Fort Worth daily gazette. (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1882-1891, 1889-01-29

special grievance or who hope
/ TO promote their political for
tune by creating a popular prejudice
/ against wealth and the aggregation of
! capital, sincerely believe. / do not be-
lieve one intelligent man on this commit
tee gives eredence to a 1.-THE of what Is
said in some quarters on this subject.
But think may assert with confidence
that all the evils and hardships that do
| exist have already ample remedies pro-
vlded by law; remedies, too, which are
| within reach of the hunblest citizen of
| the land; and hare yet TO learn that any
! of the constituted judicial tribunals of the
state, from Justice s court 10 the great
| tribunals of final resort, have ever de-
MED, in the slightest particular, even
handed justice rs against the railway
| corporations III favor of the poorest or
most friendless man in your state.
II cannot be logically said that because
other states have provided for the ap-
pointment of railway commissions, aud
have such tribunals IN actual existence,
that therefore Texas needs this luxury
Texas need not pass Reputation acts
| because other members OF the American
sisterhood have dishonored their fair
names and bedmmed the Iustre of time
/
| of legal obligations.
The question IS: Does Texas need a
railway commission?
Evils may exist i'll other states that do
not exist here. Remedies may be applied
| to other systems wholly inapplicable
| within the borders OF Texas The fact that
Missouri has n commission, OF that
! Georgia and Illinois or Massachusetts or
| Iowa have commissions, proves moth
| ing on this question in its rela-
| ton to this state. Compared with
any one of them, Texas is a new state
| Compared with any one of them, the
| railroad system here is in its infancy.
! Compared with any or all of them, the
conditions here i'll climate, soil, area and
population, volume Of tonnage, amount
! of travel, etc. are dissimilar.
There is no complaint in Texas that the
maximum rite established by the law of
1879, for the transportation of freights,
in its practical operations, is too high.
! In fact assert with a confidence that
| challenges Intelligent contradiction, that
there is no dissatisfaction in the state
| with the maximum rates actually charged
| by railway companies for the transporta-
! ton OF freights.
The constitution itself, in terms too
plain to admit of doubt, not Only author
ICES, but requires the legislative depart
ment to fix reasonable maximum rates
and prevent UNJUST determinations,
eXtortion and rebates; and the legisla-
ture, soon after the adoption OF the con-
| stitutiOn diligently set about diScharg-
ing this important trust, and their laborS
resulted in the act of 1879, which was in
cOrporated into the Revised Statutes as
| sections 1856, 1857 and 1858, making q
| penalty of $500 for each case of extor-
ton, rebate, drawback, or unjust dis
| elimination, recoverable at the suit of
the party injured. What palmer or
easier remedy can you provide for the
protection of the shipper against the I'M
lawful acts of the common carrier than
this clear, explicit and unambiguous
statute?
The shipper needs no commission to in
form him when the law has been vio-
lated. You might as well provide
methods by which at the ex-
pense of the state all the
wrongs of individuals shall be ascer-
tanned and righted, as to provide a spe-
cial method of discovering and enforcing
these rights and adjusting these wrongs.
1t is just as important to constitute a
forum at the expense of the state to as
certain when usury is extOrted by bank,
broker or other money lender, as to re-
quire the enforcement of appropriate
penalties. 1t is well known to every
member of this committee that the citi-
zen is not at q disadvantage in any of the
courts of this country in litigation with
railway corporation. If he is poor and
unable to give security for costs he can
sue i'll forma pauperis, and he is never at
a loss to find an attorney who will insti-
tute his action and prosecute
his case through the courts
for share of the recovery.
Juries are ready and willing to do at
least justice to the citizens as against
railway companies; and no one COM
plains or has reason to complain that the
judiciary have not acted with perfect
fairness to the tiZen in declaring the
law as between the citizen and corpora
tions.
Every act of your legislature, the bur-
den of your public journals, thousands
of letters written in the interest of the
state of Texas, have all given tens Of
thousands of assurances, in the most
public and solemn manner, that the ut
most good faith would be observed then,
and in all time to come. toward capital
which would be contributed to the devel-
Opment of country whose territory was
larger than that of any other
state in the Union and whose pOpu-
lation and wealth were so strik-
ingly and enormously disproportion-
ate to its area. Your people; through
every medium of communication, were
the more urgent on these questions be-
cause you were without navigable
streams, and the products of your soil,
so largely III demand and so marketable
in all commercial centers if the country
could have no profitable outlet without
the construction of long and expensive
lines OF inter communication
The sworn returns from all the rail-
ways of Texas, as reported to you by your
comptroller, iand which you must take
as authentic Statistics show that the
railway systems in Texas cost, III round
numbers, over one hundred millions of
dollars. This is simply first cost, not in
Gliding the Improvements on the
properties since they were first put in
operation, without estimating the outlay
for terminal facilities since added, the
requirements of iron with steel rails.
stone abutments and piers for piling, and
iron for wooden bridges. It does not
include expensive ballast of stone and
other material which is being put into
your rOadwayS as fast rs the earnings