Fort Worth daily gazette. (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1882-1891, 1889-07-21
MANUFACTURES.
What Has Given Dallas Her Great Start
Over Fort WOPth-The People.
She Has Secured Manufactures, Fort Worth
Has Built Railroads and Laid Out Adj
ditiOns-The Difference.


FORT WouTH, Tex, July l9, 1889.
To thSGazette
In the. Dallas News of this morning is
statement that the tax assessor of Dallas
says that there are 100 manufacturing
enterprises in that city. This fact, and
this alone, gives Dallas her only advan-
tage over Fort Worth, and if we are wise
we will draw from it lesson that will
greatly benefit us if we will profit by it.
1t is a fact known to all that Fort Worth
has every natural advantage over Dallas,
including location, water, health, build
ing material and material for grading
streets, temperature: also more railroads
and better facilities for shipping, and
yet with all these advantages Dallas has
far outstripped us in population and
wealth. Why is this? There is but one
answer. We have spent all our substance
in paying railroads, and Dallas has spent
hers IN locating enterprises that give en-
plOyment to the people. And herein lies
the true secret of building city. There
must be employment for the people.
Railroads and land bOoms will not give
this, and the sooner we all learn this
fact and turn our attention to other mat
tiers the sooner will we begin to grow.
We must build up home retail trade,
and this can only be accomplished by do
ing that which will bring large number
of people here and give them steady en-
ployment. II Fort Worth had given
Qpe-balf the money to building factories
that she has given to railroads, she
woilIdA to-day have thousands of people
working in her limits to where she now
has dozens. Our people are saying build
the Albuquerque road, and then go to
work on other things. Is this wisdom?
Dallas has no Albuquerque road, and yet
she is already at work on other things.
1t may be years before this road is built,
and if we stand idle all this
time we may as well surrendeE
now. Others are saying that we shoul&
interest outside capital in our real estate
and depend upon the people who thus
''plant'' their money to keep
us going The ruin of thousands of
men and the wreck of thousands of for
tunes the last few years in; this sort of
enterprise has clearly shown that this is
the most uncertain phantom on which a
city can build her hopes of greatness and
the city that trusts it will soon learn that
she has built on the sands. Our real es-
state will not run off and is able to take
care of itself and the less we
nurse it the stronger it viii grow.
BoOms are like bubbles-the harder you
blow them, the more danger there is
of them bursting. The investment of
money in either addition to the town will
not give employment to labor, and will
decrease the value of the property al
ready laid out by placing much more on
the market. If, however, we will turn
our attention to manufacturing, it viii
take all the present additions and much
more in a few years to hold houses for
the operators and their families. It will
also build up a good trade, give our
farmers and gardeners market for their
produce, our dairymen consumption for
their milk, and bring thousands and thou
sands of dollars to our town for the pro-.
duets of our looms, shops, etc. that Ap%
goes elsewhere. This new line of rail-
way may give US cheap coal and it may
not. 1t is too uncertain to wait on. By
all means build it, but don't let US sit
still and hold our thumbs while it is be-
ing built. The day is past when rail-
roads can build cities. They may assist,
but there are other more potent factors
that come much cheaper and that are
within the reach of every town that will
go to work at them.
Now that we have decided to organize,
let us do it in the right way and for the
right purpose, and let us be sure that
we don t permit the organization to be
run in the interest of some individual
and not the entire city. PUBLICUs.