Fort Worth daily gazette. (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1882-1891, 1889-01-09
4 CONDITION, NOT A THEORY.

The Cleburne Enterprise states the last
argument of those who think that the
present land policy of Texas is liberal
enough toward the settler when it says:
The school lands are on the market at So an
acre on forty years time with only per cent.
interest. The settler that cannot comply with
these terms is not worth having.
The recent report of the land commits
sioner indicates that for every 100 settlers
who go upon the school lands, sixty
seven leave because of their inability to
comply with the terms of the law. The
question is, are those of the latter class
"worth having" is their departure loss
to the west and to the state? We believe
that it is, that they are victims, not of
shiftlessness, but of system that re-
quires more of them than is possible of
achievement.
Has the Enterprise ever stopped to con-
slider that what the state demands of the
settler upon the public domain is, save in
exceptional instances, physical NJ
possibility? 1t is of course well known
that those who seek homes ont Of the
public lands are invariably poor.
It may as well be admitted
that no other class viii undertake the
onerous task of developing new coun-
try. Men who have money with which
to purchase homes are not likely to seek
them far away from comfort and con-
yeniences of life. Can the Eloney!ess
and the homeless man acquire home out
OF the public lands of Texas under the
present land system? 1t is our convic-
ton, based upon the past results
of the system and upon complaints that
came to THE GAZETTE from actual SET
tiers in all parts of the west, that, ex-
cept under rare and extremely favorable
circumstances, such an effort must prove
a failure. We believe that whatever
permanent settlements are effected under
the existing policy viii come with the
second or third successor of the present
settler.
The Enterprise is not usually hassy or
unjust. Yet, if its judgment in this in
stance be correct, the farmers of johnson
county are not "worth having;' nor are
the farmers of Texas "worth having -
THE GAZETTE is willing that the farmers
of johnson, who are peculiarly favored
in climate and in soil, shall decide
whether or not, after clothing and feed
ing their families, educating their
children and paying taxes, they have
left a net profit of 5 per
cent. Unless they are prosperous far be-
yond their fellow farmers of other Sec
tons, the true rate Of profit is less than
half that sum.
Yet the actual settler in the west is
expected 10 do much better than that.
Without capital, credit or assistance, he
must build houses, stables and eorrals,
dig wells, build fences, buy machine
~ and work stock, prepare
raw land for cultivation, sup
port his family, educate his children
and pay taxes, besides the yearly con-
tribution to the state on his land pur-
chase; and to meet these various de-
mandS his only resource Is the yearly |
product of his little farm. The mere |
statement of the case shows the impossi-
bility of general settlement of the school /
lands under present conditions.
The best farms of Texas do not produce
what the settler is expected TO produce
out of untried lands and working under
the most unfavorable conditions. The
easy terms of the land law are de-
fusion that deceives even the careful |
home-seel1er until the yearly assessment
Of interest and principal begins. The
appalling list OF forfeitures tells of the
more foreibly than could Pc
titions or protests.
1t is condition, not theory, that
,onfroats the west. Whenever the school |