Fort Worth gazette. [volume] (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1891-1898, 1892-03-20
ON HoGG AND A COMMISSION.
The People Made the Issue of the Commits
sion Long Ago.
In HoEE They Found Brave Leader
Who Fought On the Lines Laid
Down by the Democracy In
Convention Assembled
Ball at weathsrford.
Special to the Gazette.

The chairman, after predatory remarks,
said: II have the pleasure now of intro
ducing to you Col Frank Ball, of Fort
Worth, whom doubtless you all know"
Mr.. Ball said
Ladies and FelloW- Citizens of We2therford
and Parker County:
I take it that the reasons moving you to
make the invitation which number ofYour
. best citizens so kindly sent me to address
you this evening was not alone because 1
had formerly resided here in my youthful
days and because you had been kind to me,
kinder far than l deserved. 1t would be a
sufficient reason for men 10 come to-
gether and talk after they have been sepa-
rated for q number Of years., as you aud
have But 1 take it the principal reason
why my presence was desired and 50
kindly invited was that it was well known
10 you, to my older friends at least, that /
am no politician; that is that I am nc active
politician, that l am not nor nave ever been
a seeker after Office, that l have for the
better part OF my life sJudiOusly ana per-
sistenty declined any and every opporau-
nifty which has been offered me 10 Jake
either an elective or apD0ntVe Office, I'M
less indeed 1t might be said that the posi-
which l hold and have held for some few
months and which seems 20 have entitled
mCtO be noticed IN the papers Hon. Frank
". Bali IS to De regarded as an office, 1t
Is g position without salary and one which
costs me money TO hold and which l would
gladly get lid Of If l could find II consonant
with my ideas of duty-that is the Office Of
one Of the cents OF the state university.
As for being colonel in which capacity
my friend has introduced me, l respect
fully disclaim the title. Most of you know
Frank Ball-most OF the older ones-and
know that he has always fought as pri-
Vate in the rear ranks.
Fellow citizens, the only issue that is
joined in this canvass, I say to you in the
outstart, is whether or not the commission
organized by the legislature of Texas for
the regulation of railways and the railway
corporations of the state shall exist. Ap-
plausel Fluent speakers may assert that
the commission question IS settled. They
may insistswith all manner of vociferous
asSeVeration that it is functuS officio, but
when you look into it, when you examine
the lines of battle Us they are drawn, when
you look upon the one hand at the men who
are now so loudly and repeatedly crying
against the present administration of this
state and on the other at those who are
quietly standing by i and uttering an &C.
casional word in its defense, you find sub
stantially the same men fighting and the
same contentious and the same battle which
was fought in 1899. Applausel.
Fellow citizens, the people of Texas have
been liberal to railroads and railroad cor
porations. They have treated them with
prinCely generosity. Since our state was
rescued from the rule Of the Republicans,
the Democratic party being in control, has
favored and assisted the building of rail
roads in the state in such muniicent man
ner as TO create surprise on the part of the
whole world
In the first place, the legislature of 1873,
by private act, Incorporated railroad after
railroad, to the mum Der of fifty or seventy
five, These corporations were mostly COM
posed of citizens of other states men from
the North, who We're supposed to possess
superior means for building railroads, SUI
perior capital at least, to that OF our own
citizens. who at that time, were poor, and
were just emerging from the dark days of
reconstruction. The legislature of the state
of Texas granted to each of these railroads
sixteen sections of land, over ten thousand
acres, TO every mile of road which they
should build within the borders OF the
state Not only that, they granted them
the right of way through the public domain,
with depot privileges, free of cost. Not
only that, the people of the different cities
and towns and counties through which q
projected line of railway was proposed to
run We're, called upon to subscribe their
municipal and county bonds as subsidies to
these railroads, as they were permitted to
do prior to the constitution OF 1875 The
towns and counties responded literally.
And even new, numerous counties and
towns OF this state are being taxed to pay
the interest on those donated bonds. Not
only that, when the right of way was asked
was almost in every instance freely granted.
Indeed the railroads often demanded, at
the point of the b2yonet, so to speak, that
right of way and depot privileges should be
given them through our towns. All was
cheerfully accorded-these rights of way
and valuable franchiseS-supposed in other |
states TO constitute one-third of the actual |
cost of construction Of q railway line. Not |
only that, fellow citizens, every time rail |
road was projected towards town or
county situated in this state such town,
county or city was called upon to make a |
donation of money to the road. They re- |
sponded literally in almost every instance. |
While IL may not be true that they did il |
always voluntarily, because I remember |
well on one occasion when party of rail- |
road officials came to Fort Worth in Pull |
man palace car, headed by the late Gov
ernOr John G. Brown, and demanded that |
the people of Fort Worth give to them S40,- |
900 of money within three hours to pur- |
chase right of way, with the alternative |
that unless they did so the ROAD would |
verge from the town three miles and would |
destroy IL as town. They came up with |
the money, although cannot say they did |
it voluntarily. Al any rate, fellow citizens, |
the railroads and the railroad corporations |
and the projectors of railroads have nothing |
70 complain of against Texas and Texas !
people. [Applausel.
Did these corporations respond with like |
hberality towards the citizensl They did |
not. And it could not be expected that |
they should so respond. 1t must be re- |
membered that those railway organizations
are corporations. As the law sayeth, ''they |
have no SOULS" neither, as corporations, |
can they be reasonably expected TO have |
the emotions of men; that of gratitude least |
of all. You may present your neighbor
with your purse, open it to him as the peo-
pie of Texas opened their purses and their
treasury to these railroads, and tell him to
help himself; 1t would be expected of him,
as a man endowed with a sense of graft
tude, that he would reciprocate the favor TO
you in your time of need. That same man,
if he was director in a corporation that
had taken your money, if called upon TO re-
spond on behalf of the corporation, would
reply: THAT is not business. We are not
here for the purpose of entertaining these
feelings of gratitude. We owe it to our
stockholders TO give them as large divi-
bends as possible. This is business. This
is not sentiment" AND rightfully so. We
have no right to expect from them, although
they have been dealt with by US with
lavish hand, gratitude, nor do we get it.
This iberality of our people to the railroads
which were building and being projected in
our state brought vast rush of Northern
capital to take advantage Of it, Northern
men came here, supplemented or aided in
many instances by citizens of our own state,
who likewise desired to share in the benefits
conferred by the railroads. The railroads