Fort Worth daily gazette. (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1882-1891, 1889-08-15


3. Are the commercial centers in the
state, commanding because of their adj
vantageous location, sufficiently devel-
oped to place the people on an equality
! with those enjoying the benefits of large
| commercial centers in other states? If
not, what shall be done to accomplish
this end? Aud further, with the existing
situation of through railway lines, to
| whatextent can interior points of distri-
button be maintained by the equalization
of freight rates?
In discussing the first question, it will
be discovered that, up to this time, the
production of cereals has scarcely been
equal TO the demands of the state, and
the necessity for access to markets of the
world has only just appeared tt will
also appear that the railroads. have s4seen
obliged, in the past, tosadjust fheir
tariffs on agricultural prodNcts, on the
basis of small tonnage. NV, the cof11
ditions have changed andXWill change
constantly by increased prohibition. The
first requirement. is gateway. to the
markets of the world. This hts been
provided and the sea awaits the BhTden
| of the harvest; If is only left for TElR
! people to establish trading marts, and in
| the other direction to build mills for the
| condensation of these products, thus pre-
! pairing to supply, at the best advantage,
| the demands of the state and tributary
territory now being supplied at longer
| range by other states. The railroads On
| their part must and will keep pace via
| the changing conditions. They VIII go
| even further, as they have in other
states in process of development, and
maintain position in advance of state
growth; encouraging agricultural de-
velOpment step by step; decreasing their
toll as tonnage increases and repeating
in every detail. though perhaps on
broader scale, the policy which has built
and made powerful the great Eastern
states and which has rounded out the
prosperity of Eastern people and Eastern
railways.
The second question calls for the closest
study of the natural resources of the
state. 1t is safe to say that not 1.-THE
of these has yet been discovered and
utilized; and that the people are I'M
necessarily taxing themselves by drawing
their supplies from great distances, thus
enriching other states, whilst by
well directed efforts they could
build up in their own state industries
for the production of like supplies at
much less cost, at the same time crea ting
a home market for farm products and
contributing wealth to their state. The
remedy for the present disabilities does
not lie so much in the rate situation as it
does in increasing and cheapening pro-
duction; and in this way becoming indie
pendent in large measure of outside
industries. We're the state to give en-
courqgement to the discovery and devel-
opment of her natural resources and an
organized effort on the part of the people
-, =,
what in few years nearly every neces-
sity could be supplied within her own
borders. The railroads will be found
giving every encouragement to these en-
terprises. This committee could perform
no more valuable service to the state
than to lay the foundation of an organ
>iZation having in view the encouragement
of manufacturing industries for which
the state can furnish raw materials.
Your forests contain almost every species
of wood needed for the manufacture of
agricultural implements, furniture and
woodenware; and yet all that is being
brought from great distances, paying
tribute to manufacturers, middlemen
and carriers, when it might be manufac-
tured at home, furnishing employment
to the people, rapidly increasing the
population and building up towns and
cities.
Why send 2, 900 900 bales of cotton to
the markets of the world to be manufac-
rured and then ship back your cotton
cloth? Rather erect mills, furnish them
with operatives, and turn your cotton
into cloth and send the surplus of your
manufactured product to market.
Wheat is shipped out and -four back;
should not the flour be manufactured at
home and the surplus of condensed
product shipped to other markets,
thus saving freight rates and cheapening
the necessities of Iife?'' The supply of
canned goods for Texas is largely drawn
from the Pacific coast, whilst no state is
better adapted to raising fruits and veg
etables than Texas.
Cattle are raised in Texas and shipped
to Chicago, Kansas City and st. Louis,
paying freight on them and running all
the risks of loss in transportation; in
turn, the condensed product is shipped
back, when the cattle might as well be
slaughtered at home, home consumption
supplied, and the surplus shipped to the
great markets. The same is true with
many other commodities, the raw ma
terials for which abound in Texas, and
should there be condensed for distribu-
ton.
The third question is one of vital i'm
portance. At present the state has no
large commercial center giving to its peo-
pie the benefits enjoYed by those in other
states, whose advantages are no better,
and IN many cases not so good, as those
supplied by nature to Texas. There is
every natural advantage guaranteed to
such a commercial center. As to foreign
commerce, such city on the Texas coast |
would be on an almost equal footing with !
New York, Philadelphia or Boston. AS /
to the traffic with the Eastern states, with |
the present schedule of rates, it would |
occupy precisely the same situation rela- |
lively as Chicago, as the rates from New |
York and other Eastern cities to Chicago |
and the rates by water from the same |
points to points on the Texas coast are |
the same. Then what is there to prevent |
the establishment of such q commercial |
on the coast of Texas, one |
that will supply the state upon relatively |
the same, and in many cases upon a
lower, basis than the trans Mississippi |
states are supplied?
In addition to this it should supply Kan
sas, Nebraska, Colorado. and to GER
tain extent, the Northwestern states and
ferritOries This OD0OrtIIuitv hos haeo