The Austin weekly statesman. (Austin, Tex.) 1883-1898, 1888-04-05
HISTORY oPA LAW SUIT.
Twas a law suit that did give
Sweetest pleasures while l lived;
Twas a law suit that supplied
A solid corpus when | died.
AN UNTIMELY BLUSDER.

A suit hes been filed by Attorney
General Hogg, the theory of which, If
admitted, will affect and cloud the title to
probably 2O,OOO,OOO acres of Texas land.
He holds that the constitutional pro-
vision of 1875, that set aside an undivided
one half of the public domain for school
purposes, and the enactment of the legis-
lature following that has always been CON
sidered as merely giving force and effect
to that constitutional provision, are Two
entirely separate and distinct laws. That
the act of the legislature will give another
quarter of the public domain to the
schools, so that under this yersion OF the
declarations of the constitution and
laws, the public schools VIII
receive three fourths and not one
half of the entire public DOMAIN
As matter of law and construction we
cannot agree that the point is well TAKEN
nor do we think it would hold in the courts
And, "a a matter of common justice and
expediency, we think the setting up OF
such claim at this late day would work
an objectionable and irreparable injury
upon thousands of innocent purchasers
who have been invited into Texas, who
have bought our public lands, have spent
money in improving them, and many OF
WON have all their earthly possessions
d up in their small farms and ranches.
the attorney-general is right, these
eople must either be turned out OF doors
or they must pay the second time for the
lands they have once honestly bought and
in good faith settled upon. Such propo-
sition is monstrous, the state can
far better lose the ten mil
lion acres of land, her one
half of the estimated sales that Mr..
Hogg says have enormously been made,
than be guilty of hslping to perpetrate
such wrong upon her citizens.
Again, in the light of expediency, such
suit at this time would be rninlous to
the state, as she is making earnest and
systemmatic efforts to induce immigra-
ton to her lands. What faith can per-
sons foreign to our state have in tn, sta
bility of our land laws? What reliance can
they place in the permanency of any pos
sessions they may acquire under these
laws, when they see twenty millions of
acres of land swept into litigation, on
technicality, and that after ten or
twelve years of possession have elapsed!
Such proceeding at this time, would
completely blight all hopes of i'm
migration. 1t would bs as rash
as it is unne cessary, as fatally wrong in
policy as it would be disastrous in results.
The attorney general has been too eager
TO act; he has not calculated the cost; he
can not, nor especially the state can not,
afford to take such step upon any one
mans cons ruction of the law when such
vital and stupendous issues are at stake
If he thought the state was losing or had
lost ten million acres of land by their
being diverted from the school fund, and
this because of an apparent difference be-
tween the constitution and the statutes,
would it not have been better for him to
have returned the question to the legisla-
ture for its Interpretation rather than
throw the land laws into utter confusion
and cast suspicion on the title to twenty
million acres of land by recklessly hurting
the question into the courts? The governt l
and the entire administration are bound
up in this issue the encouragement has
made. The state can not afford to have
this ominous cloud of title hanging over
its lands and frightening away home seek
ers, actual settlers, immigrants from Other
states. The governor has not yet issued
his call for an extra session; then he
should by all means embody in that cal
this important question of what the lezis
iSture meant by its act, whether it w {
nerely to put the constitution into effect
or if it added another quarter of the pub
lie domain to the school fund. This ques.
ton is more important than the surplus
IL means, if not settled, terribly black
eye for the state it means no immigra
ton for many years to come. The gov
ernor can not Justly omit this matter in
his call for an extra session of the legis
Iatura