Fort Worth gazette. [volume] (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1891-1898, 1891-07-09
ALIEN LAND LAW.
No Chinese Wall Should be
Built Around Texas.
LET MONEY COME IN FREELY.
A General Belief that There VIII be a
Special Session, Because Ii is Badly
Needed-GOvernOr Hogg Will
Examine the Law.
Special TO the Gazette.

ties IN the hands OF aliens would be a
wholesome law. There is general unanin-
ity on that point. The feature of the
law that has the effect Of expelling foreign
money and preventing its return, is the
Objectionable one. About that all sorts of
people are talking. and talking earnestly
too. The harm of it is too patent, too real
and tangible TO leave any room tor doubt.
At best the supply OF money IS but meager.
II this law shall be permitted 10 stand, II
will be still less In the present situa-
ton of affairs in the state, wol Sc
measure could hardly have been enacted.
WHO are clamoring loudest for more money!
The farmers. as everybody knows. Have
not their spokesman figured out 10 a L the
per capita of money il circulation, and
found that it is hardly a third of the
sum needed? The great cause Of all the
agitation in this and other states at the
present hour is
THE QUESTION OF MORE MONEY.
From President Polk and DR. - Macune
TO Methodist Jim Davis the cry is more
money" II is the shibboleth of every state,
sub and county Alliance. They all talk,
preach. pray and reSolute about 1t and for
1t. Every other question has been side
tracked for that alone. II has right Of way
over tariff reform even or the question of
cheaper transportation. 1t is first, and sec
ond is nowhere. But at the very moment
when the honest sons of toll. the patient
and long-suffering farmers. began TO feel
most keenly and 10 talk loudest about the
dearth of currency il the land, jump, comes
the legislature with a well-meaniug but
badly conceived measure, whose effect is to
drive out of the state several mill
ions of dollars badly needed here. The
Lord knows the supply of money IN the
state at present is short enough. But here
is i law that is bound to diminish the sup
ply further still. 1t is more radical and
abrupt species of contraction than any con
ceived or executed in past Years by the
Republican party. Its effect is not gradual
stealthy and uuperceived. On the contrary
IT IS MOST ABRUPT,
sudden and telling. The effect may be Gem
pared 10 that experienced by man whose
supply of food has been suddenly reduced
one-half The result soon shows itself on
his shrunken features and hollow sides.
This alien land law stops all at once the
coming into the state, not for the pur-
pose of buying up land, but to
be loaned to Texas citizens for
their uses and ends, such as
the building of factories, railroads, devel-
Oping her magnificent resources, and pro-
noting in divers and sundry ways the null
titUdinouS industries Springing up every
where within her borders. OF course,
some security must be given, something
that can't burn up or be stolen. That some
thing must be land. There is no other ac-
ceptable security TO be given. If
there was, it would, perhaps,
be taken instead of land. The aliens who
lend their money don want the land. They
are after the interest merely. Money is the
only alien commodity, excepting quinine
and few other articles, IN which
THERE is FREE TRADE.
There is no Chinese wall erected against its
ingress. There is no tariff on it Ii flows
across the Atlantic as freely as
the trade winds \ bill intended to
check its free movement, Us the
NJ cKinley bill does the movement of COM
mercial articles, would consign the Trainer
to meuted perdition. No congressman
could survive the odium which the advo-
caCy of such a measure would draw upon
him. And yet the effect in this state Of the
alien land law is precisely that which would
result from u Federal measure of the charac-
ter alluded TO. So far as Texas is concerned
q Chinese wall is raised against foreign
money, wall far higher than any built up
by the tariff. The duty on tin plate and
pearl buttons is not a circumstance to it.
Now. is such law parallel with common
sense and the eXigencieS OF the hour or is
it at cross purposes with both2 Clearly and
the latter. To prevent alien
ownership of land does by no means
involve the necessity of forbidding
the advent OF English and Scotch money
among US. The two things are clearly dis
tinct and no way contingent on or related
to each other. Public opinion
SEES THE DIFFERENCE CLEARLY,
for while it encourages and welcomes the |
it frowns on and condemns alien |
ownership. If the alien must take the |
land held as security for his
of years in which TO dispose of it, so as to |
avoid a sacrifice. That is all he asks and |
the least that honest men could or would |
Such n limitation would be as |
cffectual bar against alien ownership as |
the Gossett law, and still leave the way |
open for the free and untrammeled circula- |
ton Of ala foreign money As HAS has
the only thing of dire need, with n few ex- |
ceptions. in which we have absolute free |
trade. We ought to take good care that no
restrictions or embarrasSmentS of any sort |
be put upon il. In other words, we should |
follow the principles of Democracy in oppos
ing all such injurious restrictions and con-
fractions as are found in the Gossett law.
The idea of prohibiting alien ownership of
land IN Texas is an old onn. as
The birth of the republic itself when the
idea WIS imbedded in the organic law.
Exceptions We're made only in favor of the
men who came from the states and fought |
for Texas independence. There was no
money with winch 10 pay them,
NOTHING But LAND.
and it was agreed that they should
be paid in that. But not other
wise could aliens, and the people of
Louisiana We're in those days as much
aliens as the subjects OF the British crown
own land in Texas. The policy of opposit-
on TO alien ownership is therefore nothing
new in Texas, but opposition 10 alien money
5, and very rcprehensible too.
The notion is general that there will be
special session of the legislature |
Almost everyone comedies it. Not
hat anyone has any definite
Information on the subject for no one has.
The need for it is so apparent that but few
ioubt the governors ultimate intention TO
all it. The knowledge that it is badly
needed. prompts the belief that ii will be
allied. That the amendment of the alien
and law should be embraced among the
tens of the call goes without saying.
What the governor thinks about
he Gossett bill, is not known.
n fact he does not know
himself, as he has not, or had not a day or
wo ago. examined it, Until doing SO care
lilly he could not be said to have an opin-
on on the subject. He does not favor alien
but had no knowledge of the
feet of the law on foreign money That
eature of the law would call for examina-
ion at his hands before venturiug an