TEXAS. 



from El Paso, Texas, northeast 165 miles to White 

 Oaks, New Mexico, will tap a fine coal country and 

 furnish connections with new roads now building in 

 western Mexico. The Pecos and Northern has been 

 completed. The State has now about 10,000 miles 

 of road. 



On Feb. 28 the Supreme Court affirmed a decision 

 against the Houston and Texas Central and Gal- 

 veston, Harrisburg and San Antonio .Railroads. 

 These cases were tried in the district court and a 

 judgment for $673,109.56 was rendered against the 

 Houston and Texas Central and $447,567 against 

 the Galveston, Harrisburg and San Antonio Rail- 

 way Companies. The cases were taken to the 

 court of civil appeals and affirmed. They were 

 then taken to the Supreme Court, with this result. 

 They had been brought by the State to recover the 

 amounts claimed to be due by defendant companies 

 to the State for indebtedness, which was paid dur- 

 ing the civil war to the State in Confederate money. 

 The money being worthless, the Attorney-General 

 sued for payment of the debt. 



The bondholders of Texas railroads procured an 

 injunction in October against the Railroad Com- 

 mission and the Attorney-General to prevent them 

 from enforcing the tariff of cotton rates that the 

 Commissioner had fixed; and, Dec. 1, the same 

 United States court enjoined the railroads, the 

 State Railway Commission, the Attorney-General 

 of Texas, and all other persons from enforcing or 

 using any rate made by the State Railway Commis- 

 sion since Aug. 10, 1894. 



Products. In an address by ex-Gov. Hubbard 

 at the Omaha Exposition, he said : " Texas sup- 

 plements her cotton by rapidly developing sugar 

 culture, with an area larger by far than all the 

 sugar lands of Louisiana. Our fruit culture in 

 eastern Texas, with our early vegetable crops of 

 the garden, amounts this year to $5,000,000, and 

 yet we are at but the beginning of this industry. 

 Our butter amounts to $3,000,000 annually. Our 

 vast cattle ranges of the West graze to-day 3,500,000 

 head of cattle, and their annual increase of calves 

 is put down in the official reports at 1,220,612. 

 This property is valued now and assessed at $30,- 

 000,000. Our sheep industry brings us next to 

 Ohio, with, in round numbers, 3,000,000, with an 

 annual increase of 700,000 lambs." 



The cotton crop this year was 3,075,000 bales, 

 according to Secretary Hester's report. The wool 

 clip was 16,380,442 pounds. There are 4 cotton 

 mills with 29,160 spindles, which used 12,090 bales 

 in the year ending Oct. 1, 1897. 



The gold product in 1898 was $7,500. 



Galveston. The year was one of unusual pros- 

 perity in Galveston, due chiefly to these causes: 

 The increased business of the port, the completion 

 of the jetties, and negotiations with the Southern 

 Pacific. A percentage of this increased business 

 was due to diversification of crops. Farmers have 

 found a market through Galveston for products 

 which they could not before raise to advantage. 

 They have not decreased the amount of cotton 

 raised, but in growing their home supplies they 

 have planted more than enough for home con- 

 sumption, and it was such surplus that for the 

 first time in 1898 began to seek a market through 

 Galveston. 



The increase in the number of vessels entered 

 and cleared at Galveston the past year reflects the 

 i growth of the business of the port. The average 

 size of the vessels has increased from 1,491 tons to 

 1,644 tons. The tonnage of vessels cleared at Gal- 

 veston the past three years in the foreign trade was 

 as follows: 1896,505,105 tons; 1897,699,311 tons; 

 1898, 899,403 tons. During 1898 there were 530 

 vessels entered and 555 cleared at Galveston in 



the foreign trade. The value of Galveston's for- 

 eign imports for 1898 was $2,297,169. The value 

 of Galveston's foreign imports for the years 1895 

 1896, and 1897 combined was $1,776,323. Work on 

 the jetties was completed last January. Deep water 

 at Galveston has cost $8,700,000. The depth of 

 water is increasing gradually all the time, from the 

 action of the tides and winds. There was an in- 

 crease of the depth of water in the channel of about 

 6 inches during the past year. 



The amount expended on public and private 

 building improvements in Galveston during the 

 year was $460,000. The Government has spent 

 and is spending $932,000 in the construction of 

 coast fortifications at Galveston and equipment for 

 them. Jetty and harbor improvements for the 

 year amounted to $375,000. Wharf improvements 

 amounted to $100,000. Public improvements not 

 classed as building amounted to $142,000. 



Mob Violence. Three lynchings are charged to 

 the State in 1898. The Governor says that White 

 Cap outrages have become alarmingly frequent, and 

 recommends prompt action by the Legislature to sup- 

 press them. In the neighborhood of Mount Pleas- 

 ant many negroes were frightened into leaving the 

 State in August by notices posted in the cotton 

 fields warning negro cotton pickers to leave the 

 country. 



Two men were killed and 6 wounded in wharf 

 riots at Galveston, Aug. 31. 



Trouble over politics brought on a fight between 

 whites and blacks at Fort \V orth, Oct. 21, in which 

 the independent candidate for sheriff, who was the 

 leader of the independent movement against the 

 White Men's Union Association, was shot and killed. 



Affrays took place in various parts of the State 

 on election day, the most serious of which was at 

 Hubbard, Stephens County, where 3 were killed and 

 2 wounded, probably mortally. At Steuben, Hop- 

 kins County, 2 were killed; at Aubrey, Denton 

 County, the sheriff was dangerously wounded by 

 a man whom he shot ; and at Sheffield, Trinity 

 County, 1 man was killed and another fatally 

 wounded. 



At Dallas, Dec. 25. an affray took place which 

 looked for a time like the opening of a " race 

 war," but it was checked by the action of the 

 police in making prompt arrests. One negro was 

 killed, another seriously wounded, 1 white man 

 died as a result of the affray, and about a dozen 

 others, white and colored, sustained slight injuries. 



Political. State officers, members of Congress, 

 and a State Legislature were to be elected this year, 

 as well as county officers ; and two proposed amend- 

 ments to the Constitution were to be voted upon. 

 Through carelessness in drafting the resolutions it 

 was provided that the amendments should be sub- 

 mitted to vote the first Tuesday in November ; and 

 as November came in on Tuesday this was not the 

 day for the general State election. The Attorney- 

 General decided that the amendments must be voted 

 upon at the time named in the Legislature's resolu- 

 tion, and therefore two elections were held. 



Only two State tickets were in the field Demo- 

 cratic and Populist. 



The Populists were in convention at Austin, July 

 27-28. 



On national issues, the resolutions demanded the 

 construction of the Nicaragua Canal, opposed the 

 issuing of Government bonds, and approved tin- 

 war so long as it should be carried on for its avowed 

 humane object and not for conquest. On Stato 

 affairs they arraigned the administration for failure 

 to carry out the platform pledges of the party, 

 naming among the broken pledges the following : 

 To reduce the number of district judges, which, on 

 the contrary, had been increased; to protect the 



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