Fort Worth daily gazette. (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1882-1891, 1888-12-08
WHAT WILL BE DONE ABOUT FTP

WHAT WILL BE DONE ABOUT IT'2
The San Antonio Times, replying to
THE GAZETTE s advocacy of more lib
eral land policy in the interest Of the ae-
tual settler, says:
Every interest of West Texas and Of the Pan
handle demand amendment of the land laws, and
that amendment should be made by the Twenty
first legislature. The law which forfeits the
settlers purchase to the state for non-paynert
of interest on the very day it is due il harsh and
absurd. The state of Texas, which so firmly
protects man in his Homestead, is inconsistent
when it fails to facilitate the requirement of a
homestead. The land law should be amended.
Texas lands are SO cheap and the terms OF sale
accommodating that, in justice to the
whole people, the state should rigidly enforce
the laws. When man is allowed forty years in
which to pay for his home, and is charged only
a low rate of interest on the purchase price, and
then defaults in his payments, ne will not be
great public benefit to the state, and ought to
give up his place to some one who is more indus
trious and enterprising. OF course there are ex-
ceptions, but the general rule should be rigid
enforcement of our land laws, and they are very
good ones, too.
viii the Times answer this: Suppose
one private citizen should buy land of
another, on long time, giving several
notes to be paid at yearly intervals; sup
pose it were a condition of each of those
notes that the failure to pay interest on
all or either of them at stated time
should, ipso facto, work forfeiture to
the vendor of the land and all
the money paid upon it; suppose
that, after paying all of those notes but
one, the vendee should fail to make the
the interest payment upon that one ac-
cording to the terms of the contract,
does the Times believe that the vendor
could in good conscience claim the land
and retain all he had received upon it?
Does not the Times know that if such
o claim were pressed in court, the appli-
cant would be summarily kicked out with
the costs adjudged against him?
Does not the Times know that the usu-
rer who claims his unlawful interest be-
cause it is so nominated in the bond dares
law?
Can the Times point out any difference
between the financial policy of the Texas
land system and that of the usurer which
is not favorable to the usureri
AS moral question, which is
the more discreditable: to claim
unlawful interest or to
pocket the last farthing of an unfortu-
nate debtor who can not pay the interest
on what he owes, taking with it the
property out of which the debt arose?
If the policy of the state toward the |
men who are giving their all to its de-
yelopment be not system of legalized |
theft, then the ethics OF individual action |
and of government are two very different |
matters.
1t is not simply theory of the system |
of which the settlers complain. In |
the vaults of the state at Austin to-day, |
there are thousands of dollars represent |
ing the uttermost resources of men with |
large families to support, and the lands
upon which those moneys were paid are |
now held by the state, while the pauper-
lied families who once occupied them are
struggling for pitiful exis-
tence.
They were industrious, they were en-
terprising; but they were poor, aud,
being poor, they could not meet the re-
4uirements of the Texas land law.
THE GAZETTE says it regretfully, but 1t
declares what is known by all familiar
with the situation.to be a fact, that, except
under the most favorable local conditions,
poor men are SO handicapped in an effort
10 obtain q home on the public lands,
hat an alarmingly large number of them
ire endeavoring to sell their claims.
There is not land agent in the Panhan-
lie who cannot supply any number of
uch sections that may be desired.
The question is: What is the state go
ng to do about it?
4