The Austin weekly statesman. (Austin, Tex.) 1883-1898, 1884-02-07
rOMMUyIsTICAL FREE-GRAsSIsM

lLlulCtiltu HANNNON-
from tresspass to private unenclosed /
lands will not be given, though these
may he said to be our largest resource
for taxation for the support and main
tainance of an onerouS state govern
ment. Taxes, it is universally agreed,
are paid for protection; and if the |
government give to private property |
nc protection, what right has it to tax
such property? May not this ex-
ira session do even worse? 1t
is not proper to have class legis-
lation, which is always odlous, and
certainly ID opposition to the wishes of
the represented. 1t is proposed to
protect the grass on the school lands,
the asylum and the university lands,
which were donated by the people,
and which pay no taxes. Is it intend
ed, in effect, to extend an invitation to
the most lawless classes to commit
the most provoking and ruinous tres
passes upon private unenclosed
lands; and will the state still levy upon
these lands the most calling taxation
for the support of the government?
Would it not be difficult to say
whether such legislation would lie
the more unjust in principle or the
more unwise in policy. After ciIi-
zens have purchased lands and paid
taxes upon them, for protection, can
the legislature Withdraw from them
all protection, and say to the cattle
kings, take, to enrich themselves, the
grass on these private lands for
nothing? If SO, what inducement
would then be left to the stock
men either to lease or to purchase
the school, the university or the asy-
lum lands. They would evidently
produce no revenue; and the inevita-
ble result would be reduction of the
value of all lands, to make taxes still
more onerous and ruinous. For what
good or noble purpose could such laws
be enacted? Are they calculated 10
foster and cherish the public schools.
which are so much needed, or the
state university, or these asylumS for
| the unfortunate? Are they not emf
nently calculated to destroy their re-
sources, to paralize and impoverish
them all? Are we to be called upon
| to forego great and benign
ends for raising and enlightning and
protecting human beings, to make room
for raising alone, in their stead, cattle
and sheep? Does not the perceptible
policy OF lawmakers seem to reverse
the order of nature, and to give to
brutes preference over men? Are
the laws to be so left, by this extra
session of the legislature, that large
stock owners can come to Texas from
other states with their herds, and en-
rich themselves upon the product of
private lands without cost, while if
| farmer move here with his family he
must purchase or lease lands,
must pay taxes upon them, must en-
closewith strong fences against strong,
vagrant bulls, before he can plant and
cultivate his crops for the support of
his wife and children. Then it may
again be asked which would our laws
most favor, the raising of civilized
human beings or the raising alone of
Drutes. a sad and bitter experience
shows fully that cattlemen and cow
boys, ofEthe one hand, and farmers on
| In ~ af hn iol
of beings. This point may be said
to have been fully tested, and
by further experimentation in the
same direction there might be
produced results still more ruin
Gus and cruel to the most law-abiding
portion Of our people. Suppose, for
example, a small farmer with his fam
lily were to make his home upon his
own little tract of land, in the neigh
borhood of large stocks of cattle, rang
ing around him on free grass. If the
farmer were supposed to interfere
with the cattle how long would it be
before stockmen or their cowboys
would order him to leave, and upon re-
fusal to do so, how long would it then
be before we would read in the public
prints that thisfarmer had"mysterously
disappeared ?" Then we might soon
expect to learn that his body had been
found horribly mangled, with no clew
to the murderers. VIII not such be
the legitimate result of the free grass
policy. If we are to have free grass.
why not have free timber; why not
go one step further and have free
land. 1t need not be asked why not
have free stock; for it is well known
that to appropriate stock is certain
and sudden death. 1t was the motto
OF Gen. Jackson (worthy of repiti-
tion), that the benefits and burthens
of government should fall equally
upon all, like the dews of heaven. 1t
may be truly said that Texas is the
empire state of this great American
union. She possesses every variety
of soil and climate; extends from the
Sabine to the Rio Grande, a distance
of some eight hundred miles, and
from the shores of the Gulf of Mex
leo, a land of almost unceasing sum-
mer, nearly to the Rocky Mountains,
a region of perpetual SHOWS. A
wall might be built around
Texas so as to cut off commu-
nication from the rest of man.
kind, and she could then sustain
within her boundaries fifty millions of
civilized human beings. How great
then is the responsibility of her legis-
lators, who are the trusted guardians
of this great state. VIII they enact
laws to make within Texas happy
homes for a great and enlightened
people, or is the growth of our popula-
ton to be discouraged that british
oligarchy may be raised up, whose
dictum shall be that man, under the
most civilizing influences, shall give
way alone to herds.