Fort Worth gazette. [volume] (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1891-1898, 1891-08-09
A LITTLE LET-UP.
Houston Permitted to Hang On
to Her Cotton Differential.
JUDGE REAGAN GOES HOME.
Application to Spend $4,000 on East Line
Improvements Argued, Pro and Con.
Wilson Turner Succumbs to the Bullet.
Some of the Stumbling Blocks the
Traffic Men Up to Date Have
Failed to Remove.
LUMBER AND COTTON.
A Week of Argument Fails to Convince
the Commission 1t as in Error.

the Commission 1t as in Error.
Special TO the Gazette
AUSTIN, Ten, Aug. Son the 5th instant
the railroad men. the lumber men. the COM
press men and Il few others directly affected
by the proposed rates on either cotton, lum-
Der, grain or salt, Swarmed III on the COM
mission prepared with the most vigorous
kicks each had in his shop. against either
the rate or the mileage system, or both, as
interest dictated. There was & single eX-
ception in the case OF the lumber mill men
OF Northeast Texas. They had no griev-
ance growing out of the proposed action of
the commission; on the other hand they in
dorsed it, but did have a very able-bodied
and lusty grievance against current freight
rates, which they claimed We're so laid as TO
circumscribe them TO limited territory be-
tween Dallas and TeXarllana, and no farther
south than Corsicana. If so far. They We're
bound up in
A CORNER OF THE STATE,
while the remainder of it was reserved as
rich meadow of expansive proportions for
their competitors OF Beaumont and Orange
and the lumber region thereabOut, to roam
in ut will without competition, let or hin
drance. Beaumont and Orange enjoy the
same rate TO North Texas points given TO
the jefferson and TeXarkana mills, which
by reason of their proximity to that terri
tory should, Us they think be allowed
acter why less rate should be given them
are found in the greater disadvantages un
der which their product is mi!led and pre-
pared for market as well as the fact that
the public. for some strange ana unaCcOmt-
able reason, manifest u preference for the
''long leaf lumber OF the Southeast,
although they fancy that their lighter
weight short leaf is fully as good and as
valuable. Their expense Of milling is
greater. timber being Scarccr. and their
lumber for certain purposes less desirable
than that of their competitors; hence. the
reasons why they desire Il rate that will not
add further to their embarrassments, by
what they term
An UNFAIR DISCRIMINATION
in favor Of more fortunate rivals. They
sell very little stuff in Middle and nothing ut
all in Southern Texas. They are satisfied
with the opposed mileage rates
that permit no favoritism. and
place them and their competitors
on an equality rs far as transporta-
ton goes. The best reason advanced by
Southeast Texas mills. why current rates
should not be disturbed, is that, to do so,
would send them pei-mell into bankruptcy
and pauperiZe $4,000 men, women and
children. for whose sake, and to preserve
their mill machinery from decay, they keep
going, though making nothing. ami many of
them losing. These Orange and Beaumont,
Northwestern fellows say, are living in
clover, told Il pitiful story of the woe and
desolation that would follow the establish
ment of j mileage lumber rate. How much
of il was well founded, and how much fan
ciful, will have to be decided by the commits
sion.
THE COMPRESS MEN
had full-grown and bewhiskered griev-
ance. At present they are permitted to
local cotton in any particular neighbor-
hood TO points where they choose to have
ii compressed. the roads refurding the To-
cal rate for such hauls, and charging only
from the compress 10 the point of destina-
ton. In this way cotton is frequently
hauled to the compress in a direction oppo-
site to that in which it is destined. Under
the commissions rulings the cotton must
pay freight from the initial point of ship
ment, no matter in what direction it goes
for COMPRISING. This ruling has a ten
dency to send cotton in the direction of its
destination for COMPRISING, although Il
short haul backwards might bring it to a
compress. The ruling interferes, it is
claimed. very materially with the present
system of concentrating cotton for ship
ment. and should be modified as the deal
ers think and urge, so as to produce as lit
tie embarrassment as possible i'll the matter
of concentration. which, they say, is as
much 10 the advantage and pecunlary in
tereSt of the raiser Us the dealer.