Fort Worth daily gazette. (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1882-1891, 1886-01-25
why BE SUPPRESSED
Let the Public Lands be Held for ths
Actual Settler.

Actual Settler.
Tyler, Ten, Jan. Is, 1886.
To the Editor Of the Gazette.
notice that several OF the newspapers
seem 10 make light OF the fact that the
representative knights OF Labor assem-
bled in their regular annual session in
Galveston put themselves publicly on
record as favorlng the retention Of the
public domain in the hands of the com
monwealth for the use Of actual settlers.
] cannot see whore there Is any fonnda-
ton Cor surprise, II few moments re-
! Election were devoted TO the principles II
this order. There Is surely nothing new
or startling IN the announcement; there
is no innovation, nor transgression OF any
law; there is nothing more or less than
strict adherence to the fundamental
principles of the order, which in no un-
certain terms says that we are opposed to
granting another acre OF land to corpora
tions Of any character whatever,
By this we mean that we are
opposed TO any system OF Legislation
which will puta wall OF barbed-wire oran
! impossible abyss of legal technicalitics
between the man seeking home and the
free soil Of our country We believe that
"the land of country belongs to the
people Of that country, because God in
| his wisdom has given it TO thcm,'' and He
has demanded in return that 'tby the
sweat of their brow they shall live"
Therefore we are opposed to the placing
of any barriers against the incursions of
those who with "coyered wagons, split
bottomed chairs and tow-headed chill
dren," TO use a current phrase, 90 out
upon Gods earth and honestly labor for
a support. There is no argument to be
used against the sophistry of those who
pirate about "the children's grass" but
the ballot-boX, and there we will decide
the contest with them. We agree with
! them that the school land OF Texas Is a
sacred heritage, but we cannot close our
eyes to the fact that a roof TO shelter our
children Is first to be looked for and when
that is secured education can be had with
out trouble. Those of us who follow the
plow in the interior could never realize
the necessity of throwing open every ave-
nue. to the home-seeker were it not
that the lamp of our order lights
our way. We know from this that the
thousands who are huddled together in
our labor centcrs could be benefited by
any legislation that would induce them
to desert the serfdom into which the fates
have placed them, and encourage them to
secure u foothold upon this earth of ours
before the railroads and cattle barons
shall have claimed it as their own. Nor
do we ask it cringingly as favor; nay,
we demand 1t as right: and it is Just as
well that IL should be understood now as
later. AS long as there is q foot of land
belonging 10 the public domain, lust so
long will there be chance for the wage
| worker to throw off his yoke and take his
abode upon 1t. Call it free grass if you
| Will, we do not care; it is no more free
grass than 1t is free existence We have
no war to wage upon any legitimate
enterprise; let every man enjoy full and
complete liberty, but we will not agree
that the quiddits of the lawyers shall pre-
vent the toilers of our land from finding
homes for themselves.
Profcssedly and confessedly we are
non-political party in its current accepta-
ton. We have no interests in the squab-
| bles OF politicians. We are working for
measures and not men. We mean TO act
and work in harmony for the best inter-
ests of all the people, especially for all
the common people, and we will not
swerve one iota from our principles nor
listen to the hackneyed sympathy of the
demagogue. The object of the resolution
was to inform the state at large that we
realized u fact which should be patent to
all, and that is, that permitting the cattle
barons TO fence in large tracts of land
practically shuts ont the "man with the
hoe" The legislator of the future must
trim his sails to catch this breeze of the
popular demand or expect to retire TO
private life. As said, we care not whit
for men, but measures, and those who
cannot represent our ideas cannot make
our laws. a DELEGATE.