The Roswell daily record. [volume] (Roswell, N.M.) 1903-current, 1907-01-25
PETITION FOR LOWER
FREIGHT RATES

rights. :,
That. with the completion of said
| road and the means of transportation
thus furnished, other owners of land
i than those connected with the con
| struction of said railroad entered up
| on similar enterprises but upon less
| extensive scale, of establishing irri'
| CATION projects along said valley and
railroad and either put under irriga-
ton and cultivation, themselves, large
! bodies of land or sold it to those who
did do so.
Beginning with the construction OF
said railroad, the promoters and build
ers thereof, in connection with the
company which was chartered by
them to build and operate said rail
/ road. established and laid off town
sites along said line of railroad and
sole lots to those b were induced
to buy h same by the prospects of
future development of the country
along the said railroad and the conse-
quent necessities of trade and n re-
sultant upbuilding of towns as CEN
tiers of commerce and population.
That previously to the location and
construction of the line of railroad
aforesaid the entire country through
which it runs was practically unset
tied, the only population being a few
persons engaged in grazing live stock
which could get water at the Pecos
River or the streams coming in from
the west. and the few persons who
| grew vegetables 4 fruit and some
other farm crops on small irrigated
places of no consequence. 1t that
time the large area of grazing lands
on the plains for 100 or more miles
eastward and the plains n
tails for 100 miles westward was prac
tically unused, except h there
was surface water, because of the
great distance from the railroad trans
portation, and the e and diff
Guilty of securing water, lumber, fenc-
ing, ranch supplies, and of reaching
the railroad for outbound t~ransporta-
ton OF the product of the ranch. 1t
was well known hat the railroad
could not itself be made a profitable or
paying investment until by settlement
of the country a sufficient volume or
business developed and it was con-
structed with that view. These con-
ditions which had retarded occupancy
and use of the country principally be
cause of its inaccessiblity for want
of transportation, began at once to
disappear with the advent of said rail
road, and the great grazing country
tributary to said road began to fill up
"AtAA NV VIZ
necessary to that business were made
fences built, wells bored, watering
facilities provided, n the native
grass utilized. This character of de
velopment continued westward as
ranges farther east in Texas were full
ly occupied and as the westward
march OF civilization progressed, I'M
til today, and for several years past.
the grazing country, above described
- I4 onI 10 noaunind with all
the live stock which is capable of
supplying, being fit for no other pur-
pose.
Year after year from 1892 to the
present, mas witnessed more n more
Ian brought under irrigation in the
Pecos Valley and at the same time the
establishment of homes, towns, COM
mercial pursuits, N business, as
well as some manufacturing, Deedful
to the products and thus
developed. So that to-day, for a dis
lance of 10 miles from Roswell south
to the Texas line, and in X as
well to Pecos, is a h~ourishing country
with thousands of homes and irrlgat-
ed farms, among the most luxurialt
and productive in the world, produc-
ing and capable of producing the best
quality and greatest quantity per ac-
re of all fruit and vegetables grown
in a temperate climate where frost
occurs Sugar beets and cereals OF
all kinds and the finest alfalfa hay
in the world, as well as other hay
crops-in short, everything which
grows in or on the ground in that
latitude.
In the course of this development
there have been ound large areas in
the valley where the purest and best
-+o-;o- rpo+n- f- bod OF from O00 RI
400 feet in large quantities suitable
for all domestic use and irrigation, by
means of which the supply for irri-
CATION may be indifferently extended.
The government seeing the oppor-
tunity of converting dry desert graz
ing land into productive farms has
constructed great reservoirs to i'm
pound the waters to further extend
the irrigation systems and settle gov-
eminent land, and as time passes
will continue other projects of me
same kind.
Possessed o. these advantages, ma
ny sought homes in Il beautiful
towns, as healtnful and comparable
and were beautified: schools of excep
tionally good character were establish
ed, and public utilities provided, not
w~ithstanding the unreasonable and
discriminatory rates. The trafic and
earnings on said line of railway have
doubled since 1900 and furnished large
volume of profitable business to the
A. T.. & S. F. Ry., for which it is a
feeder.
All of these developments, settle
ments, and Investments amounting to
millions of dollars nave been and
were made upon the assumption and
belief that reasonable and fair rail-
ROAD rates would be made and that