Fort Worth daily gazette. (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1882-1891, 1888-02-04


Under the above caption the Dallas
News has long and labored article going
to show that those gentlemen who nave
undertaken TO secure deep water for
Texas st Padre Island are imprscticsble
theorists who do not know what they are
shout, and who are undertaking what
is an impossibility. The corporation
formed ct Padre Island is merely matter
CT private enterprise. II is asking and
has asked nothing from any one. State
or national aid has not been sought. The
projectors have decided to construct 8
harbor with their own means, and it
would be difficult to explain why Dallas
psper, representing q city that would be
directly benefited by the success of the
enterprise, should oppose it, were 1t Dot
for the well known fact that our Dallas
contemporary is owned, controlled cud
edited in Galveston, by Galveston and
for Galveston. The GAlveston-Ds llas
News is doubtless shocked at seeing men
willing to 60 down in their
pockets and pay for what they
want, and the old cry Of
"quicksand" is again called upon TO do
duty and all the exploded superstitions Of
this past are msrshsIled in battle array.
The very virtues claimed by the project
ors Of the Padre Island pier for that local-
ity are used by the News ss arguments
against it. Here is sample: "a glance
st the coast line of Texas reveals the ero-
sive effect of the tides and currents in
that locality; in fact Padre Island lies at
the point of maximum intensity Ct this
action" This is what the new corpora
ton claims. 1t is the "maximum inten-
sity" upon which the projectors depend
to remove the greatest obstacles which
stand in the way elsewhere. It is this
intensity which will carry of the
scourings Of the channel and prevent
those formations which are the bsne OF
ship channels where currents do not ex-
igt. Again the News says: SIT is very
questionable if six fathoms of water can
be found within 700 yards of the shore, as
is alleged to be the case off the north end
Of Padre Island, and il this be the case
there must be bars outside that deep
water line or the coast at that point is
entirely different from the coast else
where from Sabine Pass to the Rio
GrsnGe." Just why the News should feast
upon the splendid assumption that there
is not in fact deep water ootaiusble
as near the shore SIS the
Padre Island gentlemen claim,
is difficult TO divine. They have irvesti-
gated the subject thoroughly and it is rot
q violent presumption to say that these
gentlemen are capable of determining ar
would not invest their money in the en-
terprise az 6 hazard. But the reason
given for the assumption on the part Of
thu News is unique: "The coast at that
line is entirely different from the coast
elsewhere from Sabine Pass TO the Rio
Grande," This again is one Of the most
potent arguments in favor of Padre Is
land. The coast is different. Where,
elsewhere, there are 10 currents to speak
Of, here, on the authority of the News
and the government engineers, the point
Of "meximum intensity" is attained;
where, elsewhere, the bars spread out in
G fan-tsil Shape as the current flows Ian
guidly towards the Florida coast, here it
is reduced by the erosiVe effects Of the
tides and currents to few hundred feet.
The efforts of these enterprising gentle
men to secure deep water for Texas
should be heartily and, If possible, SUBJ
stantisIIy seconded by the people Of
Texss, especially of North Texas. Ia do
ing this it will not be necessary to an
tagonizs any other point on the COST.
If the proposed harbor was to be limited
by state or federal appropriations there
might be some grounds for opposing if,
but as it is purely and distinctively pri-
vate enterprise for the benefit CT the
stste, opposition to It's selfshly csptious.
S-
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