The Austin weekly statesman. (Austin, Tex.) 1883-1898, 1884-01-31


OF farm stock in 1880 was $50, 307 eco.
The comptroller's report shows the
whole value of cattle in the state in
1883 was $3S,3O7,OOO. So the cattle
values of our farmers who had to SuS-
tain their stock without school land
grass were double that Of the ranch
men.
WHAT MORE?
The value of Texas farm products
was, in 1879, according to the cen
We raised cotton that year wioorth,.. G7,758,SO0
In an............ ............... S132, 1852, GOO
Or, in other words, our farmers made
from the sweat of their broWs, in one
year, in Texas fields, more than three
times the value of all the ranch stock
in the state.
The farmer had some burdens.
That year GS70 he spent in build
And he invested in. agricultural i'm i'm '''''''
pie mentS 800. ......-............$ 100000
Total. ......... .s12, 676 sos
Vast as the products of our farmers
were, the farmer and farm laborer
averaged in wages and profits but
twenty-five dollars month.
AREA OF AVAILABLE PASTURAGE
in Texas is 100000 of acres, while
the entire area Of the state is 167, 1885,
600 acres. We have cattle, mules and
horses, according to the comptroller's
report, about 100000, or. as Won sac,
about thirty acres of available
pasturage TO the head.
FARMERS TAXED FOR FREE GRASS.
Now, sir, these $4,000 farmers
labor in the field to pay over a million
dollars in taxes TO educate the white
and negro children in Texas, while
1900 free-grass stock men are en-
riched without paying one dollar rent
for the 30,O00.O0O acres OF school land
on which they Craze. Such open
handed plumber of farmers, encUur-
aged and permitted by law, has never
been witnessed since William the Con-
querer divided out the English farms
among the Norman DarOns. That
school land, even at. cents per acre,
would bring$1 100000 per year, enough
to educate, with other available funds,
without taxation, every child inTexas.
1 have seen the derisive smile when
Senator johnson, sometimes called
Rutabaga johnson, the only farmer
among US, would rise in his place and
warn you that these school lands
should be made to yield a rental now,
that the farming classes might be re-
Geved. Let me tell you, rude of
speech as he is, in all that pertains to
patriotism, he is the peer of any
of you, and his unheeded warn
iDgs will yet poster us. You tell me
hot Il i-ET Low
lands will be leased; but how and
law it would take about sixty years,
and your land board, which
seems to make law as well
as execute it. will be bound to
lease to the best bidder, and not in
limited quantities, which win increase
the evil and place those lands, if ever
leased, in the long purses Of land cor
porations. Mark my prediction, when
you have buried my bill, you will pass
some high sounding measure that will
give preference in leasing to the man
who already has school section in
his pasture, as if priority in theft
should invest him with superior
rights, and you will put the lands to
the highest bidder and enable concen-
trated capital to strangle competi-
ton.
You know that there is not a con-
stable or magistrate in the fifty-four
counties of the Panhandle; and now,
mark my prediction: If this bill is
defeated you may make a penalty for
grazing on school lands, but will refuse
to create any tribunals to enforce your
law in that vast territory, covered all
over with cattle. Lay not the fiatter-
ing JUNCTION to your souls that this
dodge of the free grazer will pass
muster, or that your policy can be
approved
WHERE FENCE-CUTTING STARTED.
Sir, the weather prophet when he
fOretellS a storm, first finds out from
his signal station where the atmos-
pheric pressure is greatest. Let US
initiate his example, and scan the po-
litical horizon. Close along the edge
of the unorganized counties, north of
us, this fence-cutting mischief first
started, for there the pressure was
greatest. The farmer, making his
twenty-five dollars month, finds
the range around his home destroyed
by the wandering stockmeD, who
owned no grass. He is a hester, but
his little nest with his white headed
babes are as dear to him as yours can
be to you. This country was made
and has been defended by these same
nesters. Looking across the border
into the Panhandle he discovers a
new race of men Springing up, who
without labor re enriching them.
selves on unrented land, Solemnly
n n1T % hn oh Of
all. Yes, sir, a new breed of men who
you about one of them the other day.
Mr.. Driskell, of my town, author
lied me to say that, eleven years ago
is worth $4,000, every dollar of
free school land, and that he never
was called on To pay one dollar of
taxes. 1 told YoD that he was good
man, and not to be blamed, for the
fault lay at our doors. Senator Davis
wanted to know why he did not give
some of it to the poor. Well, he gives
by rule, just 5000 year to the poor,
more money than the Senator
practice or otherwise. This is not
oil do O1IC nCoJCl IOOhO lllGO bLlctO UIOtSt
waste covered with mesquite grass, he
sees the drift fence of the Matidor
company, a corporation with its 500
native and foreign stockholders, and
knows that the grass that should edu-
cate his children is enriching men in
foreign lands, while he must labor for
taxes to educate the children of all.
He sees under the operation of partial
laws, breed of pampered spectators
enriched by the state, and the deep gulf
between the rich and poor widening
and deepening every day. No tide of
emigration can ever invade those vast
possessions usurped by corporations and
individuals; for the stiffness of death is
upon the plains, broken only by the
lowing of the cattle, and all the land is
partitioned by the arbitrary bounda-
ries set up by these modern Labans
and Jacobs. No fence cutting on these
plains, for those kings make their pas
lures safe by the free riders of the
prairie, who are as expert with the
pistol as with the lasso. Sir, this pic
tllre is not overdrawn, and even fool
can understand how a small farmer,
goaded by his surroundings, finds him
self working at the nippers by the side