Fort Worth gazette. [volume] (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1891-1898, 1892-02-18
of Warwick Clark Announcing
for Governor
A COMMISSION HERE TO STAY,
And He Bows to the viii of the People on the
Subject.
He Tells How He Would Change the Com
mission and What He Would Recon-
mend II Elected GoVernor-HiH in
New York and Tennessee.
Judge Clark Announces.


Eyes, am candidate for governor, and
you may so announce"
In reply to further questions as to the
probable issues of the campaign, he added?
There are plenty of issues, but the rail-
way commission is not one of them. The
people of Texas have decided, after mature
discussion, that our railways shall be
regulated by this method, and know of no
purpose on the part of anyone to question
the decision. My own opinion is
that the commission is here to
stay. and it is a back-number business to
discuss its advisability or utility. As a
Democrat, always bow to the viii of the
people. The opponents of the commission
idea had their day in court and lost the
case on appeal to the highest tribunal,
and they can accomplish nothing by kick
ing at the Judgment or even asking for a
rehearing,"
There are certain features of the com
mission law, however, that are proper sub
1ects for public criticism and discussion,
and furnish some living issues for the cam
paign. This law must stanG its trial before
the people this year, and they have a right
to know what is in it. The obnoxious feat
ures of that law, as they occur to me now,
are those provisions which give the COVER
nor the power of appointment, and
practically debar railroad companies
from the privilege of appealing to the courts
of the country for the protection of their
property This latter feature smells of
rank communism, and neither of them, as
they stand, reflect the matured views of
our Lawmakers. They are the spawn of
midnight conclave, and were foisted upon
the statute book under the lash of an
intolerant executive. The governor
Is alone responsible for depriving the
people of their right to select their agents
for the administration of justice, as he is
also responsible for those other provisions
of the law which trample under foot the
great principles of civil liberty as embodied
in Magma Chlrta and in both of our con-
situations, state and Federal He dictated
both aud refused to tolerate any modifca-
ton of either, as is well known to members
of the legislature And legislators yielded
their own judgment in order not TO jeopar-
die commission. If elected Ishall most
certainly recommend
/ That railway commissioners shall be
made elective, and that their responsibility
shall be to the people direct and to no
other authority. BY this method of selec-
ton no man will hereafter have the power
to manipulate and prostitute this purely
business agency to the accomplishment Of
his political and personal ends, aud the
people and the roads will have some as
surauce Of equal and exact justice to both.
~. That the provisions of sections 5, 6, A.
Is and Il should be so modified as to con-
form to the constitution aud the established
principles of civil liberty. 1t is monstrous
that in the closing years of the nineteenth
century the law-givers of Texas have seen
fit to build their laws upon principles
which disgraced the dark ages anterior
to Magma Charta. The right OF a free and
untrammeled appeal to the courts for pro-
lection of person and property is sacred
right, inuring TO prince and peasant alike
and equally; and the exercise cannot be
hampered or INSTRUCTED by pains and penal
ties. If elected governor, shall recon-
mend such notifications of these sections
as shall keep the courts of Texas open to
railroads, as they are to other persons; and
that investors. for any injury done them
In their property, shall have remedy by
due course of law, and shall not be COM
PEELED to litigate under the serious menace
OF absolute confscation.
This derial of justice in the courts and
the equal protection of the laws to great
interest has done more to place Texas in a
false attitude before the world than the
alien land law or any other law. And the
damage done was wholly unnecessary and
foolish in either case The mistakes are
attributable TO a dense ignorance of
the plairest principles of legislation
and government II cannot be q
difficult task for Texas to regulate
her railroads most efficiently by commits
sion, and to protect her people fully
againstthe conceded evils of great
landed estates and absentee lsndlordism,
without disturbing in any manner
the conservatism of business, or the
confidence of those wishing to invest among
U.s. The people of Texas are a great
PEOPLE, as they are just and liberal
people. They possess for the inheri-
lance of their children an imperial domain,