The weekly democratic statesman. [volume] (Austin, Tex.) 1871-1883, 1881-06-23
WHAT RAILWAYS WILL DO FOR
.ola TEXAS AND MEXICO.

4 nave made Its junction on the Rlo
Grande with Huntlngton's South
ern Pacific, and the Interna-
tional, will have touched Mexican
territory on the lower Rio .Grande.
| The grand consummation of pur-
poses on the part of these two or
CARNATIONS, long deferred, has been
the work of one of the greatest
executive minds of the nineteenth
century. While the people of other
states have reason to regard with
suspicion the course of corporations,
Texas can but feel, for the time at
least, that Jay Gould's money is do
ing a great deal more for Texas than
the state may possibly return in
years. 1t opens a vast field fer de-
velopment, where but a short time
ago the red man and the bison were
at home, and it attracts a vast NOV
ing population to settle within its
borders. When Mr.. Gould took
hold of the Texas e Pacific and
promised to build it,at once specula-
tive ears pricked themselves up and
the eyes offinanciers turned towards
Texas. twas becoming the fashion
to follow Gould in everything,
and as we have seen him extending
his investments in Texas, so have we
seen other capitalists follow him,
and the harvest is rich one for the
Lone Star State. To meet with en-
nifty, at this day, the investment of
money in the development of Texas
would be suicidal. When this coun-
try becomes older and more thickly
settled, then, unless wisdom directs
their act, we may, as other commu-
mites have reason to de, oppose cor
pOrate power with regulating stat
utes. Now is not the season
for opposition, and to encour-
age it at this time is to
give prominence to the demagogue
and the blackmailer. Texas needs
railways, while in their wake will
follow what it needs as well-facto-
ries and the development of its
mineral resources. According to in
dications, within three years there
must be ten thousand miles of rail
way in the state, and the system will
be represented by trans-continenta
and international lines, that must
give an undivided Texas, within ten
years, more prominence than any
other state in the Union. But it
was not the purpose in this article
alone to refer to the conditions
being wrought out for Texas by
railway builders. Mexico occupies
quite as great share of attention
from such quarters, just now, and
the developments of the next two
years will revolutionize the political
and social condition of our neigh
bors across the Rio Grande. The
Republic of Mexico comprehends
territorial area of 741,8OO square
miles, greater than the combined
area of France, Spain, the entire Ger
man Empire, Great Britain and Ire
land, and great as is Texas in area,
it is in this respect two and a half
times its superior. In 1876 its popu-
lation was 100000, and it has eleven
cities ranging in population from
the size of the greatest city in Texas
TO one of 100000 inhabitants. 1t
grows all the tropical fruits and pro-
ducts, and it has mountains of in
valuable precious metals. It's up
lands produce corn, wheat, oats
and barley, and its lowlands
are the natural home of
the sugar cane. All the hilly
country south of 25o may be con-
.verted into vast coffee fields, and
from 25o to the northward are some
of the best grazing lands of the
world. The physical formation of
the conntry-a great plateau in the
center, 5000 to 5000 feet above the
sea level, with its peripery of low
lands on either coast side, givesit in
the same latitude temperate and trop-
ical climates,whe may be grown all
the fruits andagricultural products
of the North American conti-
nent. 1t has forests of pine as well
as! oak; it yields hides and wool,
horses. mules, cattle and hogs, sugar
and rice, figs and oranges and
peaches and pears, cotton and to-
bacco. Il aqua .dieote and chill con
cdrne. 1t has vast productive
power, and as Texas de-
velops and becomes great through
these grand instrumentalities now
operating, it must be decidedly 10
its advantage to have the Republic
advance in the same proportion. A
little stream OF water, the Rio ByuCo.
is all that separates the two coun-
tries, and its banks are soon to be
united by inseverable links of
steel, The two countries must become
united in interests, and what ad-
vances Mexico must enrich Texas.
Here we will get its products at
prices cheaper than they may be OBJ
tanned in the moro distant states,
and our wheat and corn, and in time
our manufactured articles, must
have precedence over those of |
all other countries. Exchanges will
bemutual, and together Texas and |
Mexico must soon attain a pros
perity not long ago dreamed Of |
Such is the end to be attained by |
the expenditures of Mr.. Gould and
others. Let us, therefore, be gener-
GUS until reason arises for us to be |
otherwise.
LIKE almost every new industry |
the cultivation of the silk worm
needs encouragement to persuade
poor and timid people to undertake
it and to enable it to get fair start.
A Philadelphia firm, Messrs. Straw
bridge q Clothier, offer five hundred |
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