Arizona sentinel and Yuma weekly examiner., 1911-10-05
Yuma, Oct. 2, 1911.

The object lesson which Yuma anC
 the Yuma valley had in road building
 on Labor Day, was a very valuable
 one, not only because the direct result
 was a great improvement to the roads but especially because it served tc
 show what can be accomplished by
 concerted and well-planned effort.
 For this reason, am emboldened tc lay before your readers a suggestion
 which have had in mind for long time, but which I have hesitated to ad
 vance, because I doubted my ability to make my suggestion appear other than chimerical and visionary, until this late experiment taught the people what they can do for themselves when they have the will and once make up their minds.
 The suggestion is this: That the people of Yuma and the Yuma valley build, own and operate railroad from Yuma to the. Mexican line. How this can be done I can explain best by re- lating how aimilar enterprise was carried through to a successful issue in the community where lived many years before coming to Yuma.
 The business men of the town of Hearne, Texas, for many years had tried to get the railroad interests to build a road from Hearne to the Big BIazos river, about 21 miles from Hearne, without avail or any partic- ular encouragement.
 The interests" thought the time was not opportune, and that the road would not pay. Finally, some enthus- fast said, Let's build it and own it and operate it ourselves"
 Notwithstanding the fact that Hearne was small town-only about 2,500 population and probably half the population negroes, the idea struck a popular chord and soon the movement was under way.
 First, company was organized and chartered under the name of '"The Hearne & Brazos Valley Railway Go" The capitalization was $50,000 divided into 1000 shares at par value of $50 per share, the required 10 per cent of the amount necessary to be paid up being raised by popular subscrip- ton. Every business man, lawyer, doctor, planter, teacher, preacher, dry goods and grocery clerk, and even women and boys, subscribed and paid for one or more shares of stock The Big Brazos bottom planters through whose plantations of from 1000 to 5000 acres in cultivation, (chiefly in cotton) the read was to be built, took the largest blocks Of stock A capable directorate of planters and merchants was elected, and with the money in hand, trey employed first class rail road engineer to lay olt ard supervise the building of the road
 The planters donated the right of way, and took their teams and hired labor Gall negroes) and built the read bed all ready for the laying of ci oss ties, through their respective p'arta- tions-and all this in an incredibly short time. They bought at reasonable rates, from the International and Great Northern R. R., one of the trunk
 res passing through Hearne, cross- ties, spikes and rails, and rented roll ing stock consisting of engine, box car, one passenger coach and flat car.
 The Texas legislature readily pass ed bill cxemI tirg the road from tax ation, on the ground that it was a To- 1 cal enterprise built for the conven- fence of the people.
 h addition to the road bed, there | had to be built a trestle of about six hundred yards in length across the | Little Brazos river near the town.
 What was the result? Within two years, the road owned it's own rolling i stock. Within another year, dividends began to come in to the stockholders. l
 This road was owned ard operated | by the people of Hearne and the Bra EOS valley for twelve years, and was said to be the best paying road in the United States-that is, it paid tbe largest dividends upon it's lsock.
 At the end of twelve years, besides the large dividends that had beer paid | it was sold to the Houston & Texas Cnntral P P at e6O0 nor Cboro i,,e+