Fort Worth daily gazette. (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1882-1891, 1889-02-18
THE GAZETTE: FORT WORTH TEXAS MONDAY FEBRUARY IS

Goes not exist, unless IL De TO prevent
/ determinations and on this point we
now have statutes affording plain an d
| adequate remedy The mere fact OF tie
! appointment of commission when no
| just occasion calls for it, is OF itself a
menace tosthe roads, and demonstrates
the existence Of serious danger TO their
interests-the danger of ignorant exac-
tions and conditions based upon purely
| supposed necessity. 1t is said the COM
| mission will do nothing, if nothing
| needs to be done. If commission, TO
cost the state perhaps 500, 900 per an
mum, can be predicated upon an erro-
neous superstition of necessity for it how
much more logical viii be the sequence
OF action by that commission based upon
that same error? Indeed, il would be
false TO the order of its creation if il did
not proceed to remedy the evils that
called it into existence. 1t would not
stultify itself by saying that it ought
never to have been born.
No man owning mill or gin would
like for committee, even of his good
neighbors, to have the power to fix his
rates and charges, the prices TO be paid
his employees, and the other details of
the business. Yet the owners of capital
invested i'll oar Texas railroads are con-
tinually subject to the danger of having
their Investment rendered valuelesS by
errors of legislation arising from mis-
take OF ignorance, or from that preju-
dice against corporations and cap
italists, especially if resident,
that can sometimes be so easily
excited among the masses These nom
resident owners have no direct represen-
tation in this legislation; not even as
much as the most ignorant and worthless
negro that casts his ballot. The biennial
threat of destruction and ruin now ends
with each legislative session, and for
nearly two years thereafter the roads
may enjoy the privilege of present safety
or, as the case may be, of adapting
themselves to such new conditions and
rates as may have been prescribed. But
the pending proposition is to create
commission that may each day promul-
gate new edicts and issue orders from the
saddle. a business so immense and COM
plicated as that OF the railroads subject to
the sharp law of competition, needs the
most careful and critical adjustment of
its details, ana yet these adjustments
may, by commission, be overturned
and destroyed faster than they can posi-
bly, be made. Truly man shall not
know what day may bring
forth If, of the three COM
missioners, one should be prejudiced
and another ignorant, it were better for
the road that it had not been born. Can
we expect that under such conditions,
new railroads, looking to the future for
remuneration and profit, Will develop our
western territory?
The writer recalls with fond regret for
departed shekels, that some years since
the live stock interest of Western Texas
hourished and bore fruit for a brief and
evenescent season. 1t is true that other
causes than state legislation contributed
principally to the downfall of that bust
ness from its profit paying basis. But it
is remembered with no less Of shame that
no sooner did it seem that good profits
were to be made out of that business than
the state of Texas rose up and took it by
the throat and exacted tribute of it like
very highwayman, and enacted against
it every limitation and penal restriction
that cupidity and envy could suggest,
and imposed upon it lease rates two and
three fold as high as was fair
and just, considering the contingencies
to which it was liable, and which so soon
thereafter occurred to its discontinue.
Well, there is now peaceful calm along
these shores where erst resounded the
jocund lays of hope and enterprise, and
the state can now whet its hatchet and
prepare to strike down any other business
that dares to prosper, or seems to pros
per, within its borders. This line of
legislation, doubtless, proceeds on the
theory that it is the duty of government
to keep the people i'll that happy condi-
tion in which Thomas Jefferson said they
were all born-equal. And so long as
the negro porter wears brass buttons, so
long must the legislative Ratchet, like
the sword of Damocles, hang suspended
over the railroads, until an era of broader
craftsmanship shall be ushered in.
Surely however, we shall not now have
a repetition of such legislation as has
been just mentioned. Surely the Texas
legislature has had sufficient experience
in the matter of delegating its authority,
since through decision of our supreme
court it is even now called upon to val
idate the illegal acts of a board or COM
mission composed of our very highest
state officers; board vainly supposed to
be both learned in the law and above the
sway of popular influence and prejudice.
The railroads are the hope and reliance
of our western section, and when the
legislature has put an efectual quietus
on them its subsequent proceedings will |
not materially concern us. Our wound, |
like that of Mercutio, may be neither SO
deep as well nor so wide as church |
door, but it win be enough. Within the |
past year the people of Callahan and /
other counties north and south of it have /
some $1,000 in preliminary sur /
veys and profiles of route TO induce the |
building of the Rock Island road through /
this section. Legislation against railroads |
at this time as effectually destroys this |
little investment of our hard earnings as |
would the holding of a lighted candle |
under the currency bills that represent /
it. How often have we just occasion to |
say: ''Save us from our friends, and we /
will take care of our enemies! 1t is
against unwise legislation, rather than /
against railroads, that the people of our I
state are needing protection.
great empire with wonderful posi-
bilities lies before us, bnt it vet
remains for us 70 prove ourselves
equal TO the time and the occasion. An
narrow and restrictive policy /
cannot be pursued with justice to the
state at large, but more especially will /
this policy prove ruinous towards our yet
unsettled territory It's deyelODmeut