Fort Worth daily gazette. (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1882-1891, 1889-02-18
To the Gazette

4uS TtIdlIOH OF OUT TdIlfOauS " lhe
present welfare and future prosperity OF
Texas is matter in which every citizen
of the state is deeply and practically in
terested. Texas has a large area of
country which without the aid of rail-
roads will remain undeveloped much
longer than the present generation shall
live; she has millions of acres of school
lands which without railroads reaching
to them will be vainly offered for sale TO
our grandchildren The hardy frontiers
man who adventured into the wilds of
Kentucky, Missouri and of Eastern Texas
found there for his assistance abundance
of game and of timber and water, together
with the assurance of fair seasons for the
crops he should plant. But no such con-
ditions await the settler on the dry, tim
berless prairies of Western Texas, and
without railroads, even house to live IN
there, unless an adobe or a very poor
one, becomes costly impossibility to the
poor man. The grant of lands by the
state has in the past been some induce
ment to railroad building, but what
about the future? There are not suf-
ficient people in these hundred western
COuHbICS ~ OucI any SOEb VI bO1us. 4AC
through business TO be obtained from
points outside of Texas has induced the
completion of the Texas and Pacific, the
Southern Pacific, the International, and
the Fort Worth and Denver, across por-
tions Of Western Texas. Connection has
now been made, however, with all trans
border points of any Importance. Our
local roads pointing into the West are
nearly ali at. q standstill, and certainly
local business alone cannot justify them
in penetrating our Western solitudes.
The local business of the Texas Pacific
from Weatherford TO Ell Paso, and of the
Southern Pacific from San Antonio to FL
PaSo, a distance of about 600 miles in
each case, must fall far short of the actu-
al expense of operating this large extent
of mileage. The Texas Central has been
completed to Albany about seven years,
and its terminal point still remains there,
1t will hardly be claimed that the last
hundred miles of that road has fairly
paid operating expenses during the seven
years of its existence. glance at the
statistics showing the population of the
next county ahead on its line to be only q
few hundreds, will demonstrate that To-
cal business will not, of itself, justify its
further extension for perhaps years to
come. This is substantially true of all
the unfinished roads Of Western Texas.
The conditions of this section largely re-
quire that the roads shall first be built,
and that they shall look to the future
business which they may develop,
for their remuneration At present
the development of this Western terri
tory, except Immediately along the con-
structed lines, has almost ceased for
want of more railroads. What is the
state doing to secure them2 She has here
her millions of acres of school and asylum
lands which must remain unsold and I'M
profitable until railroads and settlement
shall enable her TO realize a fair value
for them
Even in the older counties, Texas has
not yet one-third the railroad mileage
that she needs, and that is already had
in many other states. The county that
is without railroad wherever it may be,
Is placed at serious disadvantage and
its growth retarded People prefer to
live where the advantages and conven-
fences of railroads can be enjoyed, and.
business of every kind centers
at points along their lines This is the
wisely ordained principle of pro-
ments of science and art are
made universal by the very necessity
which their advantage to one section thus
imposes on others. Our forests of pine
as well as our timberless plains are meas
urably valueless without more roads than
we have, These conditions and require
ments of the near future are to be met;
they confront us even now with impe-
rious demand for wise and appropriate
action.
Within the past decade Texas has
fallen far behind other Western states in
progress and development. Wisconsin
for instance, with only one-f1fth the area
Of Texas, and climatic conditions far less
favorable, has about an equal railroad
and a comparison with Kansas
would perhaps be even more to our lisad-
vantage. Our people often pay Is to "a
per cent. for money, without being
able to obtain enough of it for
ordinary business purposes, much less
for building railroads. These things
Ire not so without a reason. There are
millions of capital invested in United
States bonds from which less than 8 per
cent is realized. The owners of these
millions would very much, and very nat
lrally, like to double their incomes and
obtain and per cent by investment in
rexas-if that would be safe. Evidently
hey are not able TO see with reasonable |
that an investment here would
yield them better income, or 1t would
De made Sentiment does not control f.
lancial business. We boast a soil and |
climate unequaled on the globe, and yet |
he conditions here are SO uninyiting to |
he capital we need that we lag behind in
he march of progress, and can not COM
nand the money necessary to utilize the |
nunificent advantages with which nature |
mas blessed MS. The wind bloweth where |
t listeth and we hear the sound thereof, !
)ut cannot tell whence it comes nor |
whittier ii goes, nor why Texas is |
lot TO the windward of the breeze. |
our argosies come not home laden /
With the gold and silver of the Orient. |
The bread which our Capt Chiffon casts |
Ipon the waters returns not again, even |
after many days, and no man offers TO /
elbow us into the sea.
The conditions that render the invest /
nent of capital here so uniuviting de- /
erve our serious consideration The |
writer once invested nearly ten thousand /
dollars in the live stock business here, /
md he now has IN lieu thereof something /
more than ten thousand dollars worth |