The Austin weekly statesman. (Austin, Tex.) 1883-1898, 1884-01-31
SPEECH OF Hon. A. w. TERRELL
IcoNTINUED FROM SECOND rAGE.l
ism. These are the transitions taught

ism. These are the transitions laugh
by history.
"For one, l want Texas to remain
what she now is-the home OF tn
farmer and stock man, with room
enough for both and no drcneS in thu
hive, No imported mass OF hungr,
laborerS to crowd and diSSatisfy Gu
laborerS already here. No trampS t,
recruit the ranks of depot burners
no discontinued idleTS, gutter. snipe
of the cities, to corrupt municipal
governments with their votes, anC
curse them for not providing then
employment; no squatterS on othel
peoples land, to live on other people.
stock. From all these things we ART
nearly free, but all these would bt
brought in the tuTbid stream OF
1 forced immigration. 1t peace shall
continue, our waste places will be i'm.
proved only too soon, if you desire a
ing the settlement of all your vacant
lands, will come the trouble between
capital and labor, which all dense
populations must pass through
De Toqueyille, the learned French
man, said that our institutions would
change, and that government found
ed on popular suffrage would disap-
pear whenever the domain to the Pa
cltic coast was appropriated. Its APP
preparation is nearly complete. An
other celebrated writer, and an Eng
lishman, said that free institutions
with us depended ION elbow room aad
Il traditional respect for the corsta-
ble." The elbow room is about gone,
and when propose to enforce respect
for the law, by sending the constable
to the plains by the side OF the Judge.
then our political doctors become
alarmed.
CAPITOL LANDS.
But, since the opposition seem to
desire to place the author of the bill
on trial, rather than the bill itself. in
his dealings with the public dOmaia.
let me go a step further. In 1876 |
introduced in the Senate q bill to pJ
vide for the issuance and sale Of Ger
tilicateS for 100000 acres OF the pub
lie domain OF Texas TO build Il new
state capitol Senate journal, page
HOO, My plan to place that land SO
that the humblast man might obtain
an interest WAS rejected by the Sen
ate; and thus, pOwerlesS TO carry out
the demand Of the constitution and
set that land aside in my way, | was
compelled to adopt The methods Of the
majority and set it aside their way,
and swap it in one body for a state
house. For this demagogues have
bounded me and snapped at my heels;
and never until this hour have
deigned to correct this Islander.
Senator Gibbs-Will the senator an
SWer question?
Senator Terrell Certainly.
Senator Gibbs-Did you not vote to
sell land for 90 cents an acre to corpo-
rations and individuals and capitol
sYndicateS?
Senator Terrell-O yes; and if you
had been listening to me you would
have heard how l attempted to en-
force different policy, but was pow
erlesS. Side-lined, shackled and ham,
strung, in my efforts to build here a
university Tor the education of our
youth, to build q new capitol, and
build up and sustain our public asy-
lums, l have stood, while some of
your predecessors helped shackle me.
Still toiling while others went on
with what thought quackery, have
done my best, and the man does not
breathe who can assert that he ever
heard me utter one word in favor of
the policy of establishing land cor
poratlons. Loud applause
You have hunted me until the
quarry now stands at bay. and, with
the help Of Him who made me, if
strength and voice permit, [ will this
day finish the work of tearing the
blanket from the skeleton until all
may see it. Applause.l l challenge
any Senator to deny that, one year
ago, [ twice sOlemnly warned you in
this chamber, that if my efforts to
stop the spread of land corporations
then living with grey boards On their
faces who would see bowling multi
tude of angry men tearing down the
fences that enclosed your unrented
school lands, and destroying also, indis-
criminately, the estates of individuals
Four months had not passed until the
nippers were at work, and yet ! was
laughed at. l will do the Senator
from Dallas the justice to say that he
then stood with me in committee.
with a small minority, demanding the
entire repeal OF land corporation laws.
When the Panhandle country was
put on the market at fifty cents an
acre, no one ever believed it would sell
for twenty-five cents an acre, and 10
one then dreamed of what has since
occurred up there.
CORPORATIONS.
Sir, l make a broad distinction be-
tween those corporations and their
rights, which are needed in opening
up ways for quick transportation and
public enterprises, and those which
enable associated capital to speculate
in land, the great source of life for
Texas, by her policy,
compelled even railways to ALLEVIATE
their land in fifteen years, with no
constitutional provision on the sub
ject. And yet, with a constitution
which prohibits perpetuities and mo-
we have gone blindly on
creating an artificial thing called a
land corporation, which never dies,
though its stockholders may; invisible,
yet powerful, and dwarfing individual
enterprise by the power it exercises.
Such legislation leads to communism
by the prejudiceS it excites. The rich
individual dies and his property is
scattered by his spoiled son-tor So
ciety is, like wagon wheel as
it progresses, always carrying the
mud from the bottom to the top. and
always dropping down that which has
been elevated. The children of the
rich become poor, and those of the poor,
rich. Not so with land corporations;
they die not, neither can they be in
dicted, for they are intangible, invisi-
BILE and soulless; artificial creations of
with greater vital ty. And, sir, here
they are, with their stockholders in
Scotland, owning and fencing in en-
tire counties, with the county seat in
the middle of their pastures politi-
cal public corporation in free state,
called county, owned and controlled
by private corporation whose stock
SUBJECTS OF THE BRITISH QUEEN!
To this complexion has it come; and
now you have the last touch to this
picture. and the Senate refusing to
place tribunals on the staked plains to
stop it. Men who defend these land
conSpiratorS seem to forget that Con-
gIeSs long ago passed an act which
will not permit even charitable cor
poration to own over $4,000 worth of
property in any territory.
ROAD LAW.
The grievance of bad road law, l
have said, must be provided for in
some other bill. So, also, must the
check on speculative land corpora
tons; and though the governor does
not seem to have thought that suffi-
Gent evil to invite the legislature so
consider If [ will of the rrnnnr tir,no