The weekly democratic statesman. [volume] (Austin, Tex.) 1871-1883, 1878-08-22

Omnipotence that ''we must live bv
labor" is confessed In the practices OF
our daily lives.
REFORMATION OF COURTS --
BURDENS OF THE PEOPLE.
The credit system is dying. Exemp
ton codes are fatal to it. The laws o.
Texas almost put period to processes
of collecting deb. by laA Aen pay
because it is right, and not from com
pulsion, and his credit is illimitable
whose honor is most esteemed. If this
we're the fixed system and there were
no courts for the collection of debts,
and only of arbitrations and awards, il
is alleged that truer, nobler and more
trustworthy race of men would be
reared.
Since courts are governed, not by
the facts, but by what is proven, per-
jury is at premium and truth at heavy
discount. When we add to these facts
another, that the cost of maintaining
these courts and their necessary Incl.
dents and agencies is tenfold greater
each year than all sums collected
and paid over to plaintiffs on
executions, we cannot discover in what
consists the good or the necessity for
the existence of such courts. If we
lose by them vast sums in money, il
they cost infinitely more than they
pay, if they promote idleness, iti-
giousness, gaming and whisky-guzzling,
we do not see why the institutions
should not be wholly abolished. Tex
as Legislation tends in this direction,
and so rapidly that within few years
the end aimed at by those who would
substitute the cash for the credit sys-
tenn may be accomplished. In view of
these progressive facts we would in
quire whether they themselves who
enact exemption codes and restrict the
sphere of action of the courts are ruin
ing or perfecting the country's capsci-
ty for business activity, and whether,
since the cash system is strengthened
and enforced, we do not need a
greater volume of currency than that
by the Secretary of the
Treasury. Where there is no money
people resort to systems of bartering,
even as deer skins have fixed value
as money on the frontier. The substi
tuition of the cash for the credit sys-
tenn, made compulsory by the home
stead exemption codes of Texas, while
inducing the citizen to adorn his home
and render it attractive, thus general
ing and perfecting habits of domestic
ity which lie at the foundation of all
true patriotism, renders the life of
courts instituted to collect debts of un-
certain duration. When their useful
ness ceases the courts themselves must
die and the heaviest public burden rest
ing upon the people will be no more.
The fund appropriated for the mainten-
ance of the courts and payment of
bills of costs has been exhausted and
heavy deficits must be provided for by
the next Legislature. This costliness
of courts and the little service, con-
trasted with this costliness, rendered
the people, will cause this whole
subject to be thoroughly discussed
when the Legislature sits. The scheme
of perquisites by which other courts
are maintained is more detestable than
this which wrests vast sums from the
State treasury and it is very proba-
BILE that the people of Texas, be-
cause the cash system is made compul-
sorry by exemption codes, and the need
for civil courts is lessened in direct
ratio with the inpotency of executions,
will demand the abolition of many old
English traditions and habits of think
ing that still pertain to the courts.
American courts follow, in matters of
law, in the paths trod by our ancestors
one thousand years ago. Forms have
been simplifed but "rules of action -
remain unchanged, and only as
we outgrow and advance beyond
the semi-barbarous systems and habits
of the contemporaries of ''Coke upon
Littleton" have compulsory reforms
been effected. Lawyers have made the
laws and maintained the courts, but
Lang and the Changers and Johnson,
of Collin, have seized a share of au-
thority. Whether changes made will
be reforms remains 20 be seen, but
radical changes are impending.