Fort Worth daily gazette. (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1882-1891, 1885-04-17

cents per acre. IL Is not soon IN be
forgotten what the country has expe-
rienced during the last two years of
turmoil and strife, and in the sacrifice
OF life In some Instance, caused by per-
hitting vast areas of territory to fall
under one management. These evils,
while deplorable, were slight com pared
to the seeds of decay and Injury they
engendered in the way OF our ma
terial advancement and prosperity
and the peace and progress of the state.
BY the provisions OF the bill, whole
counties may, and no doubt would,
II 1t Rhould become law, be owned
and controlled for q term of years
named by one person in many
instances, or by some aggregation of
capital and persons. Under former
leases and policy vast regions have fall
len into the same bands, and to-day
the great body of the people of this
state are not only debarred the right
of free transit passage through
neighbOring states and territories, but
those holding tenures under this state
in the Northwest are threatening the
Interior and South with violence
should they attempt to pass or drive
their stock through that country
another way to distant markets. BY
no act of mine will ever sanction the
acquisition of these vast tracts of land
by one management. 1t is not cor
rect public policy, nor is 1t justice to
the great mass of our citizens.
"By no act OF mine,n says Gov.
Ireland, twill ever sanction the ac-
QUESTION Of these vast bodies of land
by one management. 1t is not cor
rect public policy, nor is it just to the
great mass Of our citizens" This par
ticular objection of the governor to the
new bill Is referred to elsewhere in
The GAZETTE; but we may here re-
peat that the objection applies to any
form of lease. A correct public policy
does not demand the acquisition of
large bodies of land by one manage.
ment, and yet that is Just what the
lease policy results in; and had the
new bill become law, there would
have been more wire fences cut In the
unorgnized counties OF Texas in the
next six years than would have been
rebuilt.
The governors objection to the four
section lease provision might be con-
strued as anti-settlement in spirit, but
not when it is remembered that he
asks; why conhne this right Ito buy
one section and lease four adjoining
sections inside lease.holdj to counties
of certain size?n The governor
knew that the free-grass men tried to
make the provision apply to leases in
unorganized as we'll as in organized
COT mites and that the raoid lease-law
advocates defeated the effort, and his
question cannot be reassuring to those
who have imagined him a violent
lease partisan.
Referring to the provision limiting
purchasers to one section, the COVER
nor says.
III IL be true that one section was
thought to be so insignificant that the
purchaser might break up some other
contract by leasing over a former
lessee, why confine him to one section?
In regions of country where great
body of these lands are, one section is
not enough for family and the pur-
chaser should be permitted to buy from
one to four. Why confine the head of
family to one section In that country
when he depends on his little stock
and farm for great part of his living,
and he is likely to starve? But did
not believe the right to pur-
chase q home should be confined
to the head OF family. There are
thousands OF young men who would
like to go and prepare homes In order
that each might fit himself out to be
the head OF family. In this respect
the law seems unequal and too dis.
criminate. 1t is true that the single
man can purchase as high as 100 acres
The yeupg man starts out and gets his
l60 acres, but unless 1t has fine water
privileges, or y valuable mine, 1t is al
most entirely worthless in that coun-
try No man that expects to become
permanent citizen, or even to raise a
family, would accept such land as q
gift II he Is compelled to live
upon it. He has adjoining him
neighbor who may have
leased 100000 acres, because that
neighbor happens to have money.
He himself may have the means to
pay for home of two or more sections
but his government will not allow
him the privilege. This is not happy
contemplation for that individual, or
calculated to inspire patriotic re-
gard either for the laws under which
he lives or his native or adopted state.
True, the tenure of the 200, e6O-acre
man Is not so durable, but he may re.
new when his first term expires. BY
the 10th section the original purchaser
may sell after three years. He may
sell TO anyone who will so on the land
and occupy 1t. This yendee may be
the head of family or he may not.
When the governor says sin regions
of country where . great body OF these
lands are, one section is not enough
for family snd the purchaser should
DO loermittN5to Bug from one 10 four,p
he strikes at the very root of the true
noiioy .Or aettlinU tha Waat Tba