Fort Worth daily gazette. (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1882-1891, 1890-06-21
EFFECTS OF THE COMMISSION.
1t Means Postponement of Some of the Bright
AnticipatiOns of the Future for Texas.

AnticipatiOns OF the Future for Texas
NEW YORK, June II, 1890.
Editor Gazette.
If the advocates of ''Hogg and COM
mission" do not believe that the success
of their pet measure for regulating the
railroads. is calcula ted to have delete
rious effect upon the interests of Texas,
present and to come, they have only TO
make pilgrimage to money oenters to
be most thoroughly convinced. That it
affects railroad Enterprises is readily
discerned. That it goes further, and
affects every class of investment will be
easily demonstrated. If the agitation of
the question, and the remote possibility
of the adoption of the amendment, and
the election of man of such radical
views as the present attorney general is
known to entertain, can produce such
unfavorable results, what will be the
effect of the adoption of the amendment
| and the nomination of Hogg? Not utter
stagnation and irretrievabie ruin, as
some of the anti Hogg men predict, but
certainly postponement of some of the
| bright anticipations of the future. Texas
| needs the capital of the bondholders
| and monied men of the East for its de-
| velopment. For years the press and
! public spirited men of Texas have been
engaged in the work of educating the
"money bags'' to the fact that Texas
presented a fine field for investment.
| That securities were good, investments
secure. The result of years of effort was
| about to bring forth fruit, and capital
was beginning to flow into Texas, when
| the present agitation was commenced.
| The result Is that the al rm has been
SOUNDED; the work of years of endeavor
is ssl65st TO be neutralized and the conf
| desfe created to be dispelled, and for
| wHf? To show to the world that Texas
fsthe inherent right to regulate rail-
aads-a right that has never been ques-
6ned or denied. All ideas of ex-
pediency, policy and good business has
\ been relegated to the rear, that the alb
/ stract question may be established.
That able journal, the New York Sun,
in commenting on the question, says:
As matter of fact, while the principle in
| volvee is in the abstract un-American and I'M
| Democratic, we doubt, if, in the present con-
! dition of the state of Texas, more detrimental
| piece of legislation could be devised. The state
| is entering upon period of DEVELOPMENT which
| promises to reach proportions the like of which
| proportion to her size, and the conditions of 1t
| are of unexampled solidity and permanence.
Just as essential to this m oyement as air is TO
| our life. is the development of the railway sys-
| tenn of the state. The fertilization of the vast
area of Texas is as impossible without railroads
| as without water. There is no industry within
| her borders that is not dependent upon the
| railroads for its progress, and if the railroads
| aease to extend their arteries through her
| territory the expansion of her prosperity must
cease, if indeed, it does not contract and decay.
To have railroads there must be capital, and
| there is capital in Texas to build them. II
| there were plenty of money in Texas it would
| not be forthco ming to the extent OF a dollar to
build railroads that were to be admins
| tered by board OF politicians. And IL Texas
| capital is SO conservative and tmid what could
| be expected from foreign capital? Therefore we
| say that no legisI alton could be more prejudi-
| cial to the state than that which is implied in
| the proposed amendment to the constitution.
We do not know what manner of men they are
folly, but here we should look upon them with
more than suspicion. Indeed, there is no stale
in the Union in which such commission as is
| proposed in Texas would not presently develop
| into gigantic system Of blackmail. 1t is wrong
and vicious in principle, and, If ever en- cited,
it is certain TO be most pernicious and injurious
in effect.
Were the railroad systems of Texas
completed; had every county and Sec
ton the railroad facilities it desires and
deserves; were its prairies dotted with
villages, and the banks of its streams
lined with factories-as every friend of
Texas hopes to see tive might with
more complacency, If not more consis-
tency, consent to the adoption of the
amendment and the election of Hogg
Just TO show to the world that we had a
"right'' to commit business ''hari
karl. - But with only a mile of road
to every thirty-seven square miles, and
millions of acres of unoccupied land and
its vast wealth of undeveloped resources
awaiting the magic touch Of the dollar
to make them productive, the adoption
of the amendment and the election OF
Hogg is nothing less than business sui
eide. B. B. PADDOCK.