The record-union., 1891-08-15

sane assaults upon corporate and indus
trial interests, as was true in fact, then
the punishment the State is taking is de-
served, and will prove corrective.
But the intellectual and mental char
acter of the Legislature, it is safe to say,
needs elevating. 1t is certainly true in
this State. Our Legislatures, in point of
the personal ability of the membership,
have not for several years been on the
upgrade. In most of the far Western
States Of the Union the legislative per-
sonnel is not abreast with the general in
telligence. We are no longer selecting as
lawmakers our best men, and we cannot
therefore expect to reap good fruit of the
labor of houses made up largely Of in
competents. That is to say, we select
men to do the most important business
commonwealth can engage in whom, as
a rule, we would not choose to manage
private affairs Of corresponding i'm
portance.
run riot in the Legislatures in recent
years, and that discrimination against
useful corporations created under the
law has been merciless and foolish.
These assaults have discouraged capital,
Kept out investors, and generally have
been menaces to capital. No State his
tory discloses any gain by such lines of
policy. The imposition Of undue bur-
| dens, the exactions of prejudice and the
restraints that are born of the COM
munistic idea, drive out capital, check
investment, paralyze industries and in
| tiict upon the State heavy losses. Money
will not engage itself in enterprise where
the local sentiment is one of hostility.
The hostility is largely cultivated by
politicians who wish to gain by black
mailing corporations on one side and
contesting capital with loud-mouthed
| platitudes about the defense of the peo-
pies rights for purposes of political ad-
vancement on the other hand. This is
done by the vote-catching and wire-pull-
ing scheming of low and conscienceless
politicians who fringe all Legislatures of
new States
Texas has INDUCED in legislative err
rors of this order sufficient to work her
commercial interests serious injury, and
the idea is now obtaining that the return
path to reason and justice must be taken.
All the schemes that were to injure
| aggregated capital have failed The bene-
| fits that were to flow from such antag-
onistic legislation have not been realized,
and with business stagnation threatening
her, Texas now proposes to undo the
evil. Trade is to be fostered, capital con-
| served, with just regulation of corpora
| tlons, and foreign investors invited to re-
enter. But will they do so? What as
surance has money outside of the State
| that If it turns its energy to industrial and
commercial activity within it that it will
be free from future causeless assault?
The only assurance the people can give
is to be found in the improvement of the
personnel of the legislative body. There
must be put into it more of brains and high
mindedness, more of wisdom and states
manship and foresight. Men whose hori-
IONS are broader and whose capacity and
craftsmanship will enable them to labor
for State interests without driving from
them material support must be sent up to
make the laws. The people who elect
legislators deserve all the evils that fol-
low the i'll choosing. Texas is harvest
ing what she has sown, and if she does
not profit by the experience she is now
gaining, she will not be deserving of pity.