Fort Worth gazette. [volume] (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1891-1898, 1891-07-05
ALIEN LAND LAW.
No Chinese Wall Should be
Built Around Texas.
LET MONEY COME IN FREELY.
A General Belief that There Will be q
Special Session, Because IL is Badly
Needed-Governor Hogg Will
Examine the Iaw.
Special TO the Gazette.


one, so far as heard from, doubts that law
properly framed to prevent land perpetui-
ties in the hands of aliens would DE i
wholesome law. There is general unanim-
ity on that point. The feature of the
law that has the effect of expelling foreign
money AMI preventing its return, is the
objectionable one. About that all sorts OF
people are talking. and talking earnestly
! too The harm of 1t is too patent, too real
and tangible to leave any room for doubt.
At best the supply of money is but meager.
If this law shall he permitted to stand. it
will be still less. In the present situa-
ton of affairs in the state, worse
measure could hardly have been enacted.
| Who are clamoriug louQest for more money!
The farmers, as everybody knows. Have
| not their spokesman. figured out to 7 the
per capita of money in circulation, and
found that it is hardly L 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" 1t is the shibboleth of every state,
| sub and county Alliance. They all talk,
preach, pray and resolute about it and for
| it. 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. It is first, and sec
ond is nowhere. But az the very moment
| when the honest sons OF toll, the patient
and long-sutfering farmers, began to feel
| most keenly ana TO talk lOudeSt about the
dearth of currency in the land. jump, comes
| the Legislature with well-meaning 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 law that is bound 10 diminish the sup
! ply further still. II is a 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 ana unperceived. On the contrary
| 1T is MOST ABRUPT,
sudden and telling The effect may be COM
! pared to that experienced by man whose
| supply of food has been suddenly reduced
onc.half. The result soon shows itself on
| his shrunken features and hollow sides.
! This alien land law stops all at once the
| stream of foreign money that has been
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 mul-
titudinous industries springing up every
| where within her borders. OF course,
| soma 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, 1t would, perhaps,
| lend their money don't 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
- L a
across the Atlantic as freely as
the trade winds. A bill intended to
| check its free movement, as the
| NJ ckinley bill does the movement of COM
| mercial articles, would consign the Trainer
10 merIted perditi0n. No congressman
could survive the odium which the advO
cacy OF such measure would draw upon
him. And yet the effect i'll this state of the
alien land law is precisely that which would
result from a Federal measure of the charac-
ter alluded to. So far as Texas is concerned
4 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 circumstance TO it.
Now, is such law parallel with common
| sense and the exicencies OF the hour, or is
| it at cross purposes with both2 Clearly and
lnmistakably the latter. To prevent alien
ownership of land does by no means
involve the necessity of forbidding
| among US. The two things are clearly dis
tinct and no way contingent on or related
to each other. Public opinion
SEES TIE DIFFERENCE CLEARLY,
for while it encourages and welcomes the
| money, it frowns OIL and condemns alien
ownership. If the alien must take the
land held as as security for his
of years in which TO dispose OF it, so as to
avoid sacrifice. That is all he asks. and
the least that honest men could or would
propose. Such limitation would be as
efTectual bar against alien ownership as
the Gossett law, and still leave the way
ton OF foreign money. AS has
been said before, IL is about
the only thing of dire need, with 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 it. 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 III Texas is an old oun, as
the birth of the republic itself when the
idea YVES imbedded in the organic law.
Exceptions were made only in favor Of the
men who came from the states and fought
for Texas independence. There wes no
money with which to pay them,
NOTHING But LAND,
and it was agreed that they should
be paid in that. But not other
wise could aliens, anda the people OF
Louisiana were in those days as much
aliens as the subjects OF the British crown
own land in Texas. The policy of opposit-
ion to alien ownership is therefore nothing
new in Texas, but opposition to alien money
is, and very repreheusible too.
The notion is general that there will be a
al Af l..rr ,e,r.a
Almost everyone comedies it Not
that anyone has any definite
information on the subject for no one has.
The need for it is so apparent that but few
doubt the governors ultimate intention to
call it. The knowledge that it IS badly
needed. prompts the belief that it will be
called. That the amendment of the alien
land law should be embraced among the
items of the call goes without saying.
What the governor thinks about
the GOssett bill, is not known.
In fact he does not know
himself, as he has not, or had not day or
two ago, examined it. Until doing SO care
fully, he could not be said to have an opin-
ion on the subject. He does not favor alien
ownership, but had no knowledge of the
effect of the law on foreign money. That
feature of the law would call for examina-
ton at his hands before venturing an
opinion.
Prince George of Greece.
NEW York, July 4-Prince George Of
Greece left a. very favorable impression.