Fort Worth daily gazette. (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1882-1891, 1889-08-14
BLAKE WITH A BIG B.
How the Willy Dallas Merchant Han
dies His Committee and His Press.
Loaded Railroad Man Goes Oh Full Cooked
and Knocks Him out-Yesterday's Con-
ference-The Roads Heard.
Special to the Gazette.

committee great fight ensued about adj
hitting the representatives of the press
the railroad men contending for the pa
pers and Blake opposing. Finally the
railroad men carried the point and Mr..
Blake agreed to send word to the repre-
sentatives of the press: He sent word to
a local paper, but for reasons best known
to himself he did not notify THE GAZETTE
and other state papers, presumably be-
cause they were hlTalings Of the railroads,
at least Mr. Blake made such a remark
about THE GAZETTE on the streets of Dali
las several days ago. Mr.. Blake has read
about three GAZETTE S in three years and
consequently is in good position to make
such charge against a paper, and it is
presumed he has evidence of the most
rigid quality so substantiate his states
ment, else being a man of honor and in
tegrity he would not make it.
However, Mr.. Blake s failure TO no.
tify the representatives of the press ,as he
agreed to do, was the cause of THE GA
zETTE and other state papers not having
this morning an account of the wrangle
which ensued yesterday, because the
Blake committee was unwilling to give
the railroad representatives an oppor-
tunity to state their side Of the case.
Consequently, the meeting of yesterday
accomplished absolutely nothing.
This morning another conference was
held, beginning at 10 o CLOCK.
Mr.. j. W. Terry OF the Santa Fe in
quired what the object and powers of the
committee were, to which Mr.. Blake re-
piled it was a subcommittee to confer
with the railroad representatives and re-
port to the committee of the whole.
Mr.. Blake then said it was desired that
there be no discussion, but every
thing should be conducted in
writing, to which Mr.. Terry re-
piled that they had not been
accorded time to make report in writ
ing, and consequently the railroad rep
resentatives declined to do so.
After much ado a number of tariff
sheets were produced, but the railroad
men had some difficulty in getting to
work because Mr.. Blake did not seem
to know what he was driving at. Finally
Mr.. Blake brought out sheet COM
pairing distances and tariffs in Georgia
and Texas.
The figuring was carried on industri-
ally, by the{1iscussion Move, so that at
l CLOCK nothing had been accomplished
and an adjournment until o CLOCK was
taken.
When the conference reassemb1ed at 8
O'Clock Mr.. Lovett of the Texas and Pa
cific arose and addressed the committee
on the railroad question, and he
gave the committee some interesting
information. He began by claiming
that the owners Of railroad have a right
to a reasonable return upon the capital
invested. This right, he asserted was
held by all the decisions of the courts
bearing on the subject When the
freight convention met here in July, it
was stated by Col. Tom Brown that the
railroads were public property and were
subject to unlimited regulation by the
people. This theory was not regulation but
confiscation. A recent decision by the
supreme court of Florida stated that
while railroads were subject to regula-
ton, they were still private property and
not subject to confiscation 1t was stated
in the July convention that the people of
Texas were being taxed to pay interest
on bonds which had been issued to the
extent of three or four times the money
actually invested in the road. Now, the
question is, are the railroads earning a
fair interest on the money invested in
them. This question should be investi-
gated by the people. Then Mr.. Lovett
reviewed the question at length. He
said that every first-class rail-
road in the state represented an
investment of at least twenty-five to
thirty thousand dollars per mile. That
while the original cost of construction of
the first class roads may not have been
more than twelve or fifteen thousand dol
lars per mile, still it should be considered
that the improvements and betterments
of each road since they were constructed
represented a part of the investment.
When the Texas and Pacific and Houston
and Texas Central were built, iron rails
laid down cost from sixty-five to ninety
dollars per ton. The rails had to be re-
newed, ties had to be renewed, and so
with bridges and other equip
ments of the roads. The Texas
and Pacific road operates line of 1897
miles. The road went into the hands of
a receiver in December, 1885, and was
reorganlzed in October, 1888. The re-
ceivers spent in improving the road dur
ing the receivership the sum of So, 49,
900. During that time the stockholders
and bondholders did not receive a cent in
interest and dividends While it was
true that the stock and bonds OF some of
the railroads exceeded the amount ac-
tuaily invested, he could show the
statEs>Rf the Texas and Pacific The
stock of that road was S3S 900 900, first
mortgage bonds S25, 900 900, second
mortgage bonds S25, 200 600. Since the
the road had paid per
cent. interest on the first mort
gage bonds, which represented SIG, ZOO |
to the mile. Not cent was paid on the |
second mortgage bonds, and not cent |
in dividends on the capital stock. This
could be proved by the records of the
which were open to the public
1t was fact that Texas paid less interest |
per mile than any state in the South with |
the exception of Arkansas and Florida |
1t was all well enough for the public to |
of the inflated stock and |
bonds, but the interest is not being paid !
on them
Mr. Lovett's talk was very pointed, |
and had the effect of putting something
Of a quietus on the committee. Blake |
asked a number of questions, but Lovett |
came to the scratch every round with |
and 1t must have been the in |
evitable conclusion of all who listened to
the discussion that Blake was ponder
Dusty overmatched.
When Mr. TOvett finished I w Terry