The San Angelo press. (San Angelo, Tex.) 1897-1907, 1902-04-30

lease after having made it for 5 !
or 10 years and some one in the
Legislature of 1897 hoping TO put
a quietus on this Sophistical ar
gument of the lobblest for the
ranchman put in the very clause
which established the absolute
lease line" this provision the
lands leased South and West of
the line herein designated shall
not be sold during the term of
the lease, unless otherwise provid-
ed by law, thus reserving in express
terms the right to change the law
and sell the land-Nearly all the
lands under lease in West Texas
were leased under the act of 1897
and it is just the same as if writ
ten in every lease contract and
nobody knows that better than
the COW man and there is not a
lawyer in West Texas who does
not know it. They all know it
and when they state otherwise
they mistate the truth and they
do 1t purposely and designedly,
because they hope to mislead you
and appeal to your sense of JUS
tice knowing you are not posted.
When they apply TO lease these
lands, their application states
that it is made under the acts of
1897"
He dicussed the moral right the
people had to have these leased
lands made subject to sale by
saying in the first place, most all
the school lands in this and many
counties ad jacent we're leased az
ter the reduction in price in 1895,
before they were listed with the
Clerks and therefore before the
people knew they were school
lands and the people had had
chance to get them-there has not
been time since the lands were
reduced in 1895 but that all the
school and asylum lands in this
and adjoining counties would have
been taken by settlers in a very
short time if they had not been
under lease. Again the lessees have
made money on their deals with
the state and many of them have
grown rich. Our resolutions ia
vor paying the lessees for perma-
nent improvements and | see no
reason in justice why the home
seeker should be longer horned off
from his rights under the consti-
tuition and the unwritten law of
this state from it's earliest history.
What would Stephen f. Austin
the great Colonist and Civilizer
say; what would Sam Houston
say, if they could rise up from
their graves today and sec this
vast throng of home seekers de-
MED the right to purchase II home
on the land they fought for? 1t
is enough to cause them 10 turn
III their graves.
Third the school fund would be
increased by allowing settlers to
buy these lands because as they
took up the lands, close TO market
close To school, close to town
where they could get medical at
tention for their families They
would push the ranchman back
into the millions of acres of state
lands now not under lease, and as
some of the land is classed as ag-
ricultural and priced at not less
than S1,5O per acre the interest
on these lands when sold would
be more tIan the lease on the
same lands. When section of
land is sold il is rendered for taxes,
1t is improved and the taxable
value is increased, and the adjoin-
ing land is increased in value and
soon the state gets return in tax
es equal 10 the present lease in
come
Mr.. Hill said that if we repeat
ed the statement that he was
brought ont by any class we were
all liars-when You tramp on a
politicians toe he bellows and
closer You get to him the louder