The Austin weekly statesman. (Austin, Tex.) 1883-1898, 1884-01-24

e where there is neither court, jude
It sheriff or constable. In this gre
d tract of country there are great &C
s. porations who nave loo miles of the
d lands fenced. School lands which
n the rent of cents an acre would ed
! cate every child in the state. L too
8 from the comptroller statement
L regard to this matter. There a
5 from $500 to 100000 invested |
}. cattle men in cattle in each
!, these tifty-four counties, and theS
: men do not own foot of land upo
: which this stock is grazing. BY Whi
q right, would ask, have the men I
: take possession of the school land
: free of rent. This land has been gol
: bled up and the state deprived of th
income that ought to flow from i
l One man has $4,000 acres, anothe
3 100000, another 100000, another 2S1
GOO, and so they go on. One man ha
} 100000 head Of cattle and only 20,OO
acres of land. These men have take
possession of the public domain. Ian
dedicated to the education of tn
, children of Texas. Is it strang
we hear of cattle kings? l do no
blame them. 1t is the state that is t,
: blame. I want to ask one question
remember, am surveying the situa
ton before discussing the BILLS thi
, just? / have said L care not for thi
} DILL particularly do not think thi
= the only bill that will meet the situa
tion. Whenever any other bill will
T, ach the evils, bury this, and it will
not make single wrinkle on my face
but ask you to give me somethins
better. Who are the peOpl,
of this state2 1t has beer
said that the cattle interests arr
above all others. This is not true
These men are but a small fraction o1
the people. Who are they? 1 pro
pose to answer the question. | will
do it from statistics. l have before
me the statistics of 1880. In the yeal
1879 there were 100000 planters; agri
cultural labOrers, etc, $4,000; total
of $4,000. Now let us see how many
herders and stock raisers there were
Only 14,03l. Do you tell mo that
these few have the right to get rich
from the school lands that belong tC
the education of the children
of all. Who owns the
land in these unorganized counties
Let me answer that. The value of
farm fences built in 1879 was SI70,-
100000. The whole land value was
| S216, 100000. Now if we take the
statistics of 1883 we find Che gave the
statistlcs) the farming interests more
than three times the cattle;intereSts
Is it any wonder, L ask, that we have
cattle kings. Then will you tell me
that the state is not prepared to say
no more Tree grass. Do these men
say no more free grass them
selves? In the great cattle con-
vention held here last week
these men passed resolutions say
ing, Free grass mustHgo." There
are, as shown by statistics, 100000
head of cattle roaming on the school
lands of the state-small cattle mon
| and big cattle men-and this bill says
| these men must stop their grazing or
pay for the grass. That communism
must stop. fear the state is not yet
ready for herd law in its strict
sense. 1t will not do to bring about
too sudden a change. We must take
| middle ground, a position that will
harmoniZe the conflicting elements.
think this bill will DO that. I think it
is transitory step from the wrong to
the right position on this serious Ques-
l.
l knew it was not when l submitted
it, but | have thrown it upon the sea
to be tested and discussed. If some
thing better can be found | ask you to
bring it forward, but | ask you to
have the whole matter taken in one
bill. Now, let US see, how much the
state is giving TO these cattle kings
and others who occupy the school
lands (the senator here quoted statis-
tics, showing what it cost to run the
schools a year and that lease OF these
lands at four cents an acre would
give $l00,000,4i3, which would be
enough to run the schools six months. }
After some further discussion on this
question the senator said he would
address himself to the provision of
the bill. lie took il up section by
section and then took up the objec-
tions made by the minority of the
committee. He explained that the
first section. allowing twenty-five
head of cattle to run at large, was for
the benefit of the poor man, and the
allowing of one additional TO every
ten acres of land leased or owned
would make every man have an in
terest in enforcing the law.
trated the workings of the system
therefrom, and claimed this system
would remove the motive for fence
cutting. Afler explaining the pro-
visions of the bill, he took up the OBJ
jections raised by the minority Of the
committee. 1t was first objected that
the bill was detective. He said he
knew there were defects, bu t these
"A Ioo lNr1 n &c nd
he called attention to the fact that
several amendments had been pre-
pared by friends to the bill to meet
such defects.
1t was objected that it was in con"
flict with section 30 of article 3 of the
constitution, in that it en-
reviewed the legislation of the past
and showed by calling attention to
various acts that this bill was no
more open to such an objection than
a larger number that had been passed,
and concluded that all embraced in
the bill come under one general sub
ject and could not be vulnerable to
such an objection. He said he had
submitted the bill to many of the
ablest lawyers of the state and all
pronounced favorably on its constitu-
tionality. In regard to the commits
sioner of pasturage, he explained that
! in all that part of the country
| where there Were no organized courts
such an officer was necessary. He
| would get record of the cattle brands
and then with his men go into that
country and discover the number of
cattle owned by each man and be en-
abIed to enforce the law. On the
question of venue he cited the work
ing of the law in regard to land forg-
ers and showed how effective it had
been. 1t was folly to talk about the
present court system beingsufficientt TO
bring these offenders to justice, and
called attention to the fact that one
corporation owned two counties,
thus presenting the anomaly
of political division being
actually owned by a corporation.
The speech occupied about two hours
and half in the delivery and was
listened to with marked interest and
evidently made a deep impression
upon the Senate. At time it was i'm
passioned and eloquent. and has been
pronounced by the senator's friends
to be one of the best the judge has
ever made. at the close it was moved
! that the committee rise and report to
the Senate and report that the matter
| be further considered in committee
tomorrow after the regular call. The
COMMITTEES rose and so reported, and
then the Senate adjourned until 10
o'clock to-day.
DR.. Smoot received the following
letter yesterday which was picked up
| by a STATESMAN representative from