Fort Worth daily gazette. (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1882-1891, 1884-04-21
WASHINGTON LETTER.
The Bankrupt Biil-How Courts Prefer
Premiums for Perjury.
A Cash Basis the Beat Way TO Soly'
the Debt Problem.
Advanced Thought OF the AasSes-TE,
Demands OF the People.
A Pilgrimage for the Old Alcalde TO
the Mecca Of His Youth.
special Correspondence. OF the Gazette.

WAsHINGToN, April 1.-THE
morals of trading communities have
been so polluted 10y this hot-bed eager
ness to grow rich, pervading first
| Wall str, Ell and thence transmitted to
every village and hamlet, that the sen
ate is torturing its great brain in the
vain effort to inject compulsory
honesty and fairness into the acts of
bankrupts. The law may promote
and proiler premiums for honesty, but
not through the intervention of courts,
These determine facts and rights and
wrongs by what is proven before them
and when this proof Is corrupt, justice
is impos sible. TO the extent that men
love money more than they love
truth, courts are calamitous, only prof
it not wiser to adopt system
which will make truth-telling
and honesty profitable, and lying un-
profitable? A modern lawsuit, / am
told here, is only a contest between
liars, and the courts must decide in ac-
cordance with the proof, rather than
with the facts. The fellow who lies
and misleads and deludes in business
life will lie and mislead and delude in
court. He will fix" witnesses and
fix papers. Were it not wiser to in
quire whether the courts have not
ceased to be useful and whether the
credit system, save as maintained
among the gamblers and school.boys
should not be extinguished /?
Suppose this pending federal bank
rupt bill provided that after the year
1899 no contracts contemplating
! the future payment of money would
be enforced by the courts. The cash
system would be inaugurated, and few
debts, until men learned how far
honor could be trusted, would be Gre
ated, and since debts would be COM
= pulsorily paid only after the debtors
death--by his executor or administra-
tor-few debts would be suffered to
survive, and honor and truth, instead
9 of falsehood and perjury, would COM
r mand premium and pay" even in
. Wall street. This pending bankrupt
bill, considered so .tenderly by the
lawyers Ofthe senate, is n device Of the
creditor class, and, while it may lie
. conformed to the operations and pur.
poses of courts, the question still re-
mains whether courts be not engines
ofgreat moral and practical misfortune
r rather than of justice and right. They
!. cost the people enormous sums, ia.
IA finitely greater than they collect from
II defendants and pay over to plaintiffs
and l am not sure that their ultimate
utter extinction would not result In
g the substitution of honor and truth, as
. governing social forces, for cunning
4, and perjury.i
:, But through thousand years thai
vague underlined definition of righ
and wrong. known as the common
It law, supposed to be the common "rul,
,s OF action" has governed the people il
re- their business relations and inter
~ course. 1t has resulted ut last In tn,
production of state of morals tina
practically annuls the law as measur,
h of right, and money supports right
i'd and II courts are not corrupt, jurie
* and witnesses are for sale, and tn,
he courts, like the tariff system, exist t,
ne make the rich richer and boo
- poorer forever. OF course thes
criticisms are inapplicable :
n. judicatories of ;uncorrupted farmin
-. communities, but in these older state
snr and great cities the jury system an
Va the average witness and even the cit
80. courts have lost caste, and honest me-
no more dread being drawn into IN
rapids and over the precipice of Niap
of ara than down into the maelstrom 4
he juries, lawyers, witnesses and courts
n The civil courts of the United Statel
ha with all their incidents, cost counties
IN millions for which they give the lea.
not possible valuable consideration. an
the senate, while extending the pul
view Of Judicial power and ope
IA atoms In behalf of the 40
ar might well inquire whether IN
!, of sum total of evil achieved by the civ
ont code aud its courts, is not greater tina
,sa that of good.
you MORT HERN MORALS.
Northern states pay their debts h,
cause 1t is cheaper than Reputation
ara There is no moral question involved
OF Wall street only pays when paying
as profitable. Bankruptcies are udie
: to results of the simple question of prof
Dr. and loss. Cases are determined not
Irge the weight of justice, but by that
,eir proof. But 1t is needless to discn,
this question. The groove in whic
we are running has been worn deem
he our hearts and memories and hshi
through thousand years, and reform
even If desirable, is impossible.
COURSE OF POPULAR THINKING.
~ But do you know that the neon
talk and think Of these thingsp
. =. have heard this very subject earnest
,ns discussed In workingmen's associ
INA ton. The truth is that in propressi,
thinking the people are far ahead
their leaders. Most progressive n
eublicans and earnest Democrats-ti
one shouting for tariff for proteciie
and the other "for revenue onIvn
Two. have been left in the lurch nv =,
heir masses Of the common people, who
will minds were made up on this oue
'irds ton long ago, and they ha,
Lee solved the money question and ali,
hab- ished banks of issue and establish,
' ';ntate those OF discount and exchange. m,
anty have substituted silver and gold ne
es 10 tificates for bank notes and paid n
day public debt and lessened public h,
,e OF dens one-half and this is ONLY half Il
. our significance Of the term "anti.monn
ss~sr oily" While Democracy Is anus,
Vest. by the tritling quarrel between M
,and rison and Randall, the multitude. wi
y on on propose to resume mastery Of the GO
p In eminent which they created. az q,
take which they saved, 7" forgetful loo.
h q 10 Blaine and Logan and of the Gro
and masters OF rails and mills and mir.
have agreed upon nls
~ : iorm more significant than elegan
10 denominated that of"anti-mononoIv
iair. The people are far ahead Of the nniIi
1 nn clans. More than million coniss
POI (ieOrge's hnnk hoxa haa,, go ~opsos