road, after 1t enters Arkansas, pen,
trates a comparative desert. The ex
tension OF the International from Long
view to jefferson, 10 be accomplishe
this year, renders the task Of the Louis
willie and Chattanooga and Cincinna
nvofa,na nf roasla still aasier An