Fort Worth gazette. [volume] (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1891-1898, 1891-08-09

country Will Apply Win Almost equal
force to nonresident ownership gem
orally, whether the owners reside in Eng
land, or in New England, or even in distant
portions of Texas. AlIenism, per Sc, has
really little or nothing to do with the mat
ter, and the extent of alien ownership in
Northwest Texas does not probably equal
per rent Of the total amount Of lands owned
by non-residents.
How is it. then, that this act is Illuminated
against the aliens?
1t is easy to excite popular prejudice
against aliens capitalists and corporations.
Aliens are by MANY supposed to be pirates
and public enemies generally, even as the
other two are believed to be the natural and
mortal enemies Of poor men. The act is
really aimed at capitalists, corporations and
large landed ownership, but is restricted to
aliens, who form part of the object aimed
at, because they can more easily than the
others be reached and crippled by legisla-
ton. The Federal constitution says we
shall not deny to any citizen OF the United
States the rights Of property accorded to
our own citizens and we are not ready yet
10 limit the amount of land that we our
selves may own. Should cry be raised
that wearing high hats is dangerous to our
liberties. the legislature might chcerfulIv
pass law forbidding aliens TO wear them,
while heSitating to abridge the right Of our
own citizens in this respect.
What other laws have we akin to this
alien act!
Two years ago tie legislature passed an
act requiring that all sales of land made By
trustees under powers conferred By deeds
OF trust and mortgages, shall be made at
public vendue. after advertisement as re
quirUd by law for judicial sales. and in the
county where the land lies, or il it be in an
Uuorgauized county, then in the county 10
which such UaorgauiZed one IS attached for
Judicial purposes. You may have tract al
land situated in an unorganized county,
upon which you may wish an advance of
money. The judicial seat Of the county 10
which the one containing your land is at
tdched. may be an interior village, hun
drcd miles distant from your land, and il
may be largely to the convenience and the
interest Of lender and borrower alike that
the land be sold al some other place, or at
private safe. yet this law denies you the
right OF making such contract Of this kind,
ii relation 10 this property Of yours, as will
best promote your own interests and the
difference between what the property, in
such case, may bring at public sale, under
the law. and what il would otherwise have
brought, you are deprived OF almost as arbi-
trariiy rs though that amount Of money
were taken by force from your pocket.
1t seems likely that some borrowers have
improvidrntly, though of their own free
viii. made contracts with loan corporations
STIMULATING that sales of the mOrtgaged
property may be made in the counties where
the agent of the lender resides. After
wards they lave concluded that this feature
Of the contract was to their disadvantage
ana so the Inv is asked to make their future
contracts in this respect, for them-and
for rs besides. ConCodinG that there may
be improvldcDCe and disadvantage in ma
jOrity Of those contracts. 50 made by them.
why should other men be made to suffer
because thereof, and have the law interior
iug with their business! There is no ueCes-
alty for il. Every man not reasonably COM
peient to attend to his own business and to
make valid contracts IS entitled, upon ap-
picatiou made 10 a court by his family or
his friends. 10 have a guardian appointed 20
take charge or his property and make his
contracts for him. b. any one justly en-
UUcd to protection against his contracts
and his improvidcncc i'll borrowing money
and in making stipulations more favorable
10 the lender than himself, the law is
thoroughly able to accord the needed pro-
lection, without imposing restrictions upon
the business of others to their detriment;
and where parties thus protected against
themselves, upon their own profession of
IncumpetenCv, are not pauperS, such pro
lection should be at their own expense. and
not at the expense of others willing to rely
on themselves and 10 paddle their own
canoe.
The alien land law, equally with the other
act mentioned. is leVeied against capital
aud corporations, and the questions they
present are to be dealt with from this point
of view. Both acts are the offspring OF 4
somewhat prevalent belief that capital and
corporations are the enemies of the people
who may justly subject them by force Of
law to any arbitrary restriction whatever
Sometimes these restrictions can in some
way De made to bear most heavily on the
enemy, rs IN making 4 contract for the loan
% 4 - Il
crime in the lender alone, and not in the
borrower who gets the rlOny. As d rule.
however, these restrictive laws, TO be Of
fectual. must violate individual rights also,
Iud deny TO men the privilege of managing
their own private business in accordance
with their own judgment. Is capital really
such an enemy thatwe can afford to bite of
our nose to spite it, and throw down all the
bars that have hitherto protected Us against
the usurDatlons and tyranny of govern
ment. We may well shrink from the con-
sequences to which such folly will lead,
even if some good results should be the inn
mediate effect of this line of legislation we
are entering upon. 1t is folly. however, 10
expect any good results whatever from &C.
ton based upon wrong theory. The leg
iSlature cannot by arbitrary provision
change the natural laws of supply and de-
mand, OF trade and business, any more than
il can change the laws of nature and bring
Il month in advance of its regular time.
Business of every kind now languiShes for
want of capital here, and the crying evil of
this time is the need OF more money, and
the legislature undertakes TO help this situ-
alton by excluding capital, because, for
sooth, il comes from England, instead of
Yankee New England, where people are
praiuGiced toward the South by hundred
Years of political rivalry and sectional ami
moSltIeS. and whose interests upon the tar
if and other great financial questions are
antagonistic 10 our own.
While such empirical remedies only az
gravate our present evils, the future results
of such legislation will be even worse. In
this age and country ii is absolutely essen
tial to any ones success in life that he
should rely upon himself and act for him
self: and this kind of legislation, aside from
its injury TO the rights and interests of
others, viii not fail in its ultimate results
to prove detrimental even to those whom it
IS designed 10 protect. The law cannot
make all their contracts for them, nor re-
strain improvidence in all its protean
anything that he can and ought TO do for
himself: and the more it does of this kind
the more he relies on it and the less on him
self. His appeals 10 it for aid will double
and quadrupie with each concession, and
the man viii soon want the law to make all |
his contracts, and also to set aside all that |
he improvidently makes, and he will want
it TO fix the rent price ne Is TO pay for all |
other commodities, as well as for money;
and the price he is to receive for his labor, |