TEXAS, OUR LARGEST STATE 



1357 



business; the items of syrup and molas- 

 ses amount to over lo million gallons a 

 year. 



Although 45 miles from the Gulf, 

 Houston has an outlet to the sea which 

 is of greatest importance to her com- 

 merce. It is now from 9 to 18 feet deep, 

 with a large turning basin at its head, 

 and more than $45,210,430 worth of 

 freight passed through it last year. With 

 liberal aid from Congress, this channel is 

 now being deepened to 25 feet. 



The importance of deep waterways to 

 permit transoceanic shipment by large 

 vessels is well illustrated by some figures 

 obtained on the Atlantic coast. It was 

 found that with a 22-foot channel the 

 cost per bushel of grain from Houston 

 to Liverpool was 23 cents ; with a 25- 

 foot channel, 16 cents ; with a 30-foot 

 channel, 10 cents, and with a 35-foot 

 channel, 3 cents, which is now the ordi- 

 nary rate from New York to Liverpool. 



THE DOOR TO ME:xICO 



It is a long journey from Houston to 

 El Paso, with many changes of scene 

 from the semi-tropical coast region to the 

 high arid interior lying nearly 4,000 feet 

 above sea-level.. El Paso is in many 

 ways an isolated city, for it is 1,500 miles 

 east or west and nearly the same dis- 

 tance north or south to a city of like size. 

 Therefore, although in a thinly populated 

 region, it is a most important business 

 center, and has grown until now it has a 

 population of over 50,000, much of it in 

 recent years, for the rate of increase 

 from 1900 to 1910 was 146 per cent. 



Her five railroad lines, one of them 

 the transcontinental Southern Pacific, 

 have here an annual business of 15 mil- 

 lion tons of freight and a yearly pay-roll 

 of $3,000,000. Situated as it is on our 

 southern frontier, El Paso handles a 

 large proportion of our Mexican trade. 



This proximity to Mexico has occa- 

 sioned many excitements in the city dur- 

 ing the revolutionary uprisings, for Ciu- 

 dad Juarez, her little neighbor across the 

 Rio Grande, has received an undue share 

 of troubles during the various recent 

 conflicts. 



Although in an arid region, with less 

 than 10 inches of rainfall, El Paso is an 

 agricultural center of importance for 



products of irrigation. The waters of 

 the Rio Grande are utilized, and when 

 the great Elephant Butte dam is com- 

 pleted, 100 miles up the river, it will 

 greatly add to the water resources avail- 

 able about El Paso. 



A STORY 0^ MARVKI^OUS ACHII:ve:mKNT 



Today Galveston stands second only to 

 New York as an export port. It is ex- 

 pected that when the Panama Canal is 

 completed its volume of business will be 

 greatly increased, for the distance to 

 Colon is onty 1,496 miles, or 467 miles 

 less than from New York. Galveston is 

 the natural gateway to the ocean for a 

 great part of our southern middle west. 

 Seven railroad systems bring cotton, 

 grain, and other products, which are 

 handled by 33 ocean steamship compa- 

 nies, six coastwise lines, and many in- 

 dividual vessels. Cotton is the largest 

 export item, valued at close to $200,000,- 

 000. 



The city is built on a sandy island of 

 13 square miles in extent rising only a 

 few feet above the Gulf. For this rea- 

 son it was inundated during the great 

 storm of September 8, 1900, when some 

 6,000 inhabitants lost their lives and 

 20 million dollars' worth of property was 

 destroyed. Soon after this appalling 

 catastrophe work was begun on a three- 

 million-dollar concrete sea-wall, which 

 was completed early in 191 1. Its length 

 is 5 miles and its height 17 feet above 

 the mean low tide, and 3 feet higher 

 than the highest storm water level. The 

 grade of much of the city has also been 

 raised by millions of cubic yards of fill- 

 ing, so that now the residents feel safe 

 against any further great damage by the 

 elements. 



Another remarkable public improve- 

 ment, recently completed at a cost of 

 $1,500,000, is the wide causeway connect- 

 ing the island with the mainland. It is 

 slightly more than 2 miles long and 154 

 feet wide, except at a lift-bridge section, 

 where its width is 66 feet. It carries 

 railroads, trolley lines, wagon roads, and 

 footways, and is of most solid and per- 

 manent construction. 



These three great improvements — sea- 

 wall, filling, and causeway — have cost 

 more than seven and a half million dol- 



