San Antonio daily light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1886-1907, 1892-03-03
TEXAS NEEDS HORSE SENSE.

ENAS FNGISS
There Is no doubt that under the
existing political condition, whateve
of good or i'll comes to this state
through legislative enactments and
administrative directions must come
through democratic channels. 1t Is
also true that the state is carrying a
fearful load of burdensome and use
less legislation, aud that there Is
little or no prospect of any change
for the better so long as the present
administration remains in power.
Were this merely a republican opin.
ion it might be attributed to party
prejudice and the natural hostility of
political opposition, and dismissed
from consideration on this ground.
Such however Is not the case. The
severest critics of the existing con-
ditions are democrats, who do not
hesitate to charge upon the party
leaders who are now in power the re-
sponsibility for the evils under which
the state is suffering. These evils
are: paternalism Of the most offs sive
character; legislation inimical to
the business interest of , the
state; an interference with the
carrying trade of the corpora
lions that have invested their mill
lions in railway lines within the state
limits; an utter disregard of the
rights of free labor, which under
present laws, leasing c~onvicts, is
brought into competition with the en-
forced labor of the state prisons; per-
sistent neglect Of the highways OF the
state, for the improvement of which
the legislature has positively refused
to make any adequate provision; q
cumbersome code of laws, made in
m my instances to be broken, judgir G
from the utter contempt into which
they have fallen; an executive who,
promising to strictly enforce the ex'
isting laws for the prevention of
crime, has been conspicuous for the
failure of his interferences with the
ordinary course of justice In the GRIM
inal prosecutions of the courts. These
are some of the evils complained of,
and most bitterly complained of by
those who n or two years since
were the strong supporters Of the state
administration. The alien land law,
the fatal defects of which escaped the
notice of the governor, and drove mil
lions of capital away from the state
before the supreme court declared it's
unconstitutionality, is an example
Of . righteous measure perverted to
unrighteous ends through legislative
stupidity and executive ineficiency.
The whole drift of legislative and sd-
ministrative influence is unprogress-
i've, retrogressive in fact if not In in
t~ention, rests as an incubus on the
energies of the state, debars enter
prise and capital from seeking q field
here, and in q thousand unseen ways
initiates against it's prosperity. The
remedies for this condition of things
lie within the democratic party and
nowhere else. The republican party
has no voice in the legislation of
Texas, and this is a misfortune that
the state is laboring under. There is a
revolt against the existing order, led
by n Of the strongest democrats
of the state. What it will amount to
cannot be known. II the democracy
of Texas have good horse sense they
will SET that the protest now being
made to the state being kept in
swaddling clothes, Is not a futile one.