Journal of the House of Representatives of the Regular Session of the Thirty-Eighth Legislature of the State of Texas Page: 67
This legislative document is part of the collection entitled: Texas House of Representatives Journals and was provided to The Portal to Texas History by the UNT Libraries Government Documents Department.
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H
utilities, in the building of factories,
the State, as in the matter of road
building, jurisprudence and education,
is hobbled and hamstrung by the limi-
tation, inhibition and prohibition of a
constitution written by sound states-
men, fifty years ago, who could not
then have anticipated this mighty, com-
plex, complicated civilization of ours.
Their imagination could not have pic-
tured the many problems that now
knock for solution at the door of legis-
lative consideration. In short, the big,
husky boy of 1923 is now and will be
in the years to come cramped in his
youthful suit of 1876. I recommend a
constitutional convention to write, in
the light and learning of this genera-
tion, a new constitution for Texas. If
it is good when written, the people will
go to the polls and adopt it; if bad, the
people will reject it. The discussion of
its adoption will be educational and will
bring the people in closer touch with
their government.
When our present Constitution was
written we had one lunatic asylum, with
a hundred or so inmates in it; now we
have five asylums, with more than seven
thousand inmates. At that time we
"had no institutions for the feeble-
minded, no epileptic colony, no tuber-
cular sanatorium, no Confederate homes,
no varied eleemosynary institutions, all
filled with wards of the public, main-
tained and cared for last year at an
expenditure of over two million dol-
lars. This recital of the growth of
eleemosynary institutions for the care
and maintenance of the unfortunates of
the State is but suggestive of the
growth of the entire machinery of the
Government, which cannot now be
made to fit into the provisions of the
constitution written when these numer-
ous institutions and departments of
government were unknown.
The Times and Circumstances in Texas
in 1875 and 1923.
It seems to be agreed by all that
Texas should have a new constitution,
but those who are opposed to the re-
writing of this document say that the
times and circumstances just now in
Texas are such that it will not be safe
to have a constitutional convention.
It should be remembered that the
present Constitution was written in
1875, just at the close of the period of
reconstruction, and that there was at
that time and had been for years a
feeling of distrust and bitterness in theState. The State government was in
the hands of the Federal military au-
thorities, or of the negroes and carpet-
baggers. During the preceding year
rival military forces actually occupied
the different floors of the State Capitol
and armed and bloody rebellion was
threatened as the lion-hearted Coke
wrenched the government from the
hands of E. J. Davis. The people's
money had been by Legislatures openly
squandered, and the people were not
only distrustful of their government,
but uncertain as to what the future
held in store for them as a State and
as a Nation. If, during these perilous
times and under these troublesome cir-
cumstances, a selected delegation could
write a constitution that would be good
for fifty years, it does not seem hardly
fair to say that the citizenship of Texas
today could not and would not select
representatives to a constitutional con-
vention who would be patriotic and in-
telligent enough to write a constitution
in keeping with the advanced civiliza-
tion of this day and generation. If
either the Legislature or the people
should today call a constitutional con-
vention there is no man in the State too
big to be a member of it, and I daresay
there is no man so busy that he would
not gladly serve if asked to do so by his
neighbors and friends. To say that the
people of Texas are not capable of and
that they would not elect to form a
constitutional convention of both capable
and honest men is indeed a sad com-
mentary on both the intelligence and
patriotism of our people.
The Voice of Jacob But the Hand of
Esau.
It goes without argument that there
is a considerable number of people who
do not believe that now is an opportune
time to rewrite our Constitution, but,
generally speaking, those who pretend
to see danger in the rewriting of our
Constitution are speaking in behalf of
the corporate interests of the State,
who have not been, under the old Con-
stitution, paying the government proper
tax for the franchise privileges granted
to them. The time has come when priv-
ileges should support the government,
as well as property. Those who wrote
the Constitution fifty years ago could
not forecast the day in this State, and
they did not attempt to do so, when
privileges and franchises would be
worth more than the lands of Texas.
Those who are enjoying these privilegesHOUSE JOURNAL
;7
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Texas. Legislature. House of Representatives. Journal of the House of Representatives of the Regular Session of the Thirty-Eighth Legislature of the State of Texas, legislative document, 1923; Austin, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth193832/m1/71/?q=j+w+gardner: accessed July 9, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting UNT Libraries Government Documents Department.