Fort Worth daily gazette. (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1882-1891, 1886-06-14

county. "There is no more authority for
locating them there,"l Is the declaration
OF the attorney general, ''yeterens' or any
other kind q certificates, and veterans
no more than any other kind, than there
Is on patented land in the county OF
Travis; and this location can only
'bo productive Of lobbying, confusion,
trouble and litigation"
In spite OF this warning from the states
legal representative, an Austin agent
of the holders Of the certificates has left
taat place with fifteen veteran land pat
ents TO locate on lands in Greer The at
torney- general, anticipating such action,
had g fiat issued by the district court OF
this city last Saturday, directed to the
surveyor OF Wheeler county, enioining
and restraining him from surveying or
assisting to survey or locate any ceitih-
Gates In Greer county. So much for the
preliminary fight. 1t VIII get into the
courts upon application to dissolve the
injunction, and probably we will know,
before long, IL Mr.. Land Commissioner
Walsh is the Pooh-Bah Of Texas, to de-
eide all legal questions against the opin-
ion of the officer elected to DO that busi-
ness.
As a matter connected with this same
subject, a recent letter Of Mr. Walsh de-
tending himself and maintaining his po-
sition is amusing 1t is al answer to
the published letter OF Senator Dick Har
risen, criticislng the conduct Of the land
commissioner. He takes the position
that the public domain In Greer county is
patentable under veterans certificates,
because, as he holds, the law Of 1881,
giving veterans of the revolution certG-
Gates for 1880 acres, repealed the law of
1879, which set apart the lands in Greer
county, one-half for the public schools
and one-half for the payment Of the pub
lie debt. "Under these Statutes" he
says, "when called to my attention,
ruled that Greer county, to the extent of
one-half its territory not appropriated for
common schools, was public domain, and
that the act setting it aside for public
DEBT was repealed, so far as it conficted
with the provisions of the act granting
veteran certificates"
A part Of the law which Mr.. Walsh is
discreetly silent upon, is the provision
for the survey OF Greer county, and the
separation of the school lands from the
public domain. No such survey has been
made, and no certificates, it seems, can be
fled until such survey is made. Other
wise, the spectators who have bought
up the veterans certificates may take up
the watered lands and the more desirable
part Of the county, leaving to the school
fund the arid, worthless and refuse land.
There are I ,62S,000 acres in Greer county,
which, divided between the public schools
and the public domain, allows each sl4,-
600 acres. But if the holders OF GER
tlfcates are allowed to enter now and file
ON $4,000 acres of the choice land, they
can Gull the county over and get the best
sections, and the 1000 acres left for the
schools will not be worth surveying. II
the law is followed as it was made, the
school fund cannot be despoiled by any
such scheme as that backed by the land
commissioner and it is the purpose of
the attorney general to Illustrate the plans
Of the men who hold the certificates that
they are now trying to locate IN Greer
county.