Kansas City journal. [volume] (Kansas City, Mo.) 1897-1928, 1897-04-26
SENATOR PADDOCK TALKS ON sA-
BINE PASS SITUATION.
GIVES HIS VIEW OF THE CASE.
CRITICIsEs SOME STATEMENTS At
TRIBUTED TO MIR. sTILwELL.
Vhe Senator Is One of the StockhoId-
ers of the Sabine Pass Company
and Gives the History of
Some Proposed Ne
Eotiations.

mart of +be Port Arthur Improvement Com
pany for q permit TO dredge from fort
Arthur to Sabine harbor through SABINE
lake, a distance of seven and one-halt
miles, has excited considerable interest Ill
Washington The secretary of war has
been holding the matter under Amusement
upon the point raised by those interested
in Sabine Pass that the dredging of chan
mel through the lake will injure the deep
water harbor below and that the war de-
partment has no authority TO grant such
permit which lies exclusively within the
jurisdiction of congress. This point mas
been referred to the attorney general Tor
his decision, and there the matter at pres
ent rests. There has been considerable
newspaper cross-firing between the con-
hicting interests of Port Arthur and sa-
bine Pass.
Ex-senator Paddock, of Nebraska, who
is one of the stockholders of the Sabine
Pass Company, and who was referred to
in an interview printed in a Kansas City
paper on the 10th inst, is out in an inter-
view to-day which vigorously criticizes the
statements made by MIR. Stilweil respect
ing himself the controversy in question
and the interests involved which are IN
dispute. Senator Paddock says that Mr
StiiweIIs statements as reported that the
order stopping the dredging of the FORT
Arthur ship channel had been secured
through his tSendtOr fdQ0Oek 81 llnusuCe
with the secretary of war is entirely with.
out foundation; that he never mentioned
the subject to the secretary of war before
the dredging of Sabine lake was restrained
by the proper federal officer in Texas. and
that he never intimated to anyone that he
had conferred with the secretary of war
upon the subject.
This however," said ex-senator Pad
dock, ''is small thing beside the point in
controy ersy. Mr.. Stilwell and his associates
have been publishing for months from one
literature showing Port Arthur, Sabine
lake and Sabine Pass as sort of geo.
graphical composition in which, however,
the main features of Sabine Pass are hard
ty discernable. while the corporate lines of
Port Arthur embellished by harbor, ships,
wharves, ETC., borrowed from the port of
Sabine Pass, seem to rest with grand areas
and beautiful proportions upon the shores
of the Gulf of Mexico. The fact as shown
by the government maps and official sound
tngs is that the alleged harbor of Port Ar
thur, where there is only from one to two
feet depth of water, is seven and one-haf
miles from the point where the twenty-four
foot channel commences in Sabine Pass
harbor, and that for the distance there is
only an average of four and one-half feet
suits to come from this violation of the
law in attempting to dredge without au-
thority this unnecessary channel in the
Sabine Lake settling basin to toWnsite
upon bayou, will be to disabuse the pub
lie mind as to the romantic tales respect
ing the geographical, commercial and ur-
not exist except in the vivid imagination
of the Port Arthur boomers themselves
Il am very much surprised continued
the senator, "at seeing Mr.. Stilwell quoted
as saying, ii is the same old thing of Wall
street trying to choke off Western enter
prise A large majority of the stockhpld-
ers Of the Sabine Land and Improvement
Company, which company owns part but
not all of the Sabine Pass townsite, reside
and do business In the states of Texas, Ne
braska. Colorado, Kansas. Michigan, Penn
sylvania and New Jersey. The life work
Of Of most Of these men h has been been given to
country, where majority of them now
live and have lived for nearly forty years.
1t is quite as misleading. not to say un-
true, TO state as Mr.. Stilwell is reported to
have stated, that kountZe brothers have
owned the frontage at Sabine for twenty
years and have refused to provide wharves
and that ships have been obliged to load
in midstream through their negligence to
IMP Se IN @gn "5n nr 1an
quarter of a century ago the Kountze
Bros. invested largely in pine timber and
other lands in louisiana and Texas, in
cluding lands on Sabine Pass, which then
had channel of about four feet. Angus
tus kountze, the Older of the brothers,
then residing in Omaha, conceived the idea
of q great possible harbor at Sabine. At
large personal expense he secured private
surveys and Investigations in order to
form the basis for an appeal for govern
mental consideration. Through his efforts
and those of his brothers. residing respect
lively in Denver, Omaha and New York,
the jetty plan was finally adopted, work
upon the project begun and has since been
prosecuted. Progress was necessarily slow
and after nearly twenty years there was
but twelve feet depth of channel. There
was little demand for wharves, because
there was no commerce except in lumber,
In connection with these investments.
the Kountze Brofs then four, now three,
road as a factor of development in that
section. the southern terminal of the road
Pass. 1t was afterwards sold, and became
part of the Southern Pacific system, and
is now in active operation from Sabine
Pass in connection with that extensive
system with valuable terminals and 'front.'
age on thirty feet of deep water at Sabine
trance to TO the poi port of large ships drawing
twenty TO twenty-siX feet of water, that
the necessity of greater harbor facilities
demand a system of slips and wharves of
modern design and superior construction
is being pushed as rapidly as men and
work will be completed and has been con-
tracted for by shippers in about thirty
days The schedule of wharf charges fixed
by the Sabine company is about S5lS per
cent less than has been usual at gulf ports.
This is certainly better than the boasted
free charge which Mr.. Stilwell exploits
at port that does not now and never can
exist. The Sabine Land and Improvement
Company has. 1t is true, during the past
temporary wharves while perfecting their
own plans for a uniform system of slips
ton of the work which is now being rapid
ly pushed forward
when Mr.. Stilwell says that our COM
pany are simply trying to force us to
buy their land which l would not have as
gift he evidently forgets his proposition
TO the officers of the Sabine Land and I'M
prcyement Company which they could not
SEQ their way clear to accept. His MEM
ory being refreshed he will undoubtedly
recall that before the Port Arthur scheme
of an artificial harbor up Sabine lake was
incubated that he made a proposition for
acquiring an interest in the land and 'front.'
age on deep water at Sabine Pass. This
proposal was refreshing in its generosity.
He demanded that all of the Sabine Pass
town interests belonging TO our company
should be transferred TO him: that we
she uld agree that the whole property
should be mortgaged for $25Q,000 to $500. 0OO
and bonds issued Hereunder for improve
ment OF the property; that kountZe broth
ers, bankers. should agree to advance the
mercy on the bonds to the Stilwell party,
who desired to manage the matter and
that they would give thereafter to our
company one-half of the net profits, il
there should be any. They were TO have
in addition absolute control with the right
of course. to admit or refuse to admit to
the harbor other railroads desirous of Sc
curing entrance. Probably the decinatior
by our company of this brilliant offer was
the reason why they refused to accept a
great water frontage on Sabine Pass with
most liberal terminal facilities, generously
offered them by us at least half a dozen
times free of cost.
Mr.. Stilwell and his associates had nc
fear at that time of tidal waves or thai
the land in the vicinity of Sabine Pass
was not high enough above the gulf leve
for the uses of a townsite. This reason
which he has lately given for locating :
town seven and half miles away from
deep water has just been thoroughly eN.
plcded by investigation of an expert en-.