Fort Worth daily gazette. (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1882-1891, 1889-07-07
TEXAS SITUATION.
The Railroads Doing Nothing for the
Upbuilding of the State.
They Have Disposed of the Bulk OF Their Lands
and They Look to the Land Owners to
Bring in Immigrants.
Fort WORTH, TEX, July 4, 1889.

Judging from what we read in the pa
papers and hear on all sides from men
who have the best interest of Texas al
heart, the one thing needed to place
Texas to the front is an increased popu-
lation. ''More people and capital, is
the cry on all sides. This being the
case the question naturally fol-
lows: How and where are we
~geiFg to get the much desired
+ fncrease and by what agency. The ma
| jority of our people win and do naturally
say: ''Why, the railroads will bring
| the people, and of course the people will
bring the capital. 1t is to the interest of
/ the railroads to do this work, and they
viii do it.. -
This, 1 admit, looks plausible, and
| in most any other state or terri
| tory IN the Union the conclusion
would be correct, but it will not ap-
| ply to Texas. AS matter of fact,
l will say that if we depend on the
railroads of Texas to bring us people and
capital we will, l am afraid, wait a long,
| long time, unless there should be radi-
| cal change in the policy and manage
ment of our roads from that which they
=
| If we will look back TO the days when
there were but two lines leading to Texas
lfrom st. Louis, and those two lines were
lsdplHpeting with each other for the Texas
sssusiness, we will remember that there
was ten to one more emigration from the
Middle, Eastern and Northwest states to
| Texas than there is to-day or has been
| since those two lines and all the other
new lines built have been combined
| together. The cold facts in the case
are that the more lines of railways we
| get the less emigration we receive.
This is the case from the territory north
of the Ohio river, and that is the sec
| ton we have TO look to If we want
farmers who are adapted to and able
financially to develop our prairie lands.
1t is also the country where capital
can be had cheap, but in order to get
our share of people and capital from
that section our Texas lines would have
to meet the competition of the lines
leading to the Western and NOrthwes-
tern states and territories. and this they
will not do as at least they have not
been doing, so it is the opinion of
the subscriber that they VIII
not meet this competition
| while they are combined together as they
competition with each other, then we
might depend on them to bring us immi-
grafton and capital 1t is SIMPLY useless
TO expect any change for the better under
the present management or situation.
Many of our people will say ''Why the
railroads have lands that they must have
settled in order to secure revenue. -
This is not the case They did have large
land grants given to them by the state
for building the roads, and it was ex-
pected by the people of the state that
they would settle those lands with people;
that really was the object in granting
the lands to the different railway COM
| panies, but as the case now stands, the
railroads of Texas own no lands e2 cept
the right of way and perhaps few town
sites. The lands have, "presto change, -
changed hands, and the present manage
| ment of our railways give Texas no
credit whatever for her donation of land
to the former owners of the railways.
The present owners of the lands want
and expect the railways to work for and
spend money to secure immigration to
settle on these lands, and, on the other
hand the railways are waiting for the
land owners to do this work. So it goes
from month to month and year to year,
| land owners and railroad managers can
well afford to wait, but the question is,
can the people stand it? Perhaps they
can, but doubt it. It would not be quite
so hard on us to be without railway
competition and have our railways stand
| still and make no effort with the ex--
ception of two small lines) to settle our
| state, were it not that we have been
''branded throughout the United
States and Europe as being ''hostile to
railroads and, in fact, all enterprises.
| Go where you will, and when Texas is
mentioned you will be told that the
state is all right but the people are all
wrong;' that ''they fight railways ana
are opposed to anything and everything
that has sign of progress about it !. e
Thos e men are simply quoting fromsfa9
press, and from Gould, Huntington Atfd
their managers and officials. This of
course is hard load for the people of
Texas to carry, as such representations
have the effect of keeping both people
and capital from coming to Texas and as
we all know is the reverse of facts :,
| but it is nevertheless true that those re-
ports find believers and coming as they
do from parties who are supposed to be
! interested in the building up of Texas,
and from men who hold high positions,
they carry weight with them. Railroad
officials of nearly all lines outside of
Texas, will tell you that Texas is no place
| to invest or locate. - You ask them
why and they will quickly tell you that
''the people of Texas fight railroads, -
and care generally non progressive and
anything but enterprising, etc" You
ask where they get their information and
| promptly they will say: fThey are so
informed by railroad officials of Texas
lines,' and they see it in interviews
| from Jay Gould and other railroad men
who have interests in Texas lines.
| This we all see from time to time, and
it is but natural and Is expected by Jay
Gould s. Co. when they say, fD-n
| Texas, etc, to have their employees
! (officials) follow suit.
! Gould & Co. are right and the people
are to blame or the reverse, as is he
case, which is il?
The ''scare crow '-'' fighting rail-
roads Us well worked in Texas
and those who Fwork the racket have
"method in their madnes that is to
say, find it very profitable bushes per-
sonally.
At certain times the old chestnut of