The Dallas weekly herald. [volume] (Dallas, Tex.) 1873-1885, 1875-04-17

bori promptly, thirty aud chonply
me- W. did hclDfo The war, aud IN,
District court will be- enabled Il
give ~ much moro time lO M
proper business. BESIDES The
County Court will again be com
posed Of the Chief Justice and foul
County Commissioners, elected by
the people TO attend to their county
busincss-pubIic buildings, roads
ferries, etc. In the same way, the
present system Of taxation and in
justice in regard to public roads
will be superseded by our old
system under which every man con,
tributcd in labor his quota, in per,
son or by substitute, in working
the roads, and under which twenty
years ago we had better roads than
we have to day.
In this connection ! am in favor
Of giving to Justices of the Peace
and the Chief Justice of the county
jurisdiction over larger amounts
in civil suits and over all criminal
ofFeases up to certain grade, whore.
by the business of tho District Court
will be so reduced that it can, from
term to term, dispatch its business,
jurors and witnesses be relieved of
an enormous burden, our jails kept
comparatively empty, and the peo'
pie relieved of one of the heaviest
taxes now resting upon them. We'd
ded to no pet scheme for etfecting
these beneticent results, ] will labor,
if elected to the convention, to bring
them about in the simplest and
cheapest manner possible. The
present system will bankrupt every
county in the State in due time.
In this way, too, we can probably
reduce the number of District
Judges, so rs to save a considerable
amount.
By restoring the constitution of
! 1915 the people will again elect the
Judges. For twenty years we tried
it and had an able, honest judiciary,
with such men as lIemphill, Lips
comb and Wheeler on the Supreme
Bcnch-an ornament to any state
while the District Bench was occu-
pied b. such men rs Dcvine, Field
/ ing Jones, John b. Jones, Roberts,
Reeves, Reagan, Gray and others Of
ability and purity. The people
almost universally elected good men
without regard to party, and the
Judiciary of Texas stood as nigh as
that of any state of the Union, more
than once receiving high encomi-
ums from the Supreme Courts Of
Massachusetts, New York and other
states, as well as from the Supreme
Court of the United States. Where
appointments are made by Govern
ors Of states, it is often claimed that
partizan favorites get on the Bench.
BY either mode Texas would doubt
loss have good Judges for years to
come, bnt | Individually prefer the
plan winch We successfully tested
for twenty years.
In the same way we will return
TO our former system of dividing
counties into q convenient number
of precincts, with two Justices of
the Peace and Constable to be
elected by the people of each pre-
cinct, whereby the public convent
encc is subserved without expense
to the state or county
/ By the same course we will return
to tho only perfectly just mode of
representation in the Legislature,
giving each county with sufficient
population its separate representa-
ton, uniting small counties into
compact districts, and allowing
floating representatives for fractions
of population. By this means the
responsibility of the representative
is brought directly home to his con
stitucnts, which is very desirable in
representative bodies, and great
safeguard against improper legis-
/ lation.
In regard to common School ed.
ucation, ! am In favor of selling the
school lands rs fast as they come
into market, adding the money to
our present school fund, and using
the interest to support such sys-
TEN Of schools as is suited to our
condition, as young and sparsely
settled state. We had II simple and
cheap system before the war, which
worked we'll, and all the money
went to pay teachers, instead of be-
ing wasted by commissions, useless
circumlocutions and, Gas for time
heretofore,) in useless salaries and
mlsapplications. | am an ardent
friend of common school education
for our children, but on such plan
as to make the public money 90 to
that object and cut off all leakages
and unnecessary charges. Our old
system, modified and enlarged to
meet present and future changes,
is a good one, under which the poor
ost orphan in theS tate can be in
structed, and yet we had no army, in
the character of unnecessary Off
GERS, to absorb the money. The
people must remember that school
system adapted to old and wealthy
States, like New York and Pennsyl-
vania, does not suit young State
like Texas.
am IN favor of providing in the
Constitution for general laws in re-
gard to Corporations and other sub
jects, so far as practicable, whereby
uniformity may be secured, fraud
guarded against, and the expensive
duration of legislative sessions cur
tailed. But this is a complex sub
ject and must, in order to avoid
hardships, be very carefully pro-
vided. In my Legislative service
many years ago, | sought as far as
practicable to cover this ground by
general laws, and was in part the
author of the law for Incorporating
towns by the people themselves; of
the still existing law under which
volunteer companies are organized.
was the author of the law giving
to each county its own surveyor, of
two laws under which twenty-nine
counties were created in good form
in advance of population, in order
to avoid local quarrels in the future