Fort Worth daily gazette. (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1882-1891, 1884-08-20
FREE GRASS.
The Primal Duty Of Self aovernmen. is
the Establishment Of Homes for All,
The Lease Law as an Experiment has
railed-A Return to the Old
System Imperative.
Four WORM, Trx,. Aug. 10, 1881.

Four Worth. TYN,. Aug. ~, 1891.
To the Editor Of the Gazette.
Free grass has been much dis used,
Int n shall never have been too much
aeitated till the powerful arguments
In favor OF IL be convincingly brought
home 10 the votes OF South and East
Texas rs well MS to the entire mass of
the Northwest. a system of govern
mental leasing is new departure In
the history of modern politics. 1t Is
an innovation that makes war on all
established theories of the objects for
which public lands are held, and of the
relation which these lands sustain to
the state. One of the first
principles of Democratic government
and of common sense Is that the lands
OF the state are for permanent settlers
The policy of every great nation, and
of America in particular, which has
the glory of presenting To mapkiuu
the broadest, gra ldest and most en-
lightened policy the world has ever
known, has been to legislatej in the
interest and for the encouragement
and establishment of homes. In pro-
portion TO the multitude of homes
located in nation is the stability,
prorressiveness and grandeur of the
nation. The loudest cry and the most
hopeful that has risen above
the storms of conflict and
the successive revolutions of centuries
has been the cry for homes. We hear
II rising on the topmost wave OF every
century like the noise of ocean bill.
lows, from Greece and Rome and
France and England aud Ireland, aud
now from America. With abundance
of homes for the industrious and hon
est Ioor nation cannot perish. The
first use of land is for occupation, and
occupation Is II cause of personal, lUctl
and general progress in proportion as
it is permanent. The lease-law the.
DRY reverses NIL this. Claiming to
build no hnOls, II tears down tie
prospects vi homes, without which
schools are valueless. IL would estab'
fish the allur,ug temptation of mag
niticent school fund, intended, howev'
er, to be DISTURBED anywhere but In
the section of the state where the
lands are leased; and In order To ac-
complish this splendid educational
advantage for Eastern Texas, it will
convert Western Texas into an agsre-
cation Of few immense camps aud
those owned by millionaire
cattie-herders. In other words, hy
giving the grass Of the West, which
has from the early days of Texas been
the heritage and the salvation of the
poor, to wealthy monopolists and less-
ers, and the scnCol fund to the COM
bined white and negro element Of
Eastern Texas, the West is robbed of
both school and grass. Magnificent
philanthropy. For the sake OF scno lis,
tue poor mans grass is turned over
to syndiiates, c.rpurations and
lease-iaw cattle spectators, VINO
constitute the r,al fee-grass
barons usutping under legal
forms the 'children's grass" And 10!
when the undertaking is made To real
ize the sublime anu seductive educa-
tional promise OF a scholastic fund the
west is seen transformed from terri
tory for thousands o! homes to vast
camping ground, and the scho fund
III the wings of the wind is seen n.y.
ing over ~ Eastern Texas. Schools
are important, but families must live
before they can be educated, and in
order 10 live they must have HON, $.
One of the first objects of governms mt
Is TO favor the establishment of homes.
So true is this that the attention be-
slowed upon this subject ma, be styled
a criterion of good government, and
the contrary a criterion of Dad govern
ment. To attain an ephem raj aud
sectional advantage to an interest inn
portant, indeed, but secondary, East
ern Texas will sacrifice tn. grand
landed reservation of the state which
by the constitution Is required to be
sold, and by the founders of the state
was intended Us cheap reserve for
the honest and homeless yeomanry
OF our state. But with emphasis let il
be considered That the injury will re-
bound upon Eastern Texas, eve poor
man who votes for "a lease law is voting
away the Prospects of his poor friends
and tellow-ciiizens for home. He is
biting at deiusive BAH, and will find.
perhaps too late, the hook of u corpo.
ration In his throat, and should all
Texas bite 1T the same bait IL would
lind Itself dangling helplessly on the
iine of l"ase-law confederacy. who
would convert the whole state into a
huge jpint-stock leasing com pany.
| j. w. w.