Fort Worth gazette. [volume] (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1891-1898, 1891-11-16
DENVER TO GULF.
The Project of a New Line of
Railway
AND FOR! WORTH is IN IT.
The Question Being Agitated By the Dem
yer Times-Reasons Why 1t Should
Be Built-Katy Directors
Mt Galveston.
DENVER'S NEW ROAD.
Tho Line Projected from Galveston via
Fort Worth to Denver.


Tho Line Projected from Galveston via
Fort Worth to Denver.
The Denver Times has been agitating the
question of an Independent line from Den
yer to deep water The following from the
Times will give an idea of the proposed
route. Fort Worth will do her part, pro-
vided tn charter designates Fort Worth as
the permanent home of the general offices
in Texas:
DENvER'S COMMANDING POSITION.
"That the Ell Paso railroad convention
should unanimously resolve to build a rail
road from that city direct to Denver as its
northern termination, to be kept indie
pendent of other railroad companies, is a
compliment to this city of no ordinary i'm
port. We already have railroad commune
cation with FL PaSo over one continuous
line and under one management, but the
route is circuitous, and the company own
ing and operating it has to make much
longer haul than is really necessary in or
der to make its connections at Kansas City
and Chicago.
s'Years ago this company was appealed
to, through its president, to give Denver
far rates and connection with New Mexico.
The answer was given, from the railroads
standpoint, that they could not afford to
open the trade OF New Mexico to Denver.
That appeal was made by Denver railroad
company desiring Z connection at Pueblo
with the road of which the request was
made.
Since that time the Ell Paso line has
been extended from Pueblo to Denver, and
from Kansas City to Chicago. Thus its ill
terest in the long haul has been greatly in
creased. The same road has also acquired
a line o. its own running all the way
from Denver to Galveston. But this road,
like that to FL Paso, takes a circuitous
route. Its long haul is past and away from
Denver, to Kansas City and Chicago.
Although Galveston has two other rail
routes to Denver, with few connections all
the way. independent of the first named
line and of each other, they are all more in
terested in their long haul than in their
short line to the sea. The result is that
Galveston can now furnish a large part of
the incoming and outgoing commerce Of the
Atlantic ocean to the whole trans Missis-
sippi country. nearly as cheaply as New
York can, and quite as cheaply when her
thirty-foot deep harbor is completed. Then
there will be very little of such commerce
that cannot be more advantageouSly car
ried on by way of Galveston. And yet the
commerce between Denver, and in fact the
whole Rocky mountain country, and Gal
weston, is now very insignificant.
Galveston, like El Paso, is awake to the
Importance of direct rail route to Denver,
free from the control Of other railroads
HAVING greater interests to serve, and espe
cially those in the Western traffic aSSocia-
ton. Denver and Galveston experienced
great boom when the gulf road was under
independent management.
FORTUNATELY these cities are now so
strong that they cannot long be cabarred
from restoration of the benefits of indie
pendent management. They alone can bet
ter afford to build an entire connecting line
between them. on the shortest route, than
be without such independent connection by
the time or even before the time, when the
deep water harbor shall be compieted-a
harbor that is contracted for and being
rapidly built by the United States govern
ment
DENVER AND DEEP WATER.
While the contract has been let by the
secretary of war for the construction of a
channel thirty feet deep across the bar into
Galveston bay, by authority of congress,
and the work is going forward with en-
couraging progress, it is clear, from the few
references made to 1t by the press. that the
us-MiSsiSSippi country has lapSed into
comparative Indifference regarding the sub
iect. Why is this? Is not the saving to
this region of 100000, 600 annually, now ex-
pended in unnecessary railroad transporta-
ton, which Secretary Dana's statistics
prove would be saved if the harbor is con-
structed, an object? Or does the prevailing
nlulUerGuCp ARISE ITOlu ii ltcllil8 ltldG INC
building of the harbor is already asSureda
aCertainly the first reason is not the true
one, and if the second one is, it is time the
note of warning should be sounded. Of
the st. 200. 900 estimated by the engineers
to be necessary to complete the Galveston
harbor, only -hfth-Sl, 100, 000-has been
appropriated by congress. Until the rest
is appropriated, notwithstanding the con-
tract is let, there is no certainty that the
work will go on without delay. In view of
the great Importance of this work to half
the area of the United States. this appro-
priation ought to be made at the approach
ing session of congress.
Now what is being done to secure it,
While the contest that is going on between
the different ports of the gulf that caused
our friends from Texas to make the Denver
deep water convention so lively, is not to
be feared, for, as they agreed to leave it to
the army commission, Texas is now a unit
on the question. there is a much more po-
tential influence that is to be feared. This
is the association of gigantic railroad COM
panies whose interests are opposed to this
deep harbor.
THE harbor will take from them an i'm
mense and profitable traffic, in which they
have the long haul ard high rates west of
the Missouri river The Surmise that each
appropriation for the Galveston deep harbor
will be opposed by all the railroad influence
west of the Atlantic coast, would seem to
have some foundation, and as the struggle
will be renewed at each successive effort in
congress to secure the appropriation, the
sections of country interested ought to
buckle on their armor and get the entire
amount required to carry out the contract
appropriated at once. Not only for this
reason, but because uncertainty Is the source
OF delay, and because the confidence the ap-
preparation of the entire amount would in
Spire, would save one or two years in the
completion of the harbor, and as many
hundreds of millions of dollars to the West
ern country. 1t would also enable the
country to adjust its lines of railroad so as
to be ready to furnish transportation direct
to and from the point when opened.
THE direct railroad from Denver
to Galveston over level route after
crossing the divide, with long tan
gents and easy curves, shortening the dis
lance over 200 miles. 1.-THE entire distance
would be 900 miles) built by Denver and
Galveston SO as to give them the permanent
control; with the FL Paso line giving US di-
fect traie with the republic of Mexico. and
the entire Union Pacific syetem extending
to Washington and Oregon, would give
Denver such an enlarged traffic that the
impetus to her growth could only DE eSti-
mated by largely multiplying that given by
the Denver, Texas and Gulf road.
Denver and the whole country with
which she is connected by rail. is scarcely
less interested in the deep water harbor
than Galveston herself, for her interior dis
tributing facilities for mining products,