Annual Address by the President. 
17 
"have been constructed had the promoters had unlimited privileges in the 
matter of issuance of stocks and bonds, it has tended to promote legiti- 
mate construction in such territory as was undeveloped and where the 
prospective revenues appeared to warrant it. Only legitimate enterprises 
receive its encouragement. It has also had the commendable effect of 
discouraging paralleling and duplication of existing lines, which in some 
States has been carried to a degree injurious to the commerce of the 
.country, from purely speculative motives. As was noted in a previous 
table, the railroad mileage of Texas has increased from 9154 miles in 
1894 to 10,617 miles in 1902, a net increase of 1463 miles in eight years, 
and that under the direct influence of the Stock and Bond law. The 
increase during the past fiscal year was 463 miles 1 , and the prospects are 
flattering for a greater increase during the next period. 
In the early days of its enactment, the purposes of the Stock and Bond 
law were not appreciated nor its ultimate influence understood, and a 
great many persons, some from pure and others from selfish motives, 
busied themselves with misrepresentations of the attitude of the people 
towards, and the probable effect of the law on, foreign capital, and proba- 
bly some harm was done to the State, but gradually this impression has 
dissipated and correct conditions comprehended, until today the law is 
considered by even its former enemies a most wholesome and beneficial 
legislation and one that is calculated to afford most valuable aid towards 
the successful solution of those most important and complicated ques- 
tions of government regulation of railroads. 
