Fort Worth daily gazette. (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1882-1891, 1889-08-03

! occur in the administration of our
government. 1t viii be found by those
who would appoint themselves the
| guardians of the people of Texas without
| bond or security, without annual exhibit
| or accountability as regards these great
| subjects, on the plea of the people 5
| ignorance of them, tina. they know full
well how to take care of themselves, and
| will do it-as the other states have done
| it, as the congress of the United States
| has done-through & commission. A
! state commission TO regulate freight rates
! is imperatively demanded in the inter-
| est of Texas manufactures, for it is a
| fact of common and public notOrietY that
products of Texas manufacture are out
/ rageously Disseminated against on our
railroads. Manufactured products from
| distant states i am informed and believe,
| are being distributed every day through
| out Texas by the railroads at lower rates
| than similar articles of Texas manufac-
| ture will be carried by them from one
| point to another in Texas. Cotton goods
| from the Georgia mills, am told, are
| carried at lower rates than the products
| of Texas mills, and that iron mauufac-
/ lures from other states are favored in the
| same way over those of Texas. The fol-
| lowing clipping from the Fort Worth GA
| ZETTE OF two days ago tells its own story:
''Our waterworks company desired TO
! buy its water pipe from the Rusk manu-
| facturers, but was forced to go to Nash
| vile for their supplies because of the diff
| ference in freight rates. 1t is certainly
unjust and radically wrong that rates
| from Nashville SHOULD be cheaper than
| from an interior Texas town, and this is
| but q sample case. - Weatherford
! Sun.
| Where are the New Braunfels wooden
| mills, the cloth products of which of the
! same class, unequaled in the East, were
worn all over Texas and retailed in every
| store in the state ter or twelve years ago?
| This splendid industry by hostile disCrim
| nations of the railroads in cooperation
with Eastern manufacturers has been
| driven absolutely out of existence.
If Texas manufactures are thus to be
| Disseminated against and denied access
| to Texas markets except at such disad-
vantage as must entail loss, of course we
cannot manufacture. With a wealth Of
raw material possessed by no other state
in the Union, cotton, wool, hides, all the
ores and minerals in marvellous prOfu
| sion, every variety of lumber and stone,
with the greatest abundance of cheap and
| wholesome food for operatives, a mild
| market at home in Texas for all that can
be manufactured for many years if access
to it Is permitted, 1 have no fear that the
people of Texas will fail to use the power
i'll their hands to prevent the strangling
and destruction or their incipient and
struggling manufacturing industries.
Who believes that under the supervision
of state commission such diScrImina-
tions against Texas industries could eX-
list? Texas has been royal IN her liber-
atty to railroads, and is entitled to better
treatment. Besides bond loans, the dOna-
tiOns of money, of the right-of-way, of
depot grounds, ETC.. given more or less
at every town city, village, hamlet and
station on their lines from one end to the
other, Texas has given to the railroads
nearly forty million acres of land, which
has been a splendid basis of credit in the
money markets of the world, and which
they have utilized to the fullest extent.
While the highest public policy demands
that the state shall not only be just, but
liberal to the railroads, the same public
policy is equally imperative that she
shall stand between her people and the
great corporations of her creation, and
regulate their conduct in the interest of
Justice and fair dealing, and not leave
the individual citizen to an unequal con-
test with them in matters affecting the
general public interest. No one man or
firm ought to be expected to fight a
powerful railroad combination Oh the
matter of a freight tariff which OPP
presses aud discriminstes against whole
communities or the entire state.
It IS the business and duty of
the state to do it, and a state
commission is the only agency through
which it can be effectually done. The
state of Texas embraces in its area every
variety of climate, of soil, and produc-
ton. 1t is five times as great in terrific
rial extent as the two states of ViTglnias
and West Virginia combined. No five
states in the Union can have with each
other more profitable trade relations than
can Eastern, Western, Northern, South
ern and Central Texas, on account of
their varied and diversified productions,
and their varying seasons, even during
the same year, of drOuth and rain. EacHs
one of these sections produces much that
is desired and needed in the others. If
railroad rates would permit, the surplus
product of each of these sections would
find for the most part ready market in
the others, instead of rotting unused, or
being wasted, as is the case now ,becauses
the high cost of transportation leaves nor
margin for profit. Except on the single
article of lumber, which all the sections
must have at any cost, the local freight
rates are simply prohibitOry. A system
of exchange which, if fOstered and en-
cOuraged as a state commission would do
it would add immeasurably TO the wealth
and prosperity of the state ana largely in
crease the volume of traffic on the rail-
roads, is thus to a large extent forbidden
by the high local rates. The freight
tariffs of the railroads promulgated from
headquarters in New York seem con-
structed with view to the importation of
everything possible from other states and
discrimination against local traffic in
Texas The policy of Texas ought to be,
as far as it can be done with Justice, to
reverse this condition; and she viii never
reverse it as long as the uncontrolled dis
erection of those who operate the railroads
is permitted to regulate our state COM
merce in the interest of the agricultural
and manufacturing industries of other
states. Discretion must be lodged some
where; and, for one, prefer the discre-
ton of commission of the state S crea-
ton, accountable to the state for its ac-
ton, to that of the railway managers
who are accountable to nobody, and
whose highest interest is to tax our COM