The Houston daily post. [volume] (Houston, Tex.) 1886-1903, 1897-04-08
APPLICATION OF ]OBBERS.
interview on the Recent Hcarino Br =
fore the Commission.
lHt STATEMENT MADE BY MR.. KENT,
me smaller Jobbcrs arc y,,o,, s
nc" with the Present Status
of AGairs--Nctcs.

yesterday: ~
heieFflhg to tho recent hearing before
inc railroad commission of roxas In ,ho
matler OF the application Of tho ,ohhers
Of Some Of them, of tho ctlos of Dotlns
Fort Worth and San Antonio, for n reauc.
tioh IN the rates In Texas in order to en-
anle Them to enlarge their distributing
territory IN tho State. they alleging that
no less than cuh load rates from 81. louis
enabled the iobbers outside OF tho State
10 compete with them and confno them 10
narrow distributing limits within tho
STATE IL should BIO noted that II the COM
paint OF tho Dallas. Fort Worth and San
antonio johbers was well founded and the
Texas commission granted them the rates
asked for. tho result OF such a decision
would be to infinitely strengthen the no.
lsltion OF the st. Louis Business Mems
league In their complaint before tho In
teistate commerce commission for lessen
Ing OF the differences between tho car load
and less than car load rates from st,
Louis and tho defined territories, which
complaint Will shortly he heard before the
| Interstate commerce commission in Texas.
| IL is gratifying TO note. however, that the
iohbcrs of Fort Worth, Dallas and San
Antonio are in n large minority IN their
demand upon tho Texas commission for
reductions. as was proved by the fact that
Mr.. j a. Kemp OF Wichita Falls was
selected 20 net as spokesman bc.oro the
railroal commission at Austin for the Job
ueb OF nearly all the smaller towns OF
Texas and on tho second day of the hearing
| he presented to the commission n protest
signed by thirty iohbers OF sixteen towns
OF Texas protesting against the rates asked
| for By Dallas. Fort Worth and San Antonio
| Again, the following day OF the hearing.
he was permitted to make a statement
before the commission In behalf of the
tohbers Of the other towns OF the State
He made the following remarkable state
mont to the commlssion
4" i hold in my hand a statement signed
by all Of these jobbers to tho effect that
they wore satisfied with the rates which
were put into effect by this commission.
There has been no change in those rates.
and / want to say. II you will pardon me
for u personal reference, Mr.. Chairman.
We, the jobbers of Texas. feel that to you
wa owe our position today, and whatever
may be the criticisms INDUCED In by your
enemies it has never been charged that
you were fool, that you were not honest
v
struck against the Interstate commerce
law and yet 1t ia by reason OF that law that
wa are in cur present prosperous position
today. Tho offor, OF these gentlemen is TO
destroy the effect Of that law. Their pol
Icy is to build up large distributing cen
tors in Texas by which they may create
monopoly Of the iobblne business of the
State and through this monopoly dictate
terms both 10 tho railroads and the re
tail merchants. There was n time. and
not SO very long ago. when Fort Worth was
not any larger than Wichita Falls is today
and 1t controlled the whole OF the job
bling business of North Texas. The prcpo-
sition is to destroy such towns as Gaines
Vile. Wichita Falls. Abilene, Sherman
Waco. Corsicann, Paris. Weatherford and
so on through all tho smaller growing cities
Of tho State Of Texas. There Is no ques-
tion about IT, and I want 10 say that on
behalf of the majority Of the iobbers of
the State Of Texas wo are here 10 protest
most omphatlcaliy against the rates asked
for by the compiainlnts. We have signed
this statement and We arc satisfied that no
reduction IS necessary at this time. We
have prepared our resolutions IN good fam
and we are prepared TO state rs fact that
the lobbcrs Of Texas do 90 per cent OF the
grocery business Of this state. Not per
cent Of the goods sold west Of bCwic in
the Panhandle IL sold by outside lohbers.
W
peace Wa are in favorable position to-
day ana VIII he able to fuhstantiate our
statements by Ell of the leading wholesale
men Of Waco. Paris, Wenthorford. wichita
Falls and sherman. These gentlemen are
here Ia person or have letters here ana
urge that TIE cdmmigaien Nili not fcr one
moment consider this proposition, when
simply means that a few o. the towns o,
Texas want TO eobbie up the Whoio Oh
the common rolht territory anu destroy
ali Che small Joining oehteIs'
Mr.. Kemp further stated Ia answer 10
questions that he ana MA associates wese
not there to protest against any ratcs VIM
might DO necessary ana thht nliFht DC .rT
enable for the boncnt OF ti.e M ,,ua',u ~,
n FeNaa' 10 stared tnst nc hpHsE'u .i,n,
hey needed pfotP1'ion ma tnht ne "'"'N
be flad 10 sec II dccp','e ~ n.'li' =,
1T Is also a noteworthy Iaol lDnl sou,o ol
the merchants VINO Ju'heu III tno puinl''@'n,
to the comm lssior at hrSt ana Suusu,i" ~
money 10 furthet IL Whep they isutueo VIZ
real object OF me deh@hls "llhulew Inn
support Mr. Kemp spoNs hore p",,il-
ularly tor tue lopoer8 ~ the broN.Iy NM
aud also tho hardware' nut INC ia,ter ne-
parudenl was very any hnhoieu pe ,, we