The Dallas daily herald. [volume] (Dallas, Tex.) 1873-1887, 1880-08-04

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ments Of strength and greatness and power,
as a state in this union. Populate Texas as
New. York ia populated, and it will be the
pivotal state in all political movements, it
will be the grand commercial lever OF the en-
tire country. TIE platform Of the Demo-
cratic party rs enunciated at Cincinnati
demands that the public lands of the United
States be preserved for actual settlers; that it
be preserved from the greedy clutches of the
Spectator. Is there any good reason why Tex
as should not demand the same thing for her
public lands The policy which obtains now
of selling these lands at fixed price, and
forcing them upon the market at this time,
Wa believe to be detrimental, if not ruinous
to the best interests of tho state. Let all the
world know that the head of family who
settles upon our public domain and there
remains for three years acquir es a fee simple
| title to a home of ono hundred and sixty
acres, and that every single man ac-
qures title TO eighty acres,
and then sell lands to those who want
to buy, in any quantity not exceeding $40
acres, at low figures and on easy terms, and
these lands will begin to be poopled. They are
but idle capital now bringing not one cent
of revenue to our state treasury. Sell them
at pricoso low and on terms so easy to actual
settlers that people will flock to Texas from
every land and cline to get homes of their
own. Give them away under the pre.emp-
ton act, that we may get population. Every
acre that is cleared will bring to the state its
proportion OF taxes, and the greater the
amount of taxable property the less the rate
the people have to pay. Under the system
that obtains now man can buy no less than
GAO acres and at price that is dear, al
things considered, and it is no wonder we
hear Of no purchasers. 1t is better to sell
every foot of the public domain not taken up
by pre-emptionists at % cents an acre on one,
two and three years time to actual settlers
than for it to lie idle and barren of products
to swell the commerce of the state and help,
bear the burthens Of government
With the public domain pop
ulatel, the school lands will increase
in value and be in demand, and then they
can be utilized by the state to increase the
school fund and lessen the rate of school tax.
alton. The people are tax ed too heavily
already. On the LIST of July there were
$150009 in cash in tho state treasury, hard
earned dollars, wrung from the pockets of
the people. laying there idle, ru9ting and
like Oliver Twist, the state is cryingt for
more in the ears of the people.
There should never DO dollar
of money in the treasury except that which
is to meet current expenses ss they fall due,
go into the sinking fund for the payment of
the bonded debt, and to meet tho interest of
the same as. 1T accrues. To have more than
this is an e1tortion upon the people. What is
to be done with this money already accumu-
lated and to accumulate by the time the leg
islature meets in January next? BY that
time, after paying accrued interest and APP
proprating sufliciency to pay off the def
cheney existing under Governor Roberts,
there will be still in the neighborhood of a
million dollars. The deficiency under Gov
ernor Roberts TO which we allude, is that for
the fees of sherifis, clerks and other officers
of the courts for cases tried, the approprs-
ton to meet which has already been ex-
hausted. Again we ask, what Is to be done
with this surplus money? The state could go
upon the market and buy up some
of its outstanding bends, and thus reduce
the annual interest required to be paid, and
with portion of it, it could provide further
prison room for the hundreds of convcts now
being worked outside and coming in compe-
tition with free labor taking the bread out of
the mouths of. honest men who live and sup
port their wives and their children by the
sweat of their brows. This is what could
DO done with.it, but whatever disposition is
made of it, its accumulation demonstrates
the fact that the present rate of
taxation is higher than is necessary.
We hear no little talk about the Sunday law
and tho present one in force, rigorous in the
extreme in its requirements, gives dissatisfac-
ton to thousands of the people of this state,
to thousands of earnest, Jealous, simon-pure
Democrats, who demand that il be modified
in Its terms. In the cities and towns, it is
virtually q dead-letter on the statute.book,
and whenever there is law that popular
sentiment makes nugstory, it is better that
such law be either repealed or amended.
We are not prepared to say there should be
no Sunday law. We do not believe there is
citizen of the state who demands this
much, but the law should be so
| framed as to meet with popular
favor, so as to coincide with the wishes of a
majority Of the people and meet with the
endorsement of all classes. We say this be-
cause all law derives its force and its effect
from the consent of the governed There
should be a Sunday law in the interest of
morality and religion and to protect on the
Sabbath day the religious in their rights of
worship, as guaranteed by TIE fundamental
laws of the land, from the interference and