The Austin weekly statesman. (Austin, Tex.) 1883-1898, 1884-03-13

timent of pity for those who pre-
viously stood before society unblem-
ished, be suffered to step in and inter
pose between villainy and the terrible |
punishment to be meeted out by out
ragged justice.
FREE GRASS POLITICS.
Whenever the subject of free grass
and the disorders growing out of the
condition so long prevailing is men
toned to any one of the noble ten
thousand aspirants, there at once
springs into his eyes faraway scat
tered and puzzled expression which
would be very amusing were it not
but reflex of the puzzlement notice
able everywhere, and which is likely
to produce unrest in Texas before it
is settled if the governor is chief ex-
ecutive, or if that function has been
usurped by some typical cowboy of
the prairies or not. The plain fact is
that somebody ought to be made to
stand or fall on the great question
which so profoundly stirred the peo-
pie anterior to and during the days
of the late special session.
There is a state election pending
state representatives and state sena-
tors are to be elected. The state de-
partments are to be filled; innumera-
BILE county officers are to be elected.
These new officers are all to come
from the ranks of men who are well
to the front on all public questions of
Importance. They all wear spic and
span new records on this fence cut
ting trouble. From his excellency
down to constable, men have made
histories within the last few months
which ought to make or break them IN
the estimation of the free voters, the
property holding ard the patriotic
people of Texas. There are those
among the ranks of the anxious and
unhappy expectants who loudly de-
clare that the question should not en-
ter into state politics this cam
paign. Doubtless all would feel
| a relief if it were to be
excluded. Not so however say the
the people. Free grass and its proge-
ny of almost unbearable evils will
force themselves into the struggle.
Records will be hauled out and in the
bright glare of history so recent,
the electors, the supreme governing
power of the state, will write their
dissent or approval in legible charac-
tors broad across such history. There
is no escaping from the conclusion
that such feeling is an uncomfortable
one among the people, and woe be to
the aspirant who refuses to enter the
lists upon the terms presented or who
goes in on the wrong side.
Up to this time the politicians and
thenomadic population interested in
or or more nearly affected by the COM
munism of the border sections
of the state have had it to
themselves. The great masses of the
people have remained interested, it is
true, but quiescent spectators of the
Titanic struggle. There was then
no call or occasion for the
record of the voice of the people.
Now there is occasion, and there ex-
lists a positive necessity for not only
expression but action. The solid mas
es of conservative citizens of Texas
have too much at stake, and values
are too powerfully affected by the
public policy with regard to this
question for them longer to remain
still while grave abuses are pressing
for equitable and statesmanlike adj
justment and correction. When the
farmers of Texas become fully aroused
to the deep and absorbing nature of
the principles underlying all these
questions they will come to the front
in no uncertain or half-hearted way.
Before this earnest and indignant
moral force the frost work of the mere
politician will melt into thin water or
thinner air, promptly.
1t is matter which deeply inter-
ests his excellency, who, it is under
stood among small circle of select
friends, is candidate for re-nomina-
ton and reelection. He has record
somewhat tangled aud disheveled,
it is true, on this great question. He
cannot hope to escape the full and
wide discussion of it. He does not
expect thus to avoid it, and if he is
wise, he will prepare for the scathing
scrutiny the people are preparing to
give his every act and his most trivial
expression connected with the ques-
ton. If then the people will arraign
their chief magistrate in this
way, is it reasonable to expect that
their servants of lesser degree of i'm
portance, will escape? Is it right that
they should? A question underlying
all the graver and more important
interests of Texas, of society and civ
ilization is pressing for adjustment,
and a man who has no sentiment or
opinion upon it is not man to be
chosen for it's final settlement, but
worse by far, tor him, if unfortunate
ly he is on the wrong side of it.
Vested rights must be respected and
carefully guarded, but on the other
hand the monopolies and landed
combinations dangerous to the inter-
ests of the citizenship of the
state must alike be guarded, that they
sustain no irreparable injury. But
above all the spirit which encourages
even the wronged to take the redressing
of their wrongs into their own hands
and who rely upon the nipper and
the six-shooter, instead of the law,
must learn that there is an intelligent
and law-abiding sentiment in the
state too powerful for them to contend
against, which utters, and will utter at
the polls next November, dissent
from which there is absolutely no ap-
peal. Free grass politics are very in
teresting indeed, but they are also
very dangerous in the hands of the
charlatan and the demagogue, and
political heads will roll hither and yon
upon the green grass of Texas, even