The Houston daily post. [volume] (Houston, Tex.) 1886-1903, 1897-02-27
BEAUMONT BUDGET.
Considerable Anxiety Over Passage
of the Channel Company NH.

of the Channel Company hill
BEAUMONT. Texas, February 2G.-The peo-
pie of this city are considerably worked up
over the bill that yesterday passed tho
house of representatives granting channel
companies n permissvc right of way of 100
feet on either side of channel The peo-
pie know little or nothing about the bill
as yet, and but few knew that such meas
ure had been introduced in the legislature
until attention was called to 1t through
The Post Wednesday morning. The gen
eral impression is. however, that the bill
is a creation of the Port Arthur Land and
Townsite company. corporation that Is
endeavoring to build city on Sabine lake
about eighteen miles south of Beaumont,
which city. they say. is to be the deep
water terminal OF the Kansas City. Pitts
burg and Gulf railroad. To make this pro-
posed city deep water port 1t will be nee
essary to dig a ship channel to Sabine
Pass, a distance of about eight miles, and
the stockholders In the Pert Arthur Land
and -Townsite company recently organized
and secured a channel company charter to
do this work. No one, so far as The Post
correspondent can learn, has any complaint
to make of either the channel or the town
site company To the contrary, citizens Of
Southeast Texas have given both every en-
enlargement and are hopeful that they
will be successful In their undertaking,
and the protest against the channel bin so
hurriedly rushed through the legislature is
not for the purpose of interfering with any
reasonable plan Of the company 10 dig their
proposed channel, but there is almost unan-
imous opposition to that 70O-foot permissive
,intt - aia a,h bn ton ia
Undertaking. into petition that will be
forwarded to Governor Culberson Monday
requesting that he veto the bill.
The reasons for opposing the bill, as the
Post correspondent gathers them, can be
briefly stated as follows:
In digging the channel from Port Arthur
to deep water at Sabine Pass the channel
company proposes to use the Texas shore
as a west reyetment. For about two miles
miles south OF Port Arthur the townsiie
company owns the land, and 1t is imma
terial how much they condemn or absorb rs
a permissive right OF way. The remaining
six miles OF lake front Is owned by private
individuals. The channel. which begins at
Port Arthur is to end at the northern boun-
Diary OF the Kountze Bros. property. and II
bill becomes law that will permit the
channel to condemn or absorb 100 feet OF
land fronting on their channel from the
southern boundary OF the Port Arthur lands
to the northern boundary OF the kountze
Bros holdings. the water front from the
Gulf OF Mexico to the mouth OF the Neches
river will be owned or controlled BY two
corporations. This is not regarded as de-
sirable condition of affairs. and II the peo-
Pile OF other sections OF the state had ex-
perienced twenty years squabble with a
water front monopoly like the people Of
Southeast Texas have. they would Join
Beaumont in asking Governor Culberson to
veto this bill granting permissive right OF
wav 10 channel companies,
The Southeast Texas County Judges and
County Commissioners association did not
meet In this city today. as was expected.
The association was called TO meet at the
court house at 10 o'clock this morning and