Fort Worth weekly gazette. [volume] (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1882-1891, 1890-11-27
SOME GEORGEISMS.
He Sees the Sights at the State Capitol,
and Entertains His Entertainers.
Ths Hall Of Representatives Too Large-He
Would Abolish the Senate-His Rea-
sons Given-Cap!ta! Notes.

Special Correspondence OF the Gakette.
AUSTIN, TEX, Nov. 20.-'lt is en-
tirely too large.
Such was the exclamation of Henry
George as he entered the hall Of the
representatives in the capitol the other
day, while being shown around by q
committee OF entertainers. He was not
surprised to hear that the acoustic
properties OF the hall are bad, very bad :,
and require the use Of hangings, sus-
pended from the ceiling to partly correct
the deficiency in that particular. He
then went on to say that the nall is a
third larger than that of the English
house of commons with its $50 members.
Utility has been sacrificed to grandeur OF
effect and immensely Of size. He a l.
mired the building very much, however.
inside and outside, and only found fault
with the size of the two legislative halls,
which should have been abridged. In
deed, he went 90 far rs to say that the
senate cham Der might better be abolished
altogether.
WhRt,' he was asked, ''wOu!d you
do that for. Mr.. George?'
lating for the people. There is no need
at ull for senate. 1t is nothing more
than relic, or copy of the English
house of lords. which Is now nothing
more than al ornamental body, and may
not be that very long.
els that the only reason why you
would abolish the senate?''
''No, not the only one. There I. an
other aud better one, which is that it
divides responsibility and abstracts the
attention of the public. How often does
q member of one house vote for "A bill
feeling or hoping that it will be killed in
the other, and vice versa. The tendency
between both bodies is very often 10
shoulder responsibility from one to the
other, or, in the lingo OF the day, to put
each other in the hole. In such cases
the popular eye lie fixed on neither, and
frequently the popular mind is puzzled
to know where responsibility for error
lies. A single body charged with full
responsibility would answer every pur-
pose better than two. For the same
reason l would have the governor make
his appointments without the advice and
consent of the senate or any other body.
There should be no dividing up OF re-
sponsibility. 1t he makes a bad appoint
men;, he anu he alone would have to
shoulder the blame and stand account
able to the people for it,
lu this wise aid he discourse for some
time while seeing the sights, entertain
ing his entertainers with, if not novel,
at least striking aud somewhat singular
and independent views of men and
things. He did not fan to impress his
hearers with the idea that he is, root
and branch, refOrmer, or az some who
heard him think, revolutionist. His
presence III this state has brought out the
fact that the number of those who have
read his books, and are familiar with his
land-tax theory. is quite large, larger,
it must be confessed than the number of
those who are disposed TO agree with
HIM, or even to tolerate his system.
He created u good deal of merriment
in HE lecture here by reading from the
comptroller's report some figures show
ing the amount of "money on hand, - as
given by tine assessors in a few COUNTIES.
The county of Blanco had nearly doubled
the amount found by the assessor in
Travis, and Colorado county farmers had
a great deal more than the wealthy
county of Dallas. These figures were
cited in proof of the statement that the
wealthy manage somehow to evade the
tax collector, while tine poorer classes
are left to hold the bag.
Applications for offices and places con-
tinua to pour in to the governor elect,
who gives u patient hearing to the vari-
Gus delegations that call daily to present
the claims OF favorite aspirants. Never,
however, is there any lntimation given
to anyone or to his friends of how he
stands with the appointing power. All