The Dallas weekly herald. [volume] (Dallas, Tex.) 1873-1885, 1882-12-21
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F'''"'" w WV H'W'hlHl HHu SOUND ~
gfess and deyel pmont Of that vast pofilo
N out state dealsnated me- "1fhe fqalns An
Panhandle" ask spaos IN the ffenALo
submit for tic reflection Of tho public ,
large and The action Of tho incoming len
lature few propositions designed 10 win
out great abuses, correct aud stop acc umu
lating errors and wrongs, and facilitate Oh
acquisition Of land and homes By men a
small means, who. under existing laws. mr.,
TO large extent denied an entrance into ,
large portion Of that country. Three law,
seem necessary 10 accomplish this boon
which Is, or ought to be desired by eye,y
honest man In the state.
l, First in order, though third in import.
ance, law should be enacted by our leeis.
lature for leasing the 800 leagues
OF land lately surveyed and dedicated fol-
free school purposes, at the rate of four
leagues or l7,7l2 acres to each OF the unor-
gained counties OF the state, 10 be taken
consscutlyeJy By them as thav respectively
organize. In the meantime, while some few
have already organized as Jones, Wichita,
Wilbarger, Harueman, Donley and How
ard, since the dedication, and can:now take
their lands, some will not do so
for from five to ten or twelve years.
Let the state, as trustee lease them, keep
an account OF the income of each league,
and as each county organizes, pay oyer to
its Tree school fund the pro.
ceeds OF the four leagues that may
fall to it. AT five cents per acre for five
years the income TO hand over to each coun.
ty, necessarily of small population at the
time, would be S4,425 available cash in adj
dition to the state annual distribution. If
not leased, the grass will fatten the cattle
OF other people for nothing. The facts
make the argument, leaving nothing to be
said. will say, however, that l know sew
eral honorable stock men who desire such
law and are anxious to lease portion OF
the lands, notably Mr.. James NJ. Lynch,
formerly of Ellis, now OF Bailey county.
2. 1t is of vital importance tor the state
to provide for running out, aud sys-
tematically and correctly marking the
boundaries Of all the unorganized
counties, afiixing such permanent
along the lines as to be easily identi.
fled by settlers. prospectors and
Others, whereby every man may know the
county Of mis- residence, the location of his
land, or of railroad or school land he may
seek, and by which, in connection with the
third law proposed, the general land office
may, for the first time in Texas, make cor.
rect county maps, The details are too
minute for recital in SO short communica-
ton, but carry WITH them provisions Tor
noting and locating the positions OF water
courses, mountains, lakes and other land
marks as alone to justify the expenditure.
They will avoid all after disputes about
county lines, encourage the wise location
OF county seats, invite enterprise and popu-
lation, and produce vast good and no posi-.
BILE harm to any man who wishes to follow
the rules of right.
3. The third necessity and handmade of
the second, is law abolishing our present
cumbrous, veXatlous, expensive, unjust and
onfusion-breeding system of unwieldy
land districts, whereby the unorganized
cou 1ties, with their untold millions of free
school and railroad lands, are attached to
organized counties from fifty to 800 miles
distant, subject to single county surveyor
and his honorable or dishonorable charac-
ter-his capacity or incapacity-and these
both being frs t-class, TO his absolute ina
bility to discharge his duties in a manner
to facilitate the acquisition of land and
homes by men of small or even clever re.
sources. The system, from the days of the
old Fannin, Cooke, Denton and other dis
tricts, has ever entailed the weightiest evils
on the country, laid the predicates of gen.
GRAFTON or two of litigation, and, in many
cases, by ignorance, carelessness or fraud,
robbed men of their just rights.
To-day, ii man wants to buy a school
section on the line of New Mexico, in An
irews, Gaines, Yoakum, Cochran or Bailey
counties, he has to straddle a pony 800
miles 10 Palo Pinto, Graham or Seymour,
As the case may be, and apply to the county
surveyor resident there. IT. as the shame |
ess law now stands-meaning shameless"
n its jumbling red tape equirements-that |
surveyor has viewed and appraised the |
and or so reported-if the commissioners |
,ourt OF his county who never saw it had |
it, and then if Commissioner |
Walsh in Austin, had approved both and |
lad so notified Mr. Surveyor, that digni- |
AIRY would be in position tor the first time |
% listen to the weary traveller |
rom the far west and to let |
lin know that his trouble had only begun. |
Why? Because halt the time the stranger
,ould not in that place and Oh that map |
designate the sec ion he wanted-or may |
lap would be told another person had |
AIKEN it-and if all was right so far red tape |
till stared him in the face till the last day |
n the evening. In most cases the appli- |
ant, If not rich enough to work big lever, |
quits in sorrow and disgust and the state |
oscs good citizen. Ii district surveyors |
we're angels, the system is bad, dangerous |
y,
excepting by wealthy k-raisers-yalua- |
Die men truly, but not sufficient of them |
elves to build up communities with fields, |
happy homes, churches, schools. shops |
md towns, The remedy is short |
md simple. How? By localizing the points |
VI agencies, action and information and re.
moving both the danger and the tempta-
ion to error. and wrong-doing enabling |
he home-seeker TO transact his business |
correctly and cheaply al home. |
By what means2 By abolishing in toto |
his huge land district evil aud authorizing |
the governor, for the time being and until
ach county shall be organized by its own
PEOPLE, to appoint a competent. trust
worthy, sworn and bonded surveyor, for
he same, 10 reside and keep his office in
he county, and, furnished with maps and
very field note Of surveys in it by the gen.
raj land Office, TO be always on hand,
thousand times better posted than any man
ould be so far away, to give information,
o point out or survey land-in short, TO be
faithful and competent public ottieer, in
crested in encouraging settlement interest
4 in correcting mistakes in surveys, too
fen made on paper, and avoiding ali things
alculated to engtnder litigation in relation
o lands.
If the county lines be run and marked as
roposed, and then these local county sur
eyors be appointed, IL will soon be easier
D find and buy land in those orphan coun-
les, and attended by less hazard Of subse-
uent contests as 10 boundaries than in
,ost Of the older c1unties Of the state.
Dallas and her representatives, 50 far as
smembered, have ever been true friends
the frontier, and l have no doubt but
er present delegation Ia the Legislature
i'll be found active workers in hehalfof
lese great me assures Of reform and relief.
very man in the state desiring ths n
ancement Of the value and sale OF our Tree
,hool lands, must favor these me tsures.
is quite certain that the ever faithful
Walsh, the friend Of the people, viii favor
ich legislation, and 1t ~ confidently be-
eyed that both the retiring and the incom-