The Dallas weekly herald. [volume] (Dallas, Tex.) 1873-1885, 1882-10-05


. o But fellow citizens, wha
is the duty of st. Louis, and of Texas il
the premises? You handled nearly hal
million bales of cotton last year-2O0,0O
from my state. Arkansas sends youmorC
than Texas does: Tennessee sends he
quota, and the old states to the southwark
along the line of your great river sene
theirs. How will you hedge against al
the possibilities Of the future? Will you be
content with the mere handling of these
half million bales of cotton-in transition
to the manufactures of New or old Eng.
land, from thousand to four thousand
miles from your compresscs and your great
warehouses;
The same question may be asked Of
our own Galveston, and New Orleans and
Mobile and Savannah and Charleston, our
great southern seaports and cotton marts.
1t is time that we should become manufac-
turers of cotton goods, as well as mere
shippers of the staple. Why should not,
why rather, cannot, the city of st. Louis;
for instance by a system or canals, with
locks and dams, similar to those at the
progressive and enterprising city of Az
gusta Georgia, move as many mills ard
more than those of Lowell and Manchester?
If not, then she certainly possesses an I'M
limited amount. of steam power, rendered
cheap by your nearness to the coal fields
and by skilled labor as attainable as in New
England.
Therefore look well, let me conjure YOU,
to your manufacturing enterprises. Why
should especially the cotton states
and the west remain eyerlastingly 'hewers
of wood and drawers of water" to the mer.
camille and manufacturing monopolies OF
the east, grow rich by the high protective
tariffs of the government, as we'll as by.our
own supineness and Rip Van Wrinkle Stun
bers, while for twenty years the negro has
been free, and the entire cotton, and the
great bulk of the wool, and the cattle, and
the timber, and the rich mines of the con-
tinent are found within our borders We
ship from my state, to illustrate, more than
q million bales Of cotton annually. The
hardy, but hard-run, producers pay to the
commission merchants, and railway and
ocean carriers, fully five dollars per bale, or
five millions of dollars annually, subtracted
from their profits. Again, these same
producers are also consumers OF
the manufactured cotton. They pay
fully half as much to get back to Texas
their own productions in the form of cotton
goods-in the aggregate-seven millions OF
collars.
There are about two millions of people in
Texas who wear the products of cotton
mills, spinning our own cotton thousand
miles away from the fields where it was
What is true of Texas is true OF all our
southland. Have we not water power?
Why, Texas in her west, at New Braunfels,
and on her .Lampasas, and Colorado, and
Brazos, and Leon, and Guadalupe, and
San Antonio rivers, have water power
enough to turn all the wooden or cotton
mills of the old world or the new! We
have fuel cheaper than New England, and
labor is as cheap here as in the manutact-
uring states. Out of the seven millions
which Texas annually pays to the common
carrier and to the foreign manufacturers OF
her cotton and wooden goods. she could
build cotton and wooden mills. and tan
nerries, and manufactures OF Iurnlturei
and iron foundries, and cotton-seed oil
works and shoe shops, sufficient for our
own supply, leaving great surplus to be
shipped abroad. =,
The demand for manufactured goods will
not thereby be diminished; only the LOCAL
ity of the manufacturer Will be changed TO
Texas and to the south and west. VIII any
one advance one good reason why we do
not engage in manufacturing? why we
should always remain herding, pastoral,
agricultural people, and nothing moreF
Away with this old and lazy and mossback
delusion. g Wehear great
deal said about protective tariffs in
the discussions in the congress anu at the
hastings. will not undertake to enter
upon discussion of that subject here (only
TO announce in passing, that 1 am for the
imposition of the very lowest tariffs on all
articles of prime necessity but will ven;
.urc 70 say that Just now the quickest and
best way to solve that question Is to be-
come manufacturers ourselves, and thereby
become ourselves part of the protected!
We must become Independent, not of the
Union Of states. where Texas and the south
expects evermore to stand. but IN
dependent and self-sustaining In
eli the elements of peaceful prog
ress. The whir of wheels and the buzz
of the loom must m.ngle with the songs Of
the reapers, and of the shepherds who
watch our fiocks and the toilers who till
our fields of cotton and Of grain. Then.and
then alone. will the south and the west and
Texas, the grand central figure in their
midst. and whom ! represent here to-day.
rise to that measure OF power in the repub-
lie 10 which their resources and their peo-
pie may justly aspire