Fort Worth gazette. [volume] (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1891-1898, 1892-03-24

:
/ internal Improvement, OF whic h'f- was
/ chairman aided IL the preparatn " the
| commission bill The assertiolth; the
| law was prepared at executive et1 n is
utterly untruel The version siv, by
| Judge Clark of his Efforts to cet 18th
myself and other members OF Il Ia
ture, IS equally misleading Ad las
been denied over the signaturUo he
signatures OF the members of tlefe a.
ture whose names he gives. Reg in is
efforts to make peace, as he tet he
was recognized as q lobbyist for Is
during the last legislature, and /
oers who met him in conferenodts |
among themselves beforehand
would express no views, but e5tai2nn |
bic an inspection of a commission I-4Y
they learned he had prepared, col
might be able to know its earmainn
vance as the WORK of the railrcsn
failed to produce his bill, and tha(csi
end of it ian
An APPoINTTvE COMMISSION Id
Never was q bill moro CAREFUL o.
cred than your commission law, 9rIA
exists. and the aPpointive feature
as now, the chief point OF attack ~
consider it.
No man in Texas legislature q
lected to any commission bill whiO1
the appointment to the governor, VI the
last session, when Judge Clark made the
i
great pity that Cla.ssk could not have been
consulted in framing the Federal constitu-
t'on, anS still more recently when the state
CONSTITUTION was made, so that a little
more Democracy could have been placed in
both instruments. Let US see. The presi-
dent of the United States appoints the
treasurer of the Union, and your secre-
taries of the war and navy, and can remove
them at will. Thus the purse and sword
are united in the hands of one man. Under
your state constitution, the governor APP
points your acknowledgement who directs
the state forces in the field, and can remove
him at will, and if your treasurer should
die the day after his election, the governor
fills his place by appointment. If pes
thence should sweep your judges from the
bench or make vacant the departments of
treasury or comptroller, the governor aD-
points all. Now, there are certain important
officers whose avocations in life do not
bring them in prominence before the whole
people, and to nominate whom in conven-
ton, would be guess work. Such are your
state BIOLOGISTS, your commissioner of
statistics and history, your superintendent
of the grand asylums of the state and your
officers of the penitentiary. Hence the law
wisely provides that the fitness of men for
these places shall be judged by the peoples
governor, who is given power to remove
them if unworthy or incompetent If
elected by the people, they would hold their
offices for two years unless removed by the
slow process of legal trial. What would
you think of sending your child, if insane,
to be cured by the nominee of a Democratic
convention2
Among all the laws to create commits
sion, offered during the past fifteen years,
TO man ever thought of making it elective.
The reasons even a fool can understand
On the one ha1d, the people if they are to
n = mr. yvOuld in q n
things be divided in their choice; on the
other hand, we behold millions of money
interested in electing poems to serve its
interests. The masses of men in so large
state would have no personal knowledge of
the peculiar fitness of candidates for the
work. It is place of great labor, involving
the management of properties costing mil
lions of money, which would be used to
corrupt commission, and the very men
who would seek q nomination are the very
men who should not be chosen. The quail
fcationS are: lncorruptible integrity,
business capacity, an accurate knowledge
of the channels of our commerce, and a
broad understanding of the devious ways
by which incorporated capital defes law
and enriches itself at the expense of toiling
full knowledge of all business
and above all a nerve of iron to
stand for the right between the children of
labor who produce all wealth, on the one
hand. and the iron power that
reaches to grasp that wealth as
on the other This combination of quail
ties will be found most often far removed
from the turbid sea of partisan strife. Such
men exist, but nothing save a lofty patriot
ism will induce such men to accept the Office
of commissioner, if rendered. They will
surely never seek it, and those who do not
seek are rarely nominated in political con-
vention.
A commission with power to fix freight
rates, with millions resting on its discre-
ton, is au anomaly in our system OF gov
and springs only from our neces-
sites. There is. some present check on
every other public official The comptroller
IS a check on your treasurer, the judiciary
On your legislature, and reacting checks
pervade our whole system, but this tribunal
must stand as the great daysman, with
ready and instant protection in the eternal
attrition between capital and labor.
MONEY HAS SENSE
and is always wide awake. Its owners
would combine in convention, backed by
It's dependents and attorneys, delegates and
and swap on every nomination,
from. governor down, to secure men on the
commission who would thus be under rail-
way influence. Such men thus elected
would be beyond the control of the people
Tor two years, for, being elective, the gov
srnor could not remove them. The power |
If appointment involves honesty and intelli- |
gence, in the appointing power, which every
governor is presumed to possess. Response |
1ility in creating a commission should be |
and the people, knowing that |
! governor who has power to appoint has |
llso power to remove, will hold him re- |
,ponsible at the bar of public opinion |
or its wise exercise. If he blum |
iers and fails to remove them if |
ound unworthy, let the odium crush |
liml What visible object for your resent
nent can you find, when a faithless COM
mission is selected by political convention, |
md where is your remedy?
WHAT STA TIES APPOINT COMMISSIONERS.
In the following states the railway COM
nissioners are appointed by the governor: |
kentucky, Alabama, Georgia, South Caro-
ina, New Jersey, New York. Rhode Island, |
Illinois, Massachusetts, Connecticut, Yer |
mont, Maine, Ohio, Michigan, Colorado, |
arizona, Minnesota, New Hampshire. South |
Dakota and Texas. In Virginia, Oregon
nd North Carolina, they are elected by the
legislature. Now, it is a singular fact, that |
q Illinois and Georgia, where the governor
ppoints, the relief to the people has been
most complete, and the regulation of the |
Dads by their commissioners, works such /
relief to the producers of those states, |
hat all men, of all parties, unite in sustain /
ng them. In the few states where the \
are elected by the people,
ailway regulation is almost failure, for
apital, combining through its emissaries,
90 often dominates the commission and
ontrols its work Over thirty states now
eek protection for their people through |