Fort Worth gazette. [volume] (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1891-1898, 1891-10-15
ALIEN LAND LAW.
PRODUCTIVE OF IMMEDIATE
DANGER TO THE STATE.
There Is in Texas Present or Future
Danger From misunderstanding
Folly of Such Legislation.
Editor Gazette.

| In measuring the WISDOM or the folly OF
the now famous alien land law we find two
distinctive lines of inquiry. l. The present
beneficial or evil consequences of the law.
2. Tie ultimate object of the law.
| In the writer's article published in your
| issue OF the 2lSt ultimo, attention was
given to the present consequences of the
| law. We find both from observation and
| reasoning on the matter that the immediate
| effect of the law is the serious embarrass-
| ment and probable rum of thousands of our
! citizens, the reduction of the present mad
| equate monetary circulation in Texas. an
| increase in interest rates, present check
| ing and future cramping of development,
| and the utter exclusion of foreign capital
| from our shores no matter how badly it
may be needed to advance the substantial
| prosperity of our state. These various
| consequences, Singly and in combination,
| will necessarily and inevitably work to
| Texas present and permanent injury of In
| conceivable magnitude,
| We apprehend that neither the author of
| the law nor any one of its warmest advo-
Gates will dare deny that the law. as it now
| stands, will be far-reaching in its immedi-
| ate disastrous consequences. Should any
| man be possessed of such abnormal
temerity, the facts and circumstances now
existen, will furnish food of adverse evil
| dence in which he must inevitably become
| hopelessly submerged.
there is Their case proved against the law
and based upon the general welfare of the
state which seems to be impregnable in its
strength. Unless this attack on the law
can be met-unleSs ii can be shown that
there is future good to result from this
law OF greater magnitude and as far-reach-
ing in operation as are the immediate evils
of the law. then this law must pass into
history as the outgrowth of political lunacy
and legislative rashness.
Some of the friends of the law seem
imbued with the idea that every dollar of
British gold'' loaned in Texas brings with
it kind of financial miasma; that it is the
advance agent of desolation and woe, the
harbinger of war, peStilence and famine"
One friend of the law actually used the
words quoted, applying them to another
country.
So the political matador waves the red
cloth until the legislative bull with much
believing an paving of dirt with lowered
head and steam emitting nostrils, rushes
at the lenders of foreign oney with an
alien land law and gores-Texas.
The lenders stand gracefully aside, collect
their money, retire from our midst, while
Texas writhes and bleeds upon the horns of
our alien land law.
1t seems to have been generally assumed
that Texas needed protection from the dan
gers of landlordism. Mr.. Rogan tells us
1.-The evils of landlordism had all been
enumerated and exposed two weeks prior
to that time" (The passage of the bill.)
Nearly every man who has written or
spoken in favor of the law. gives this mon
ster landlordism as Justification of the
ubiquitous law. Let US cast aside the finn
siness of far-fetched theory and look the
facts squarely in the face.
Is there at present any danger of land
lordism in TeXasl
There is not.
r iic,, io tic Il ,,lo
as it exists in England and ireland, has
never obtained in any age of the world nor
in any country where there did not first exist
a concentration of large bodies of land in
the hands of the few. The very possibility
of lardlordism as used by the friends of this
law invariably rests upon land monopoly as
foundation, and IN the absence OF such
monopoly the various evils of Irish land
lordism cannot exist. The friends Of the
law are Gefed to point to any country in any
age of the world which will furnish an ex-
ception to this fundamental principle. The
conditions in Texas to-day are almost the
reverse of land monopoly.
Land capable of producing $50 in cotton
per annum and lying within ten miles of
cities can be bought now at $50 and SIS per
acre. There lies in Texas many millions Of
good, unimproved land; at present surplus
land. If Texas is not to-day confronted
with the conditions of land monopoly. she
landlordism, and there is no need whatever
for the law as regards any present dangers,
and if needed at all it is solely for the pur-
pose of providing in advance against dam
ger which may or may not arise sometime in
the distant future.
Here now is law, the immediate effect
of which is inconceivably injurious TO our
state at large, seeking to provide against 4
danger which at present does not exist \
law which draws the life blood out of our
financial body, which will check railroad
building and also every line of industrial
growth, which will ruin thousands of
farmers in Western Texas who have bought
lands on time, and thousands of men in our
cities who have bought homes on credit,
whose lien notes are now held by foreign
loan companies, which will give Texas fifty
years of retrogression, which is aclnowl-
edged even by some members who voted for
it to be hurtful.
In compensation for all this wreck and
ruin. this wholesale evil. what benefit does
this law offer US! 1t offers protection against
landlordism by prohibiting aliens from ac-
quiring title to really in Texas. Seriously
speaking, Texas may apprehend as much
present danger from alien landlordism as
from an invasion by the wild men of Borneo.
This is no Jest: ii is truth.
The writer desires neither to censure nor
offend any man who voted his convictions
on the passage of this bill, but a decent re-
gard for our own convictions compels the
remark that, among the records of legisla-
tion this law rears its head aloft as verita-
BILE obelisk OF folly, and if allowed to remain
in its present shape it will stand upon our
statute books 4 permanent Brutus stab at
the DEVELOPMENT of our state.
No reasonable man will refuse to admit |
the folly OF legislation followed by imme- |
date evil consequences seeking to provide |
against danger which does not now exist, |
unless there be not only great probability |
that this danger will arise in the future but |
also reasonable certainty that the evils of |
this prospective danger will exceed the |
evils of the present legislation. /
This law must go on record as colossal |
folly. unless there be such probability of |
future landlordism in Texas as indicated |
above. AS this condition depends primarily !
upon land monopoly, the practical question
right here land the pivot upon which the
wisdom or the folly Of this law turns) is,
What are the chances that state of land
may obtain in Texas2
An exhaustive study of this important
question leads the writer to the clear con-
clusion that land monopoly in Texas is
practical impoSSibility. For centuries the |
law of primogeniture obtained in Great
Britain. Under the law the entire landed
property descended to the eldest son. The |
natural consequence as well as purpose of
this law was to keep large bodies of land
intact and 10 increase them in magnitude,
thus perpetuating the power Of the nobility. !
We can readily understand how such a law |
would not only maintain a land monopoly !
where it was already created, but would
even have tendency to create a land