The Austin weekly statesman. (Austin, Tex.) 1883-1898, 1886-04-08
THE CRISIS AND GovERoR IRELAND.


troubles, to suppress riot and lawlessness
We have heretofore expressed what we
believe is the feeling of the public, a dis
appreciation of the hardness of the gov
ernor in grasping the condition of affairs
and so disposing of the available forces
at his command as to make
riot and bloodshed an i'm
possibility. The governor doubtless
thought that Cancellation with the strik-
ers would be useful means of averting a
collision between them and the citizens or
state troops, as was evidenced by his tar
diRess in issuing a proclamation, and his
hesitancy to order the troops into the
field until an actual collision occurred.
We are thoroughly convinced that nine
tenths of the people of this state re-
garded this as serious mistake on the
part of the governor, that will lose him
the confidence that his most
ardent political admirers had
in his sagacity, firmness and ability to
meet any emergency. Even those who be-
fore this time thought Governor Ireland, of
all men in the state, most adapted to adjust
his administration, suddenly to the most
trying vicissitudes of government, can
hardly believe now that he is a man for
such an emergency as the one that had to
be met last Saturday.
There are political friends Official
associates) of Governor Ireland,
who know best his course in the mat
ter, who claim that before he left
here for Seguin on Friday on import
ant business, that all arrangements
were so made that he could be communi-
Gated with in fifteen minutes, and that his
action was prompt, and as soon as he
heard that the strikers had fired on train
he Immediately ordered that the rangers
and the militia should repair to the scene
of action.
This may all be true. Governor Ire
have been all right, and was all right, but
the complaint is, that Governor Ireland
ought to have seen with the eyes and
heard with the ears of others. and
sent troops to the scene of threatened
hostilities to prevent the bloodshed of
last Saturday This is the point of OBJ
lection to his course, not that when Off
GERS of The state, in peaceful attempt
to move a train, we're shot down
in the discharge of that duty, that he
then ordered out troops, but when he
knew, as all other intelligent men in the
state knew, that the strikers were concen-
trating at Fort Worth, then he ought to
have ordered the troops to the "point du
appui' TO prevent any bloodshed, to over
awe the incendiary and lawless spirit that
he knew existed there.
Parsons, Kansas, was du-
plicate of Fort Worth. Strikers were
congregating, as at Fort WORTH in I'M
necessary numbers, and threatening VIC
lence. Governor Martin, of Kansas, did
not wait for the bloody work to com
mence. He promptly ordered troops to
Parsons, and the lawless spirit was sup
pressed by their presence.
What we complain of is that prompt
action on the part of Governor Ireland
could have prevented a single murder at
Fort Worth, and he did not take that ac-
ton in time, as Governor Martin did. We
complain that the citizens of Fort Worth
were unnecessarily subjected to
n night of terror, experimenting
that their city would be burned, and a
night of RIGHTEOUSNESS inaugurated; while
the citizens of Parsons, Kansas, slept
that night in perfect security protected
by the strong arm of militia. We com
plain of the fact that Fort Worth was
several days at the mercy of an inhamed
and reckless mob, when they might have
been free from all subsection and terror
ism if Governor Ireland had seen things
rs other men saw them-as, for instance,
Governor Martin, of Kansas, saw them.
We honestly believe that Governor
Ireland's inactivity, in crisis of so much
importance, has weakened, if not entirely
loosened the hold he had upon the con
fidence of the people of the state, and
especially of the democratic party.
An error is sometimes more fatal to n
politician than crime. There may be
mitigating or palliating circumstances,
though we confess it is hard to imagine
what they were, that will be pleaded in his
favor. but if the vote of the state was
taken to-day for governor, and Governor
Ireland was candidate, there is not n
politician in the state that would
not beat him three to one. We speak
of this merely to illustrate the opinion.
we believe, the public have upon the
course pursued by Governor Ireland.
There can be no excuse for failing to
take action that would have prevented any
bloodshed. Any man in the state, who