The Dallas daily herald. [volume] (Dallas, Tex.) 1873-1887, 1878-05-14
GALVESTON AND THE INTERIOR,


people of tho interior, while IN the
northern section Of the state one never
hears the city mentioned In CONNER
cial way, other than by one OF the
swarm Of special agents. corN
respondents or reporters, OF that enters
prisng journal, This 10 grave evil to
both tho state and the city, There arc
causes for this loss of confidence aud re-
ciprooly Of interests, aud II Is the pur-
pose of this brief article TO enquire into
them,
The merchants and business men OF
Galveston have not kept pace with the
rapid development of tho interior They !
ara attempting to do business on the
Same margins, with the same stocks and
the self,same facilities now-when the
state Is penetrated in all directions
with railroads--that she used and was
satisfied with when the oxSteam aiiord'
cd tho transportation needed by our
sparse population, and few and exceed
ingly simple wants, Then the village
appliances were all that was necessary
Now we have developed into an em-
pire in territory, in population, and in
the intelligent apprehension OF our
power and Importance, and the city
which would do our commerce for us
must in some sense exhibit an ability in
capital and intelligence, to secure our
trade, Mt least approXimating the wants
and capabilities of the interior. Our
meaning will be more clearly understood
when we allude to the fact that five
years since our grain productions were
unequal to the immediate home demand,
while now we ship thousands OF bushels
of wheat and many thousand barrels
Of -four annually; and this wheat and
flour is peculiarly adapted to the South
American, West Indies Central AmeriN
can and Mexican trade. Yet Galveston,
the nearest, most convenient shipping
port, has no single dollar with which to
increase or properly handle this now
important, and soon to become the
leading, product Of the state. Where
are her mills and elevators Where
tho ships necessary to carry to market
this immense production Instead
of meeting the new situation with
capital and intelligent provision, she
calmly folds her garments about her
beautiful limbs and supinely waits for
the gradually receding cotton bales,
upon which her previous enormous
tolls were levied. What farmer, of all
our wide wheat-growing country in
north Texas ever plants n single acre
of the cereal because of encouragement
he receives from Galveston, or because
he expects fair price, or intelligent
trade combinations, by which he may
reap present profit or future advantage
This, to II thoughtful mind, and one
who loves every foot of our broad
territory, and who would prefer to see
Texans do the trade of Texas, contains
no single suggestion of satisfaction, but
very many of doubt and uneasness--
not for the interior, but for the
beautiful city which reiises to grow
rich and important upon the trade
which is hers by every right recognized
among commercial peoples.
Galveston is filed to,day with men
who have made enormous fortunes of
the trade of the interior, and who now
refuse it because the margins are not SC
expansive as they were when she had
no rival. She reverses the maxim, and
it is now Small trade and large profits. u
Had she purchased the Galveston
Houston and Henderson road and put
the rates at y nominal figure, bought
out or suppressed her wharf monopoly,
the entire railway system of the state
would have been conferred there to>day
and the NewS and other business houses
would not be preparing to wing them
selves to Clinton or Hounston when the
evil day comes, for come it will and
that soon, and the interior would not
now restraining its eyes to New Orleans
st. Louis and even Chicago, for the ia-
cllites which ought to be had at home.
The Ne,OS has an intelligent apprehen-
sion of the gravity of the situation, but
its arm is unnerved by column adver
tisement, which she endeavors to offset
by covering our section with cloud of
reporters, who propose only to receive,
and not give advantage. The leech which
Galveston has applied to the interior
has become gorged and now in utter and
shameless safety it looses its hold and
bids us begone, and this is to be an
utter severance of all ties, trade, social
and even political after time. Can
nothing be done to prevent the suicide2
-
WISE county led off the other day in
A n