Fort Worth daily gazette. (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1882-1891, 1890-04-21

their lot with them Within few years unless
something is done, most of the wealth and talent
| rayed upon the other will be the great mass OF
| people composing the bone and sinew of this
government, The picture = not oyerdrawp; we
| that day comes it will strain the patriotism of
\ the remainder OF the people who IRE left upon
one side, and the ability, talents ami capital OF
| those on the others to keep down the mob, to re-
strain the commune or to suppress the aparch-
| list. The commune threatens us. but 1t is the
! legitimate child and offspring of the IGNORANT.
The issue so sharply drawn in the present
campaign is, shall corporate power OF the state
control? The fight is on hand the issue is u n
! mistakahly presented, and its disguise by either
side would be reprehensible.
Take retrospective view, consider our situas'
tom to the hight of it, and 1t will not be dlhcuit
understand what most threatens our independ-
! ence in the future, History teaches rs that
| steam raj always are the growth of this century;
ing passengers was in England in ls25-just sixty
! five years ago, within the memory Of men now
| living. That the first railroad company ever
! granted scharter in America was in Maryland IN
! lS21 and its road was at first worked by horses.
That the first locomotive used to draw train in
! the United" States was in 1S2s-siKty
! one years ago. That in 1880 there were only
twenty-three miles of railroad in America in OPP
eration in $780, 2So0 in 1880, 9000 in 1860, So 500;
in 1870, 81 800; in 1880 So 600; and now there
in the United States l60 600 miles of railroad in
! operation. In round figures the liabilities OF
! these roads, according to their own admissions,
| amounts to s., 600, 600 000-$100, 900 0O0 more
than the active circulating medium Of
| the whole clylllZeQ world: while that OF all
ifthe states and territories of the Federal union
aggregate $3.50, 600 000. Their annual gross earn
ngs 9re $3.50 09 600; the gross receipts of all the
territories and states aggregate $3.50, 600, 600.
! Their annual expense amounts to 1854 900, GOO;
! that of the states and territories foot up
sll2; 600 600; Bring home the COMPARISONS. The
in Texas is 1858 900 900. while that OF the state is
| 81, 2SS, 600. Their earnings last year aggre-
gated S2S, 900 900, while those of the state were
81, 800 600 dollars Their expenses for that year
footed up S34, 500 OOO the state expenses for all
purposes, including interest on bonds and sup
for the same period S!!,473,O03;. Ex-
elusive of the report of public free
schools, the state paid out last year So 272, 300.
| This amount covered all the expenses of sal
! aries the support of the charitable and other
institutions, the payment of witnesses and
officers fees expenses of the legislature and
! everything else imposed on the government, but
the public free schools. Each of six different
railroads claims to have paid out more. Ac-
cording to their statement, one of them paid
out over a million and quarter dollars more
than the state; and vet another runs its
excess up to over two million seven hundred
thousand more than the expenses of the state
! government.
So then, when you look to the annual increase
IN construction, and compare their debt, earn
ings and expenses to those CT all the states, it
VIII not be dif1cult to understand why they
not willing to be controlled by the states which
created them. BY their combination of power,
concentrated as it is at few central points out of
the state, governed as they are by a few syndi->
Gates, IN defiance OF law, they will not Yolnnta-
rily yield to the demands of the public that their
affairs should be inteFfered with regulated.
Verify. the creature has grown greater than the
creator, and with eulpable insolence procaims:
Lay thy hand upon thy laws; 1 fear them
not.
Texas has within it one twentieth of all the
roads of the United States. To them she has
granted 80 900 600 acres of land, worth now $780,,
600, 600. In addition to this each town, city and
county into and through which they have run
hayenot only granted the right of-way and depot
grounds, but most OF them have generously
contributed sums Of money to aid in their con-
StFQGtlOn. IN the of the
panies nor laws iHforce when they were granted
provided that they should not be
be prescribed by the legislature, while the con-
stitutipn passed in 1876, and since in force, as
highways subject to legislative control. In ad-
diti9n to this, 1t positively required the legisa-
tureto regulate them. The plea, therefore, that
Texas railroads are private property not sub
ject to Legislative regulation and control is not
oHly speeious, but lacking in justice, principle
Sld authority to support it. The question Of
regulating their rates is not one of propriety ex
pediency or law, it is one of duty and method.
To those gentlemen who contend that sehed-
Hive enact gS ' huf at P1 them the Gn
denied fact that for fourteen years, with
islature to do so, it has not been done. Why?
1t is but just to our public servants, upon whom
40 stain should be placed reflection cast, to
say that such law is utterly impracticable, and
that no state has ever yet adopted one with any
degree of success. Some members of every ses-
sion of the legislature since 1876 have earnestly
endeayored to establish a schedule of rates.
Carrying out their oaths of Office many of our
representatives and senator's have, at each
curing session of the legislature for many
years, attempted to obey that pro-
vision of the constitution which, after de-
claring railroads to be public highways, says:
THE legislature shall pass laws to correct
abuses and prevent unjust discrimination and ex-
tortion in the rates of freight and passenger
tariffs on the different railroads in this state
and shall from time 70 time pass laws estab-
fishing reasonable maximum rates of chsFgeS
for the transportation of passengers and freight
and afTra oil u1J0f Ian
adequate penalties, Art. 10. Sec. 3.
With that provision conspicuous in
have the boidness to assert that railways are
private property beyond legislative control and
regulation? With it standing there as m9nu-
ment to the failure of our representative to
obey the behests of their constituents, how can
any advocate of railway regulation contend that
it shall be done by bill to fix traffic rates upon
defy contradiction, that a law fixing schedule
of rates adaptable to the various sec
justly passed. In the first place, the regulation
of railway rates can be properly and equitabfy
aiinp and 9 sd vp' No one drd n nv
representatives, coming from the different parts
of the state, nnskilled in railway MANAGEMENT
and affairs, within the limited time allowed
main in session, could prepare sohed-
covering the various and almost limitless num-
Der of articles of commerce, used by one line of
occupied by the session acts Of any legislature
of this state 1t begins with and exhausts the
table of numbers and the alphabet in the enumer-
alton and classification of traffic. 1t contains the
names of all the articles of commerce known to
the wants of our people, and they are divided into
weights of pounds, tons and carload lots. While
this schedule of rates as governing that company
if adopted by the legislature might possibly be
inst and fair to that railEead and the public
along its line, yet as applied tc different road
in more sparse2y settled section, it would be
destructive of the interests of the railway, if
used by another line penetrating more thickly
settled and prosperous portion of the state, Il
would amount to extortion upon people along
its way. Then, to prepare schedule of rates
adapted to every line of road and section of the
state by SO unwieldy q body of men as compose
our legislature, would be useless job, fruitful
alone Of complicated and embarrassing results.
failure to,pass such law, when the censtitu-
tion for so many years made it the duty of the
legislature to do go, ought to be proof sufficient
that il cannot be done or, IL 1T can, the railroad
inaGenceis strong enough to prevent it.
Three trusted ciizens, however selected for
their ability, peculiar fitness for the work, in
tegrity, pure sense of Justice and regard for the
public welfare, could, with much propriety and
respect for the interests of the railways and the
$eople, prepare and apply a schedule of rates
suitable to the varied conditions of the railroads
and the commercial interests of every section of
our state. which they could change or adjust
as propriety demanded. Traffic managers, some
of whom never saw Texas, bending over their