Fort Worth gazette. [volume] (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1891-1898, 1891-09-24
THE ALIEN LAND LAW.
VIEWED IN THE LIGHT OF INDUS
TRIAL ExPEOiENCY.
Alien Ownership If a Danger at All Is Only
ProspectiveIy Remote-Inj urious
Consequences
Editor Gazette.

uS CitdSdNoA W SGb uoH Ii W lLC uCCp, SOoSi
comprehensive reason of the matter.
A state is in the best condition when 1t
has attained that plane in which its citizens
experience in the greatest freedom the
varied privileges and blessings of individ-
ual and general progress in its proper
sense. Progress is here considered COM
PROGRESSIVELY and is intended to include
moral, educational and every class of indus
trial development.
The true welfare of the citizen, constitut-
ing in the aggregate the general welfare, is
the science and the song of all wise legisla-
ton. How best to plant, water, culture
and prune the tree of general prosperity and
happiness has been the perplexing problem
confronting the law-maker in all ages of
the world.
1t Is necessarily obvious to all thinking
minds that no state, even though it may
achieve a high moral and educational devel-
opment, can ever attain the best
prosperity in the absence of commensur-
ate industrial growth, including its agri-
culture, its factories of all kinds, its ways
of transportation, its commerce, its mining
and its finances, as aiding and aided by these
preceding elements. All of these must de-
velop sufficiently to meet the demands of
public necessity and convenience or there
will necessarily follow a restriction or
cramping of general progress and pros
perity, thus causing partial destruction OF
happiness. This contraveres the very fun
damental purpose of political government.
These three elements of a states welfare
are closely interlined, and each is measura-
bly, dependent upon the other The intelligent
reader will not fail to realize that stunted
industrial development in state will in
some degree have tendency to contract its
moral and educational growth.
More than either OF the other two ele-
ments, industrial development depends up
on broad, comprehensive legislation COM
mensurate with the day in which we live,
and, as applied to Texans, wisely adapted
to the conditions existing in Texas to-day.
The almighty dollar in the hands of edu-
Gated intelligence is the lite-blood of indus
trial progress. With the necessary capital
industries of every character will come in
TO being in obedience to the pulsative
law of general requirement and
will increase in magnitude and
number in strict compliance with the neces-
sary demands of an extending public devel-
opment. But the capital is indispensably
necessary. 1t matters not how great the
demand nor how rapidly public necessities
may increase, without adequate capital in
dustrial progress must be wholly or pan.
TALLY throttled. Without argument it viii
be admitted that state or q nation with
q cralnped industrial development on which
the welfare and happiness of its citizens SO
complishing all the benefits to be reason
ably expected of the science Of true govern
mSnt.
The alien land law issue does
not appear to involve Immediately
any principle of politics or government, as
seems to be the impression Of some people,
but to the writer it appears to be cues
ton solely of economic expediency, depend
ing wholly on the existing industrial condi-
tiOnS in Texas TODAY
Texas has not attained its manhood as q
state 1t has many years of growth ahead
before it will reach its majority. Judged
from every industrial standpoint. Texas is
only partially developed. Texas needs
thousands Of miles of railroads. she has
millions of acres over which the steam
whistle has never shriesed; she has millions
of acres of magnificent agricultural lands
yet undeveloped, which can be converted
into land flowing with the milk
and honey of rich prosperity.
She needs hundreds and hundreds of facto-
ries of many kinds to convert her raw ma
terial into the manufactured article; she
needs millions to develop her vast mineral
deposits; she needs millions infused into
the arteries of business, in its various lines,
giving additional strength and vigor to the
pulsations of the commercial heart. She
needs money to lay brick upon brick, stone
upon stone rearing beautiful and substan-
Illl eullCeS SulJdUic W lllS ucIuduuS VI DuSI-
ness, improving and adjoining our cities and
giving employment to thousands who earn
their bread by the sweat Of the brow.
1t requires millions of money in
Texas today to enable the indus
trial development to keep pace with
the broadening demands of public con-
venience and necessity. If this be not done,
the people are hampered in their individual
and general progress, and the development
of the state will be cramped just in proper
ton as industrial development fails to keep
pace with the enlargement of public need.
There is law of economic equilibrium
permeating this question, which cannot be
violated except at the expense Of Texas.
Give Texas legislation properly adjusted. to
the conditions and needs of the hour, with
a judiciouS enforcement thereof, and these
various economic problems involved in the
substantial welfare Of a state will work
themselves out to the satisfaction
of her warmest admirers. The
unsatistied craving for something higher
and nobler implanted in human nature by
Deity itself. aided by the comprehensive
fettered by unwise legislation, will achieve
our industrial and political salvation. This
inward and ceaseless longing in the human
heart for something better, something
higher, has been a potential factor in ele-
waiting mankind from the ignorance and
brutality of the cave-dwellers Of the stone
age to the enlightened civilization of to-day |
This inherent upward tendency. which is
characteristic of the Caucasian, |
aided by our present advantages and oppor- |
tunities and unchilled by deleterious |
legislation, will result in de- |
veloped civilization and prosperity of |
which we to-day may scarcely dream. But |
On the reverse, give Texas legislation which |
forges legal letters about her industrial |
limbs and her growth will surely be checked |
for the present and hampered for the !
future exactly in proportion as the supply |
If available capital is inadequate to the de- |
nands Of industrial development. and the |
welfare and progress of her citizens will be |
diminished and cramped just in the same |
ratio that industrial development falls short |
If the actual needs Of the state.
The writer propounds to the common
sense of the reader this question:
Is money too plentiful in Texas to-day?
If rot, how much less so will 1t be when |
he s45, 600, 600 of foreign money now loaned !
n Texas is withdrawn from the state?
Under the present alien land law, not only |
will this vast sum be withdrawn from cir
'ulation in Texas, but all foreign money |
will hereafter be practically barred from
Texas.
Money we must have
The factor of competition being in part
destroyed, Eastern money will then be in
position to demand the highest interest per-
nitted under the law, whereas, with our
rates open to all investors, the supply of
money would be vastly larger, and the rate
# interest, in obedience to the well eetab
ished law of supply and demand, would
'e cheaper than we have any right
,nyv Tn avnArt T1DIar ha Ia |