The Dallas daily herald. [volume] (Dallas, Tex.) 1873-1887, 1883-02-14

I
do with it. Daring his briei residence her,
he was regarded as a reckless. though
not by any means dangerous man.
The Legislature on Public and schoo
Lands.
DALLAS, Feb. l3.-[Eiitor HERALD. J.
The bill reported in your Austin dis
patches Of yesterday as substi
tute in the senate for several PROPOSE
tons in regard to the future sale of tn
state school and public lands, embodie
the worst and most dangerous feature o
the former law, which has been repealed o.
suspended by the present legislature. Il
seeks to'rs-enact the preposterous and dan
gerous provision that tue school lands shall
be classified and appraised by the distric,
surveyors. These districts are two or three
| hundred miles long and Two or three cOun-
| ties wide. If the lands had ever been prop
ely surveyed and marked, 1t would be an
impossibility for amy one man, or perhaps
half dozen men, in any reasonable time,
| honestly and intelligibly to comply with
| the law. The territory and the number of
surveys are too vast to be reached by any
such means; but every honest man ac-
uudiultu Will OuT iuiiu
unless he is w.llully blind, must know that
it is TOO great, too dangerous and too
tempting power TO be placed in any one
mans hands. 1t has practically amounted,
aud will again amount to locking up the
lands from the humble man OF small
n.eans and leaving them open only to the
rich.
And this is not all. The truth is that
vast majority OF the school lands have
never been surveyed into sections and
marked, nor the streams meandered or
correctly laid down, and hence
the district surveyor, IL on the ground, has
no means of determining the boundary of
any particular section, or what is ana what
Is not a watered section. 10 do so the
lands must be surveyed and marked, as
they ought to have been in the first place,
instead OF the occasional erection OF corner
and the pl ting OF the great body on paper,
guessing at the location { streams, lakes
and springs.
Then what is the remedy? 1t is two-fold,
First, pass the senate bill, which has been
reported iavorably, for running and mark
ing the true lines of the unorgauized Coun-
ties. Secondly, to pass that other senate
bill which, most strangely, has been
reported adversely by the coIamittee
on public lands, 10 abolish these huge sur
veying land districts, by which a large
humber of unorganized counties are at
tached TO some small outside organized
county, for surveying purposes, and author
lzlng the governor to appoint a surveyor
Tor each unOrganized county, with the
power TO give two or three counties to one
surveyor in certain cases. To illustrate the
absurdity and wildness of the. district plan
now in force: Baylor is small frontier
organized county, casting in November
last about 275 votes and electing surveyor
with vote of PIG. Yet, under this system,
that surveyor, the choice of PIG men, has
under his control and arbitrary rule the
appraisement and sale of
all the school lands of about ten counties
extending west to the line of New Mexico;
and, in similar way, We have the land dis
tricts OF PalO Pinto, Young, Clay, Oldham
and Wheeler. ! know the present surveyor
of Baylor county, elected last November,
and believe him TO be an honest man, and
he will declare, If questioned on oath or on
honor, that 10 living man can do the state
justice and rightfully discharge the duties
imposed in the classification of land in so
large territory, even IL lines and corners
We're TO be found in oDe-fourth the cases
where they ought to be, and he knows full
well that they abc not there to he found
But If the governor has the power to
appoint competent surveyor for
each unorgani2ed county, or each two
counties, as the csse may be, 10 be under
bond and required TO reside and keep his
office la the county or territory to which he
is assigned, beng furnished with maps aud
field notes from the general land office, the
whole evil is botted out and a safe and
cheap agency is established for the classiti-
cation and sale OF the lands. Such sur
my XI,tll I'm fuf. L., l.,
come will be from railroads and indlyiu-
uals owning or wishing to buy lands in his
county, both needing large amount OF
actual surveying to identify and mark
lands on the ground, which have only been
mapped on paper. 1t will be his in
terest to make such surveys, ailix
corners wherever possible, determine the
exact position of county lines and corners
as provided in the bill first referred to, and
thus enable the general land office to make
absolutely correct maps OF those counties,
which is now an impossibility. There are
hundreds Of good surveyors in Texas who
will accept oil such appointments--men of
small means who will blend with their
duties cattle and sheep raising according to
their ability to do 50. Under this plan,
when poor men, or men OF limited means,
go out there to find q section for home,
why Soh wv OF Nv u icW tAptllbG.
As it is now such man has no showing.
He cannot pay surveyor to 60 from
one hundred to two hundred and fifty
miles, to find, run out and mark him sec
ton Of land. Only the rich man. wanting
large tracts, can shoulder that expense, and
i was surprised that in the speech OF the
able, patriotic and experienced senator
from Parker. ION this subject, he seemed
wholly uniformed as TO the insurmounta-
bic evils In the practical workings of the
present lava law that is death to the
struggling poor man ana beneficial to the
rich only. Ofall measures pending before
the legislature, no two are of such tran
scendent importance to the state in the
encouragement Of population, to the
school fund in the enhancement OF its lands
or to the tens Of thousands of immigrants
ever seeking new and cheap homes in
Texas. J.H.B
Gas-Feathers, ribbons, velvet can ali be
col0red to match that new hat by using the
Diamond Dyes. Druggists sell any color
! for 10 cents.