Fort Worth daily gazette. (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1882-1891, 1890-06-01
THE PLACE OF TEXAS.
Remarkable Growth of the Great South
ern State.
A Few Facts and Figares-what Has Been
Going on 10 the Vast Common
wealth.
New York Sun.

the turning of the great investment cur
rent which for long time set from the
capitalist East almost due West SO that
it now flows broadly and strongly TO the
| South and Southwest. The change sig
miles not so much partial exhaustion OF
| investment opportunities in the West as
It does the opening of new field richer
! in many of its phases than the great
| West ever offered The North and East
have been learning very rapidly during
recent months and years about the in
dustrial and natural resources of the
| South, and the prompt venture of even
conservative capital in the new direction
is il itself simple proof of the substan-
tial nature of the inducements which the
| field holds out.
It is only within a few months that
| popular attention has been directed
beyond the Mississippi river to the
newest of the new South. There is a
state down there which one of its citi-
zens recently described as possessing
the greatest area the finest climate, the
most fertile soil, the. greatest variety Of
pI0dacts, and the worst reputation of
Estate in the Union. But he added
i proudly that, ''secure in the p session
! of the first four of these. she can safely
have time to take care OF the fifth. -
There was a long time when Texas
hadn't much to boast of but blgness,
or, rather, her scattered citizens hadn t
| discovered all her other good qualities.
SO vast was her domain. But now Texas
has grown tired of that boast, and she
has begun to inventory some of her other
claims to greatness. Already she has
astonished herself by her selt-examina-
ton
1t is literally true that Texas has not
yet been able to gain an adequate con-
ception of her resources. That this is
not surprising Is easily made clear. Mr..
B. B. Paddock, the president of the
Fort Worth Board of Trade, in q recent
address before the members of the Dem
yer Chamber of Commerce, remarked:
$40 convey to your minds some idea
of the area OF Texas, let us imagine that
its eastern border was connected with
the western line of Louisiana by vast
hinge, and Texas was raised up like
great trap door folded over to the east.
1t would cover all the Gulf states, the
Panhandle would be found resting up in
Kentucky, near Louisville and Cincin-
natl, and FL Paso would be out on
peninsula in the Atlantic ocean, beyond
Savannah. Ga.
The Rev. DR.. Barrows of Chicago re-
Gently used this illustration: ''1f the
great state of New York were set down
in Texas and a man was sent out on
horseback to look for New York, he
might ride an entire year without stumb-
ling upon it,
1t follows that so vast an area must
yield a great variety of climate and nat
ural resources, but the average Northern
mind has no conception of the self-sus-
tanned wealth of this great Southwestern
empire. She lays claim to the greatest
independence of resources of any state in
the Union. Mr.. Paddock, III the adj
dress referred to, said of her:
s'If an unsurmountable and impenetrablo
wall were erected around Texas she could pro-
duce all the comforts and luxuries her people
now enjoy. She could grow her own tropical
fruits along the Gulf coast and freeze her own
ice on her northern border. Her supply of tim
Der is adequate to her demands, and she is
sending thousands Of carloads of understandable
lumber to Colorado and Kansas, and vast mines
of the finest iron ore OF the various kinds have
been partially developed, and are only awaiting
the advent of railroads to the mineral regions to
enter the markets of the world as an active COM
petitor in this branch OF commerce. The only
vein of manganese, without which steel cannot
be made, of any Importance on this continent,
world, exists IN Texas. In copper, lead, kaolin,
asbestos and other articles of similar and
equally valuable nature she is equally rich.
1.-The state debt is infnitesimal. 1t is less
than 81, 600, O00 and most of this is held by the
school fund. The mortgage debt of the entire
state, including municipal and individual in
81 o. 900 900 in Kansas $3.50, 900, 900 in Iowa and
500 COO, 600 in Ohio. The state tax is limited to
twenty. cents on the 500 valuation, and in 1883
was only fifteen cents on the 500. County and
city taxes are limited to so per cent. of this,
except special taxes for improvements.
1.-THE public school fund of the state is the
mn q an q a N "a
STATE has an available cash fund of S11, 000,-
ZOO, and public lands devoted to this purpose
valued at S60 Coz 600. In less than i've years the
public school fund of the state will exceed
SI00, 900, 900. In addition to this, every county
in the state has public school fund OF proper
Texas is now the third state in the Union in
railroad mileage, and when the state is fully de-
veloPed, has as many miles OF railway in pro,
as great mileage as the entire United States at
the present time.
s'in agricultural products she has no superior
indeed, no equal. Northern Texas is the only
place on the inhsbitable globe-and this is 3
broad assertion-where cotton. the acknowl-
edged king of commerce, and all the cereals,
can be grown in the same field, and each in as
high a state of perfection as in its own peculiar
location IS good cotton as the delta of the
AGO, good corn as Illinois, better wheat
,ahan any grown on the continent, rye, barley,
oats, millet, and, in fact, all the products OF
Snsbandry; superior in quality and greater in
Quantity than any other section. Texas is ca
pable of supplying the demand of the whole
country for food and raiment BY tilling only her
lands best adapted to agriculture. -
The census now being taken is expected
to show population of more than 8, 00O,-
600 for Texas. This Will be an increase
of 95 per cent over the returns for 1880,
and the liner ase during the decade 1870
1880 was proportionately as great. II as
deusely popul ted as the state of New
York, Texas would contain % ,000, 900
people, or If as populous as France it
would contain IS, 900, 900, or If as popu-
lous as Belgium the figures would be
1873 200, 900. a comparison of the re-
sources of the four wealthiest states in
cattle and farm products shows that they
occupy the following relative positions:
In cattle Texas is first and Illinois fourth.
In sheep Texas is first and Ohio third.
In vAlueof corn crop Illinois is first and Texas
fourth. ~
In yFine of farm products Illinois is first and
Te1ff third.
talue Of cotton crop Texas is arst and Ar
Asas fourth.
In average of cash value per acre of corn Texas
is first and Iowa fourth.
In average cash value per acre of wheat Texas
is first and Missouri fourth.
In average cash value per ecre ofsoats Texas Is
first and Missouri fourth.
1t further appears that the farm pro-
ducts of Texas exceeded In value all
those OF the New England states, with
those of Maryland and Delaware added.
The one great drawback to the still