Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1889-03-24
THIS CITY AND TEXAS
A Lone Star Citizen Tells of Local
Products Wanted South,
SUGGESTING A FAIRER EXCHANGE.
Freight Rates to New York and Back to
Frisco the Cheapest
IN SPITE OF THE INTERSTATE LAWS.

Mr.. A. F. Dignowity, of San Antonio,
Tex, is in the city, having in view exchange
of commodities between that section and
this, and he saws there are two ways of re-
ducing the great Democratic majority in his
State, one by supplanting the Democrats
there by good, substantial Republicans
from over-abundant Republican centers
here, and another by more freely commin-
Cling our commercial interests with those in
Texas. Said he: You have surpluses of
oil, iron, etc., which can readily be ex-
changed for cheap lands, beef, sheep and
wool and Texas climate thrown in, all of
which can be brought about by square ceal-
ing and plain talk.
Mr.. Dignowitv was born in Arkansas,
and. being related to the celebrated traveller
we have all heard of, gravitated early in
life to Texas, where he has resided 40
wears. and he processes to know what it
needs in the way of development. Forty
years residence ought to be sufficient to
give him an idea at least, and he gives some
prices of commodities ruling there that
should be sufficient to afford food for COM
mercisl thought.
SOME SOUTHERN FIGURES.
He states that cut iron nails, which here
sell at about the same price as good bar
iron, sell in San Antonio for cents a
pound; barbed wire at AZ cents for black,
and 81 cents for galvanized; smooth wire
at 3 cents, black, and Az cents galvanized;
fat beef on foot cent per pound; fat mutton
sheep at 50 per head; good wool
at Is to % cents per pound;
goat skins and beef hides, dry, at
SIL(G1Oc per pound; land which sells in
Ohio and Indiana at $50 to S125 per acre, at
So and S5 an acre in Texas, while corn in
the Lone Star State goes begging at 25 cents
per bushel. The pressing Southwestern OBJ
iect is to facilitate the exchange of the COM
modities mentioned for the products of our
factories.
Mr.. Dignowity states that the great diff
Guilty under which Texans labor is the i'm
mensity of railway freights, greater by far
than the rates at which our manufacturers
and merchants formerly complained. For
instance, if San Antonio shippers want to
send freight to San Francisco, they find it
cheaper to ship all the way to New York in
order to get rates. They save by shipping
this roundabout way 90 cents per hundred
in competition with the direct route. He
adverted to Mr.. Huntington's s structures on
the action of the Texas Legislature, which in
sists on regulating rates of freight, and says
that Mr.. Huntington's structures are not
just.
THEY HAD TO COME DOWN.
The railway companies once charged 10
cents per mile fare, but the Legislature re-
duced it to 3 cents on railways that run
through well-settled country, and he says
the increased travel has reimbursed the
companies. The railway companies have
the power to run their roads where they
please by paying for the property taken;
but Mr.. Dignowity states that although
they have undoubtedly, to a great extent,
made the State, yet their demands are ex-
tortionate.
Capital is coming into the State. and it
is followed by labor, which, considering the
cost of living, fares much better than here.
The Standard Oil Company controls the
petroleum trade of Texas, and refined sells
at 25G40 cents per gallon, three to five
times wha. it sells for here.
Mr. Dignowity proposes to spend some
time with his friends, S. A. and NJ. John
ston, Esqs., and he thinks he can show how
''the bloody chasm" may be bridged and
the profits of intercourse be made to pay for
the bridging.