The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1896-11-20


state of Kansas TO continue the opera
ton, management and control of said
railway in the same manner as the same
has heretofore been conducted, until the
further order Of said United States
circuit court shall be made.
| Here then is clash of authority. AS
|! Assistant Attorney General Goddard
Gays, this clash of authority might result
| in miniature war. hut that the excite
| ment will soon die out and the case will
be decided quickly and with dignity.
| Laws on alien ownership are not new
to the country Legislation of this char
acter in this country dates back to 1871,
| when the congress enacted an alien law,
applicable to the District Of Columbia
| and to the territories. The Kansas law,
| with ten sections and elaborate provis-
ions, was put on the statute book IN
| 1891. the year in which the Farmers
! Alliance was in the saddle and turned
| down United States Senator John j..
| Ingalls,. In 1895 the Missouri legisla-
ture passed law on this subject for
that state. The Missouri act is properly
| OIL the statute book, and is in some re-
spects more binding than was the Kan
sas measure.
| The Kansas act provides that the real
estate of alien landlords shall be SOLD
/ and the proceeds, less costs and eX-
! penses, paid over to the alien or to the
| corporation more than 20 per cent OF
whose stock may be owned by aliens.
Ey the Missouri law all the land Of an
alien, purchased in the ordinary way
after the law or of a corporation &C.
! CURED after being unfortunate enough
to have more than 20 per cent OF Its
stock in the hands of aliens, is forfeited
| to the state and the alien and corpora
| ton set nothing.
| Alien laws, like all other laws, do not
override treaties with the United States,
but there are few treaties as to alien
ownership of lands. If an Enghshman
not having taken steps to be naturalized
| with $4,000 in his pocket, should be
| robbed in Kansas City, the act would be
criminal. The state would return the
| money to the loser and send the thief TO
the penitentiary If, however, that
Englishman should, the next day after
getting back his money, purchase with
it house and lot in the city for home
or f OF doing business in. it is the duty
of the prosecuting attorney to take steps
at once to forfeit the property to the
state. Under the Missouri statute the
same prosecuting attorney might, on the
same day, convict a citizen of the state
for rubbing the Engiishman of the
$4,000 in money and have him SEN
fenced to the penitentiary and also have
the land paid for with that particular
money forfeited to the state. In the one
case the citizen of Missouri would be
punished for robbing the alien Of his
money contrary to law. In the other
case the Englishman would be deprived
of his land according to law as pun
ishment for being an alien.
In the case of a Missouri corporation,
If 81 per cent of its stock should fall into
the hands of aliens without the knOwl-
edge or against the objection of citizen
holders of the other 20 per cent of the
stock. all the land of the corporation
thereafter acquired becomes at once
forfeited to the state and the prescott
ing attorney must at once enforce the
forfeiture In this case the corporation
loses its land and citizens owning 40
per cent of its stock are punished, not
for anything done by them, but merely
of the stock fell into the hands of aliens.
The old alien laws proceeded on the
theory that an alien was public enemy
The recent alien laws of this country
treat corporations as such.
The consequence of enforcing the Kan
sas law, it is said, strikes some of those
who secured it's enactment by working
out results which they did not antici-
pate. The operation Of recent Missouri
alien laws is likely, # not certain, to
prevent foreigners from making many
investments in the state.
A Topeka writer says that William
Scully. notorious in America as Lord
Scully, until few years ago a subject
of Great Britain. now citizen of the
United States by naturalization in New
York. is, or was, the cause Of the alien
act which the Kansas legislature at
tempted to pass. He owns about 10000
acres of land in Kansas, the most part
of it in Marion county, some Of 1t in
Chatse county, and the rest Of it in Nor
ris county. He acquired these lands
while he was an alien, and this writer
says it was his way of dealing with his
tenants that led TO the Introduction of
the act of 1891. His contracts stipulate
that tenants shall pay cash rent, shall
make their own Improvements and shall
pay all the taxes. no matter of what
kind or nature. In this way he becomes
responsible for nothing and shares none
of the chances of poor crops. He takes
hot even the chance of pay semi-annu-
ally. He exacts pay in advance, so
many dollars per acre for bottom land,
and so much for upland. If on the LIST
Of March a tenant who may have had
bad crops or suffered other misfortune,
wants 10 renew his lease the cash must
he forthcoming; or, If the security be
particularly good. the agent may con-
tenants stock, wagons and implements.
The next March. perhaps. the tenants