The Dallas daily herald. [volume] (Dallas, Tex.) 1873-1887, 1880-03-17
aALyEsT0N,s mAnRon.
Goggan's Proposition OF Taxation OF
Taxation, and How ID IN he'
eeiyed-An Argument Why
Congress should Assist,

correspondence OF the Herald.
Goggan's proposition TO levy a 20 per
cent tax on the hundred for harbor improve
ments has created universal comment The
effect has been electrical. Interviews have
been the order of tho day, and opinions pro
and con, have been going of like champagne
corks. Whether they will be as eilervosng
as the liquid fluid confined by the said corks
isa question, l trust, however, that Il will
result In something more practical than
froth. While opinions are diverse and con-
acting the necessity Is recognized for in
mediate and decided action. Natural nd
yantages arc u great aid when intolllgontly
and practically utilized, but in this electrical
age they do not build cities, or transform
them into great commercial emporiums.
Minor Mansfield, who Is now In charge Of
Government improvements on the coast OF
Texas, says there Is no question about 'eclr'
inc channel across the outer bar If the
money is only forthcoming. That the
gabionader are to be discarded and stone used
instead The plan, however, Is TO be the
same. The substitution Of stone will largely
increase the expenditure and the Major oSti-
mates that by this change IN tho
material that the cost Of the improve
ment to secure the required depth Of
water across the bar will call for
an expenditure of from $4,000, 900 TO 3d.
100000. The subcommittee has recon-
mended an appropriation Of 100000 How
far this will 20 towards putting the improve
ment on practical basis can DO easily seen,
hence this action and interchange Of viows
by some of the leading citizens of this city.
Harmony and unanimity of action Is what Is
needle /. Galveston has not had this, hence
her want of success in securing appropra-
tons for work of such vital import Even
now there is diversity of opinions, and the
pier on the south side of tho island comes In
10 distract attention and finds advocates,
In unity there is strength; when this is
assured, and the city moves as solid mass,
determined to accomplish the great work,
the movement will gain strength and outside
support and the improvement VIII become
triumphant achievement The same spirit
of enterprise, the same unanimity OF action,
that moved Chicago to give $40 ,OOOOO for
the widening and deepening OF the Welland
canal, and giving that city a practical
highway TO the Atlantic, and placing
her in direct communication with Liverpool
and other foreign ports for the grain and
other products Of the West and Northwest,
or the voting of $40 900 900 by Cincinnati
for the construction of railroad from that
city to a connection with Chattanooga and
the railway system of the Southeast and
South will secure deep water across the bar
here in less than two years and result IN
making the city the great emporium OF the
Southwest By demonstrating to Congress
that it will remove tax that now exist OF
26l cents a bushel off Of all the grain product
now shipped to the Atlantic seaboard from the
"new West by giving it nearer ocean out
let of frorn 500 to 1000 miles TO the foreign
markets of the world, Galveston will secure
the active and earnest support of the entire
Congressional delegation from that section.
This has not been done. In all the memo
rails and petitions that have been sent to
Congress from Galveston, this has been omit
ted and no effort has been made to secure
that powerful influence. In 1874, when
Kansas CITY was aroused to the Importance
of having a Southern outlet, and desired to
make it through this port, her Chamber of
Commerce petitioned Congress in behalf OF
a sufficient appropriation to make this port
accessible to vessles Of deep draught, In
which it was stated, that decrease in dis
lance of over eight hundred miles w,ud re-
move a tax S28, 900, 900 annually off the pro
ducts of tie territory then tributary to that
point. Since then, this section has fully
doubled its population and more than doub,
led its productive capacity. Ii this Is so, ana
Galveston was now deep water port, and
could thereby receive and handle the pro-
ducts tributary to Kansas City it would take
off tax on the productive industry of that
section of S56,000,000. Apply this to the
931,773 square miles of productive territory,
tributary to Galveston, it. the bar was deep
ened. End what would be the result? 1t is
safe to say that the tax remov' from the
agricultural products would fully approxi-
mate Sl50.000,000 Suppose these facts
we're carefully compiled and laid before
every Senator and Representative 10 Con-
gress from the West and Northwest, do you
suppose they would not give the measure
that promised such relieve 10
their constituents their enthusiastic support
If they did not, their constituents would see
that men were elected who would. 1t is
through such presentations as these that
Galveston will be able to triumph over all
opposition and cut the red-tapeism that pre-
walls in the United States Board of Engineers
and secure an appropriation that will at once
be 40 earnest that the Government was GO
ing to push the work energetically and TO on
early completion. These facts are carefully
compiled, within reach of the citizens of CAT
weston, and ought to be secured and brought
to bear Immediately, through our delegation
in Congress, as an argument why that body
should grant an appropriation approxlmatlng
the Importance OF the port, the country 70
be benefited, and the increased revenue that
would thereby accrue to the General govern.
ment. The future is big with promise for
this civ. if there is unanimity, coupled with
strong, vigorous and persistent effort on the
mart of her own people.