Message of Governor James S. Hogg to the twenty-fourth legislature of Texas Page: 4 of 48
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4
MESSAGE OF GOVERNOR HOGG.
stitutional. It is freely admitted to be the strongest and most efficacious
law of the kind in any government. 'Its operation is wise and just to the
people and the railways. Its membership is composed of able, incorruptible,
experienced men, in full sympathy with public interests, and
friends to the policy of the law itself. Under this law, now so efficiently
administered, extortionate rates, rebates, and discriminations in transportation
by the railways of this State are practically at an end, and
must continue so during its faithful execution. Home products supply
home markets, and thus local traffic has become actively stimulated, to
the profit and advantage of the producers and consumers, as well as to
the railways themselves. No longer must the sad spectacle of surplus
perishable agricultural products be seen to decay without the benefit of a
market. Traffic now, at reasonable rates, can seek the waterways and
find cheap transportation to the markets of the world by safe sea-going
vessels. Tllus commerce becomes unfettered, and is no longer forced to
pay tribute to all-rail routes for thousands of miles to water points abroad.
Besides having the advantage of reasonable local rates for shipment to
and from points within the State, our traffic has the benefit of competition
at every central point in Texas by connecting lines that carry it
abroad. The material resources of our State can not be longer stifled
by arbitrary, discriminating rates against them in favor of non-resident
people and industries. With confident expectation we may now look for
the location of needed factories at the door of the raw material within
the State, where they can thrive in supplying the wants of the people
with manufactured articles. The new system has brought about a revolution
in the management of local railways, and has drawn nearer together
in bonds of sympathy to a common understanding the officers of the roads
and their employes. This consummation will promote the efficiency of
the lines, will maintain good wages among all railway laborers, and will
avert the serious calamity of strikes, so menacing in some sections to the
tranquility of all citizens. In the reduction of traffic charges alone, the
producers, without detriment to the railway companies, will average in
savings several million dollars annually. This is accounted for by reason
of the fact that the companies are compelled, at the rates and under the
regulations of the Commission, to transport to and from points within
the State, at the will of the shipper, such local traffic as may be offered.
The companies carrying the traffic are entitled to all of the charges, for
they escape the necessity of dividing with outside lines. Before the Commission
Law was adopted, nearly eighty-five per cent of the Texas traffic
was what is termed "interstate commerce;" which means commerce
shipped from or into the State across her lines-thus giving to the outside
connecting railways a division of the earnings on a mileage basis.
For instance, corn and wheat were shipped from Kansas through Texas
grain fields to supply our home demands. By this method the home com
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Hogg, J.S. (James S.). Message of Governor James S. Hogg to the twenty-fourth legislature of Texas, book, 1895; Austin, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth5862/m1/4/: accessed April 23, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; .