Fort Worth daily gazette. (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1882-1891, 1884-10-27

get q home on Unbiased land? Why |
does he want TO 60 into the pasture? |
Thirty million acres--''practically all |
OF the public landsi'-are yet Unbiased |
Eight months ago no lease advocate /
thought OF making such an argu- |
ment. Then 1t was said 1t would all /
be leased in a short time. Gilded /
pictures of eXhaustless revenues and OF |
wealth, which laid even Pizarro and |
the lneas in the shade, were held be- |
fore the eyes of the people as |
the expected results OF the lease
law. The people were to be |
relieved from all school taxes in short |
time. Now, an argument In favor OF |
the leasing system is based upon its
practical failure up to date. The set.
tier Is told that he has ne right TO COM
plain of the lease law, for there splen-
~ of open country Tor him to settle in.
In what / have said, hitherto, the sue.
cess of the lease law or system has
been assumed. Now let us see how 1t
will be with the settler in the open
country while the lease law is stu in
force. He is still denied the privilege
of buying watered lands. He is con-
fronted with the danger that
some capitalist will lease the
WNIeIeu lhuuH OF, WnAI Is
Just as bad, will lease the dry lands
around the water, and then appeal to
the land board to save him from the
penalties OF the lHnd-inclosure act.
Such q man, however, will never fence
up the settler by accident or otherwise.
There would be no board to help him
out of such a scrape. The danger is
that the grazing and watered land
oil na fYsftY.
and himself left in much the same
condition as If he had gone into pas
ture in the first place, viz, restricted
for pasture to the number Of acres he
has bought, and surrounded by
hostile neighbors. But the lease
advocate says, "Why can't the
settler lease as much lands as he
needs before the big pasture man
comes alongW That is Just what he Is
driven to do, while the lease law ia
hanging over him, before he can feel
safe; In other words there is no free
range for the settler. At least the ten
ure is SO uncertain that it cannot be
said to be an inducement for any man
| to 90 to the frontier who does not eX-
| pect to lease all the and he may need.
This fact constitutes an objection to
the present lease law, or any leasing
| SYSTEM which, to my mind, is insu-
| perable. After water, next in import
ance to the pioneer, is free range In
| deed he can't do without either. II these
had been denied, as they are to-day, to
| those early settlers who blazed the
| path of civilization years ago, Texas
| would have been q wilderness to-day.
| Without these two things to compen-
safe in some degree for the unavoidable
hardships of frontier life, | firmly
believe that the efforts of Texas to
settle her public lands with the class OF
men who make homes, and therefore
country, will be greatly retarded-how
much, il is impossible to calculate. The
! existence of the lease law at this time
is especially to be regretted, because
the state being now penetrated by
railroads, the Indian being driven
| back, life being safe, were this law
now removed, with all its real
and imaginary evils, the rapidity with
which the public lands would be filled
with people no man can foretell.
But who are actual settlers? Right
here fear, we are ct radical mis-
J understanding. One would conclude
| from your letter that you regarded the
settler as the man who pursued farm
ing exclusively for livelihood. You
say, "you know from your daily OBJ
servation and experience that the
chief opposition there (meaning the
West) comes from those engaged Ia
some extent in the cattle business, OF
identified by business relations with
il, and that the only persons who would
be interested in disturbing the settler
would be the cattlemen, etc" / un
derstand the actual settler in this con
nectiOn to be the man who goes West
with his family and buys land with
the purpose of making a permanen
home, whether he pursues agricultur,
or the stock business exclusively o.
mixed husbandry. But it is fact ia
miliar to every old Texan that the frs
settlers, the advance-guards of civil
cation, have never been farmers e1clu
sively. The reasons for thi
are obvious. On the ex
treme frontier farming will not pay
not, as you say, because the land will
not produce. That assertion has beef
constantly made of the frontier sine
Texas has been a state, and CONSTANT,
refuted as fast as the frontier advanced
But farming for profit will not pa!
there, because there are no markets
Therefore the first settlers are driven
from necessity, to depend for thei
profits on the increase of stock of som
+ kind. In your language quoted abov
they are engaged, TO some extent, il
} the cattle business, or are identified b,
, business relations with 1t. Wit
this Interpretation cal
readily understand and believ
r YOU when you say, "The settler has al
{ along been astoundingly quiet abnu
T his wrongs.n The kind of settler
/ YOU speak Of, are not there. Nor vii
f they be there, until the country ha
Z already become partially occupied b,
, these first settlers mentioned above
/ and until local markets are TO som
4 exteut established for farm produce.
Now, as you affirm that the stock
G men are unanimously opposed 10 Tn
lease law, and those first settlers be
f ing stockmen. does 1t not follow, tha
( the opposition comes from soure
> that should command our respectful
consideration Because If these Bel