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

treat money in any other form in this ar
! bitrary and radical manner. You still
| allow the ginners of cotton, the compress
companies, the wharfage companies. the
| insurance companies banks and all others
/ who take toll from the products of che
/ land to measure their demands by their
| own eupidity or by the necessities of the
-tiller of the soil. You still permit the
I merchants TO make their own profits on
/ the absolute necessities OF life, which
make up the food and the raiment and
/ the shelter, and in word. all the com
forts and all the MXuries of your vast
/ population. The lumber mills of your
| eastern pineries, the carpenters, the
| brick makers and the brick and stone
masons, and the manufacturers of farm
ing implements, are left 10 eXactions on
| your people without limit as to charges,
| and you furnish no special remedies TO
| their customers.
/ do not understand that legislator Is
an automaton. I have never heard that
| it was the duty of the representative 10
voice in his votes the perniciOus and hurt
| ful sentiments of his constituency or TO
formulate into law the unjust prejudices
of any part of the community represented
by him. 1t behOOyeS the representative
To examine every question calculated TO
affect the public welfare or the interests
of private individuals or OF aggregatiOnS
of individuals and determine for
himself whether the proposed legislation
will be hurtful or not; if not positively
hurtful whether it viii subSeTve any
public good, and act accordingly. If you
would create separate form to determine
the value of transportation by railroad and
enforce penalties for the violation of their
| orders, or for violations of law, you
would have the same right to change the
| constitution so as TO create a separate
court to hear and determine the COM
plants of tenants against the landlords,
and TO fix the value of wages in
your cotton mills and congresses, and
every other manufacturing establishment
within your borders, and also to regulate
anu control the price of the manufac-
tured articles. And the principal would
hold good as to all avOcations.
1t is true the capital thus TO be pro-
scribed is owned i'll other states and cOuu-
tries, invited here by legislative acts and
resolutions, and by the press for a period
co-eXtensive with your existence as n
state Suppose it was the capital of your
own people generally distributed over the
state, would the proposed legislation be
seriously considered? 1t may well be
doubted whether, if proposed, it would
command any favor.
No such restrictions are thrown al ound
such properties in states i'll which they are
owned by citizens. Look at Pennsyl-
vania, with the best system of island
transportation in the world, yielding Il
rev enue to the state sufficient to defray
all her expenses. Railroad properties
there have never been burthened by any
such determinations. The natural
laws of commerce, unhampered by
statutes, have given the tonnage of
that state the cheapest tariff on this
continent, and at the same time fair
dividends TO the stockholders.
New York has prOspered in her trade
and commerce without parallel, under
the same great laws, and without re-
strictive statutes. True, the mad, sense
less clamor of the anti-monopoIy league
of New York, organized and promot ed,
not i'll the interest of the producer, but of
the produce gambler, has recently in
Inundated the legislature into the crea-
ton of commission, but one without
such powers as the pending bills propose.
My friends, L am much more largely
interested in the soil of Texas than 1 am
in the stocks and bonds Of her railroads.
OF the latter have scarcely enough to
give me decent burial; of the former 1
have enough to keep the wolf from the
door, the few remaining years of my
life. ! have associations in Texas born
in the hours of adversely and may say
of storm and blood which l would not
disturb for all may expect
from the railroad interests in Texas, di-
rect and remote. But l would hazard an
opinion. Let this senseless war against
railways and railway capitalists, here
and elsewhere, progress to its logical Sc
quence, and the next attack will be
made upon individual capital, and then
the anarchist and socialist will rule the
hour. Continue to promote the selfish
schemes of a few men who are crazy for
place and power, and there are men I'M
der the sound of my voice who will live
to see the day when they will wish they
had not been born. The true office Of
government is to protect all alike. To
protect labor so as TO insure its proper
reward and to protect capital that it may
reap q reasonable return Capital
and labor are mutually inter dependent
One cannot live without the other.
Where there is no capital labor cannot be
rewarded; where there is no labor capital
must remain idle and derive no income.
This results in stagnation to every de-
partment of industry therefore the true
Office of the legislator is protect both
alike. When the legislator does this he
has fulfilled an honorable and glorious
mission.
1t has been said by Democrats of this
body that the state Democratic
platform, adopted ct Dallas in
August of last year commits the members
of the legislature to a commission bill. L
call your attention to that platform, sec
ton g: eve favor the enactment OF such
laws as shall restrict the freight charges
of railroads and express companies, so
that they may only yield a fair interest
on the money invested in them, and at
the same time prevent discrimination in
charges against any point in the state -
after which the resolution passed by a
majority of the committee was enacted
''That the next legislature shall pass
laws defining trusts and all illegal com
binations in restraint of trade, and i'm
posing severe penalties in regard to
thereto. -
This is the whole platform and nothing
is contained in it advocating the passage |
of law to create railroad commission,
and is all in the platform relating to rail- |
roads, most of which is the law to-day |
will no found in tho