Introduction

We have been told that when we were poor and without the means of transportation, we invited the railroad people into this country to make their investments, and now we are disposed to confiscate their money; that it is ungrateful and unjust. We were not poor, for every man was independent.

It is not true that Texas invited the railroads to come. The facts are that some capitalists at Houston and Galveston, with others in other cities saw that this was a goodly land in which to invest in railroad building, and they went before the Legislature and sought to be permitted to build in Texas and in the magnanimity of a great State, we gave them large donations of land to aid them.

After having been permitted to enter into our house and have partaken of our hospitality, we are charged by them with ingratitude because we will not move out, and give entire possession. Well, we are a magnanimous and a generous people, a grateful people, but this is requiring more than we can consent to, and by the boldness of the demand we are warned to buckle on the armor for defense of home and right. The stand must be made at this point.

[from "Railroad Commission", a speech in support of legislation creating the Commission, delivered in the Texas House of Representatives, February 7, 1889 by Hon. T. J. Brown of Grayson]