Fort Worth gazette. [volume] (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1891-1898, 1891-06-29

PUBLIC NOT IN 1T.
Affairs as They Existed Before
There Was a Commission.
BETWEEN SHIPPER AND ROAD
The Former Afraid to Make Complaints, Fear
ing Worse Treatment From the Roads.
Between Railroads and Protected Barons
the Man With the Hoe Found Jor-
dan Was a Hard Road to Travel.
Factories and Rates.
BETWEEN SHIPPER AND ROAD
Correspondence of the Gazette.

tuc SaLCltC-
AUSTIN, TEX, June 27.-The railroad
commissioners and their clerical force are
kept very busy answering correspondents
writing concerning their grievances against
the railroads. If the general public could
know the amount and character of COM
plants made it would have a more clear and
definite idea of the determinations of one
kind or another practiced against Texas i'll
duStrleS, trades and businesses. 1t really
knows very little about the matter Indi-
vidual shippers have been accustomed to
say very little about the hardships under
which they labOred and from which they
suffered. There was no one but the courts
to apply to for help or redress, and by the
time the courts got through with single
case, the complainant was often either
dead or bankrupt. The courts were
practically worthless in protecting ship
pers, and were, therefore, hut seldom
appealed to- Besides, aggrieved parties
were afraid not only to speak of their
troubles and hardships to the public that
was powerless to help them, but feared
even to call upon the courts lest the
railroads would treat them worse still.
They dreaded the i'll will or the aroused
animosits of set of railway Officials at
whose mercy they were. Consequently
they put up with and bore the ills they
had, rather than kick and incur others
they knew would be forthcoming. They
feared the rod kept constantly in pickle for
the man who complained, and bore their
wrongs in silence. Hence the reason why
the public is so little acquainted with the
real scope and gravity of those wrongs.
The commissioners are finding them out
fast enough, and will do so faster, in all
probability, when shippers learn to dismiss
their old fears and speak out.
This is the first time that a tribunal has
existed in the state to which a shipper
might bring his complaint and not incur the
risk of being punished therefor by rail-
road company. The commission stands be-
tween the railroad and the complainant,
with ample power to check OF punish speed
lily any attempt of the railroad Ito get even
with the shipper who asked for justice
This circumstance is not yet well under
stood by the men who use the railroads.
They do not know that it is safe for them
to come before the commission with their
grievances. This appears from letters and
documents sent the commission by shippers
who attach a postscript to their list tof
grievances, begging the com missioners to
conceal their names from the offending rail-
roads lest they be punished for unfolding
their tales of woe. 1t is entirely useless to
send in complaints with that sort of ad
denda attached. The commission cannot
and will not act on them. One such party
was informed by letter from the commission
Tending railroad with the story of his
wrongs he deserved no redress therefor.
The complaints already made snow how
extensive is the system of determinations
against the constructive industries and
factories of Texas. The trunk lines are
owned in the East. They favor Eastern
industries, when it comes to
crushing a Texas competitor. In this
pleasing occupation there is no compunc-
ENpaIpht
deadly effect They fall like killing frost
that soon withers and blasts the most hope
full s'infant Industries" Mr.. McIIinley's
protective tariff is nowhere when it comes
to fighting a trunk line railroad. 1t is not
10 it. 1t cannot, without the consent of the
railroads, foster or build up the most in
significant manufacturing industry in
Texas. The railway magnates have a
laundering veto on Col. Bill Mckinley and
his tariff bill when they choose to use it.
The tariff was designed for the East, and
by the all-powerful aid of the trunk lines it
is kept there. 1t stimulates manufacturing
there, enriches the factory barons by the
monopoly created, and at the same
time gives the trunk lines an
enormous tonnage, and so swells
their Golfers and enhances the value of their
stocks. 1t pays the railroads to keep down
manufacturing in the West and South. By
making local rates high, and through rates
low when an emergency calls for it, they
succeed admirably in mastering the situa-
ton They profit as much by the tariff as
do the factory lords. Hence the reason
why they favor it. They prey upon the
guileless farmer as the protected barons
do, and between the two, the man with the
hoe finds Jordan hard road to travel
There would seem to be no good reason
why Galveston's bagging and wooden mills
cannot supply the Texas markets with
the irproducts in competition with Eastern