The Galveston Daily News. (Galveston, Tex.), Vol. 45, No. 249, Ed. 1 Friday, December 31, 1886 Page: 4 of 8
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THE GALVESTON DAILY NEWS. FRIDAY. DECEMBER 31,188ft
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FRIDAY, DECEMBER 31, 1886.
HOPEFUL FOR REVENUE REFORM.
The Boston Herald reasons that " tariff
reformers can afford to smile at the flound-
ering of Congress over revenue measures.
They know well enough that time and rea-
son are on their side, and every day's de-
lay increases the pressure of facts for re-
form. The cause grows fast enough by
natural causes. It needs no artificial boom-
ing. In good time all they want will come,
and all the more suddenly when it does
come because of temporary restraint."
The Herald contines as if there were but
one question—revenue reduction by tariff
reduction. It says that even if " the ques-
tion " be left over for the next presidential
election the revenue reformers need not
despair, for they can not have a more favor-
able issue. It would seem so, but the issue
has been worked several times, and per-
haps the people will get tired of an issue so
good that it-is a temptation to sundry re-
formers to keep it for electioneering pur-
poses. The free-traders, on the other hand,
have really no fear that time will fail to
develop a concurrence of popular interests
against the high tariff apart from any
•inestion of revenue reduction, but
the free traders, so far from expecting
a speedy settlement, are quite sure that
more than one presidential election will
j ass before the main question is fairly
lepresented in politics on a large scale.
Still on the question of revenue reduction
the Herald is sanguine. It scarcely expects
to see it left over. " An extra session is
possible, for the surplus must be reduced,
or the next Congress may find the question
forced upon it." Of course if the surplus
is disposed of the protectionists will claim
ihat the tariff question has been settled, but
they will find themselves mistaken, aud the
revenue reformers of a superficial sort will
find themselves equally mistaken when
they come up smiling to receive their re-
ward for such substitution of a reform
which would get rid of the public revenue
*nd leave the private revenue of the pro-
tected spoliators as great a tax as before
upon the people. The most the superficial
reformers could expect would be
to quiet the unreasoning masses
for a short time. The surplus revenue
fiffords a precious opportunity to knock off
scores of great legalized larcenies, and if
this is rejected, and the more productive
revenue duties—though with some in-
cidental protection—are greatly reduced or
abolished instead of the most protective
part of the tariff being abolished, the per-
fidy of the reform will be seen by the peo-
ple later on.
Industrial freedom and political free-
dom go together or fall in rapid succession.
The methods by which wealth is produced
Kre labor and intelligence. If the present
system of spoliation continues, its benefi-
ciaries will reach the point, in less thaa
another generation, at which they can not
leel safe with political power in the people.
I', on the contrary, commerce were made
free the political liberties of the country
would te in no danger. Let patriots who
lean to an exclusive policy study the ques-
tion of commercial freedom in the light of
the reason which must govern a plutocracy
of industry dreading agrarian laws and
cumulative taxes. Whenever a country has
lost its political freedom it has soon had
its trade farmed out to monopolies. Re-
verse the process and the results must be
equally sure. The so-called " national
wealth " in the hands of millionaires will
seek to protect itself when necessary, ac-
cording to the primal law of existence, by
giving itself legislative and judicial pow-
ers, with force in reserve, if fraud will not
prevail.
The Times-Democrat says:
If the protected Industries of the North sac-
rifice a southern Industry, they win be hast-
ening their own destruction. The iron and
steelmenand the woi hers generally appreciate
this, but some shallow politicians think they
see in the removal of the duty on sugar a
simple plan of solving a groat economical
problem, and at the same time punishing the
South. They have made many grievous mis
tuhes before in their partisan malice,but none
greater than that they propose to day.
1 his ct rrectly explains that the protec-
tionists of tie North must count upon the
solid opposition of Louisiana to the whole
tn iff swindle if they abolish the sugar du-
tie?. In their desperation the anti-protec-
tionists in Congress may possibly feel
driven to aid the protectionists in " cutting
off the tail of the dog" in order that he
may die in fly time. Here, then, are three
interests—the sugar men, who have risked
their position by allying themselves with
the robbers; the robbers who risk some-
thing if they cut off the sugarmen, and the
free-traders, who ought to go bravely at the
greater evils, lut who are tempted to make
tie peculiar flank movement indicated.
The surplus is a standing argument for
some sort of refoim, but it is thus far pro-
ductive of so much talk merely against ex-
cessive revenue that some free-traders real-
ly do not care how soon the artful confusion
is ended. If there were no surplus the de-
mei its of a robber tariff would soon come
up again. Mr. Morrison's error in logic
and generalship was that he attacked just
a little all along the line. Had he either
confined his attack to the weakest of the
protected Interests—however Machiavelian
the policy might seem—or had he attacked
the worst only, but much more vigorously,
he would have had a better show either to
gain a success or else to place himself in
i he position of a permanent leader in a
movement w bich must succeed with time.
Now that the Labor party is becoming
very prominent in the calculations ot poli-
ticians, there are many voices exclaiming
that prohibition of the liquor traffic will be
the next great issue. The wisdom of an
Agitation of this kind from a monopolistic
point of view must be confessed. When
there is danger that monopolies will be
seriously threatened, the highly moral
spoliators propose to direct the people to
their vices and to the saloons as objects of
assault. A contest of a dozen years over
the liquor traffic would be a dozen years
breathing time for some things which can
not bear examination.
tnomas Ellison, the cotton statistician,
has discovered a rather substantial flaw in
the crop estimate of the Washington au-
thorities. There is a large discrepancy
springing from a confusion of terms. For
example, last year's crop was estimated by
the department of agriculture at 6,240,000
bales of -184 pounds gross; but the crop
turned out 310,000 bales more. If the de-
partment's estimates had been in terms of
net cotton, as it was commonly understood,
it would have been near to absolute accu-
racy ; and Ellison wonders whether the es-
timate of 0,438,000 bales for this year's crop
may not also be subject, in calculating the
actual lint, to a similar heavy reduction for
tare. It is stated by Ellison that this un-
certainty is creating a range of estimates in
Europe of 6,200,000 to 0,800,000 bales. The
latter figures, it is not doubted on this side,
are quite too high.
It is now claimed that since the death of
Logan the Pennsylvania Republicans will
unite on Don Cameron as a candidate for
the presidential nomination in 1888. The
dominant faction in that State have no
love for Blaine, and are unwilling to hazard
him again as a candidate.
Speaking of the controvery now raging
over the birthplace of Adam, a contempo-
rary exclaims: "Is it, then, impossible
that Eve should have first seen the light in
one of the pleasant valleys of Vermont?"
With man it is quite impossible. But se-
riously, now, it seems as if it would have
changed the whole history of mankind if
Eve bad seen the light and variegated tints
in some of the glorious valleys of this
western world, particularly the valleys of
Texas. She would not have wanted to roam
across the straits to the forbidden shore.
Opposition to the whisky tax and advo-
cacy of prohibition go queerly together,
but they do go together in a Georgia organ,
the Atlanta Constitution.
The American consulate at Tangier, Mo-
rocco, seems to have been run by an enter-
prising official, and several newspapers
have asked for his recall. But The News
would be satisfied if the fees were abolished
and the flag taken away and brought home.
Some sorts of enterprise may as well be
1 rosecuted in other parts of the world. We
don't require all the talents concentrated
here. '
Blaine has counted a good deal upon
Pennsylvania, and he will feel the Came-
ron movement more than any other candi-
date.
Tbe North German Gazette, commenting
on the story printed in some of the foreign
papers that the czar, in a fit of rage, had
shot a German military attache at St.
Petersburg, says "that such abuses of free-
dom of the press require an instant reme-
dy." The sure way to have no abuses of
freedom is to suppress freedom. That is
the only way proposed or intended by
the official abuses of the freedom of the
press. Freedom is an offense to despot-
ism—the greatest possible offense.
In Corea civil service examination is con-
fined to poetry. A correspondent says:
" Poetry written in Chinese characters is
all that is required, and what is more sin-
gular still, it is not the quality of the pro-
duction that is consulted, but the quantity.
In fact, the criterion of literary merit is the
amount of metrical Chinese a man can
write between sunrise and sunset." About
the 1st of April many editors will wish
that the English language was admitted as
well as Chinese, and that the Corean offices
were extensive aud lucrative.
THE STATE DEPARTMENTS.
SUBJECTS WORTHY OF CONSIDERATION.
General Review of the State Department Re-
ports— Matters that Will Engage the At-
tention of the Twentieth Legislature.
no. o.
the granite capitol.
This building, which is claimed to be the
largest red granite edifice on earth, will be
completed in two years, at a cost to the
State of some $100,000 in money and 8,050,-
000 acres of land. Its construction by con-
tract was entered upon some four years ago.
The material for the walls first selected was
not the best, and the change to granite was
most desirable. This was accomplished
through protracted negotiations with the
contractor, which gave rise to very acrimo-
nious controversy between state officials.
This dispute is relegated to oblivion, as no
longer of any public interest. It is only re-
called to show that the State pro-
bably was benefited by the array
of the board members against each
other, insuring watchfulness and care
upon the part of all concerned in the
protection of the public interest. The
merits of the controversy are left to rest
where the readers of The News have placed
them, but after all it must be conceded that
public sentiment controlled the parties in-
volved in the dispute, and whichever party
erred did so from mistaken views j as to
what was best and right, and yielded;grace-
fully and promptly to the fiat of the peo-
ple. The building, it is believed, is now
being constructed of the best material and
the best workmanship. It is under the
supervision of many state officers, it is
true, which diffuses and weakens respon-
sibility. But many other persons are on
the watch. The architects, Knights
of Labor and the family of fault-
finders which are found in every
community watch the work. Poli-
ticians would also be happy to detect de-
fects. The contract has been changed in-
cessantly in important and unim-
portant details, but it may be,
as has been claimed, that these changes
have been necessary from the imperfection
of the plans, and following the change
from limestone to granite. Defects in the
plans of a building of such dimensions are
inevitable, and ordinarily are not discov-
ered until the work develops them. The
extent of the building is shown in the area
of three acres it covers, its length some
r>(J0 feet, and height of dome 314 feet. It has
63 apartments in the basement; 48 apart-
ments, 10 vaults and 0 water closets in the
first story; 56 rooms, including the legisla-
tive halls and 6tate library in second story;
46 rooms, including Supreme Court and
Court of Appeals rooms and law library in
the third story, and 24 rooms in the fourth
story. In all the changes that have been
made the interior construction remains the
same in dimensions of rooms, and interior
walls are only changed to beimproved. The
walls of the dome are greatly improved.
The agreements under which changes have
been made date back to August 22,18-82,
when the specifications for the foundations
were changed. The next change was exe
cuted April 28.1883, whereby Texas cement
was eliminated. May 27, 1884, sewer pipes
"MO vjiiuiutituui oonoi
water pipes and apparatus were changed
and other items agreed upon. July 3,1884,
several smaller changes were made. Octo-
ber 20, 1884, and March 10, 1884, unimport-
ant changes occur. July 25, isso.red Texas
granite was adopted and >1 lengthy supple-
mental contract involving many depart-
ures was signed. July 30,1885, January 28,
1886, April 24, 1886, August 24, 1886, and Au-
gust 30,1886, changes were made, and it is
understood others are neccssary and now
occupy the board's attention. The con-
tractor has received up to date 836,802 ac.'es
of land and is entitled to another install-
ment. Up to this time there have been used
in the building 11,103 barrels of cement,
451,564 cubic feet of limestone, 257,515 cubic
feet of dimension stone, 188,518 cubic feet
of granite, 241,956 feet of lumber, and
large quantittes of sand, gravel, lime
iron pipes, iron beams, bolts, lmtels, gird-
ers and anchors, chrome steel vaults weigh-
ing 78,180 pounds, galvanized iron, castiron
vation of the historical division of the
bureau. That division includes statistics.
A geological bureau is also desired, but a
scientific geologist in charge of it would be
columns and other material. These figures
" e great size and solidity of the
building. There has already been paid for
it enough land to make a State, and when
the contractor gets the entire reservation
he will have a principality as large as one
of the eastern States that has a marble cap-
itol, and probably more fertile soil than tne
whole of New England. It is estimated
that he will pay $5,500,000 before he gets
through with the work. Doubtless it will
cost considerably more than was first esti-
mated. At first $1,750,000 was the outside
estimate of the designing contractor. There
is no such advance in the cost of labor and
material since February, 1882, as to explain
the difference between'estimates of that
day and this. It is probable that the State
will get about a $2,000,000 bnilding, and will
have paid for it in lands at the rate of 65
cents an acre. The house is to be completed
in time for the inauguration in it of the gov-
ernor in 1889, probably governor Ross, who
may be expected to hold two terms.
insurance, statistics and history.
This bureau survived a fierce attack by
the economists of the Nineteenth legisla-
ture, and will doubtless have a desperate
struggle for existence at the approaching
session. The friends of the bureau saved
it only after throwing overboard the fish
commissioner and carp bureau as a tub to
the reform whale. At every session some
concession must be made to the retrench-
ers. They have to redeem their pledges to
cut down expenses. If the bureau in
jeopardy would survive it must set about
improvising some plan to divert- the atten-
tion of the reformers to some other depart-
ment. At the last session the bureau,
however, was not as well provided
against attack as it is now. Iu ad-
vance it has dished into geology
and agriculture, and doubtless it may
he made plain to the graDger and alliance
members—who are the sturdy retrenchers—
that this bureau after all is about the only
department that connects their calling
with the state government. Agriculture,
geology, horticulture, arboriculture, bug-
ology and mining might be added to in-
surance, statistics and history. The al-
liance press calls for a geological and ag-
ricultural department of the state govern-
ment. It would be easy enough to obtain a
commissioner of insurance, statistics, his-
tory. agriculture, geology and mining, who
should also give attention to other affairs
germain to those mentioned. The governor,
if a bureau of this kind was created, would
have scores of applications for
the commissionership by the universal
geniuses who are running the country to
seed in the sterile wastes of obscurity.
That some such bureau is contemplated
may be taken for a fact, in view of tne ne-
cessities of the official family and the re-
flection that the Texas legislature has com-
mitted every other possible absurdity. One
or the other extreme is always in order—to
assign some one official a multitude of di-
verse and exacting duties, or to assign five
or ten officials to some one employment for
which not one of the five or ten is fitted.
State insurance supervison is a sham under
the laws of Texas, but the citizens of Texas
of this day owe future generations the main-
tenance of a department of history. The
head of this department, it competent for
the place, would have no time to devote
to insurance, geology, agriculture or any
other subject or duty. Hence the
News enters an earnest pies for the preser-
a blundering useless official if required to
supervise insurance, collect and collate his-
torical data, study statistics and investi-
gate agriculture and horticulture while
making geological and minei alogical re-
searches. In commerce, scisnce, the arts,
manufactures, the learned professions, and
in all industrial pursuits, the greatest suc-
cess is attained through the specialist. A
scholar and student for state historian is
w anted, a geologist for a bureau of geology
and mineralogy, a lawyer for the bench,
and a i olitician for almost any other pub-
lic office will do. Any adult male who can
take care of a " pass" will
make a competent railroad commis-
sioner. He need not be able to
draw his salary promptly, as it will not be
necessary that the State should pay him a
salary. He will be in good hands and will
not suffer for pocket change. But if the
Twentieth legislature proposes to create a
railroad commission ana other depart-
ments, it is not necessary to throw the
bureau of insurance, statistics and history
overboard. A great deal of historical data
have been collected and classified and there-
by preserved for the future historian. This
work has only fairly commenced, and yet
there have been reclaimed from decay and
destruction papers and correspondence of
prominent actorB in the wars, legislation
and diplomatic service of Texas ana records
ot the colonial history of Texas, which are
absolutely invaluable. It would*now be
silly to discontinue the bureau because an
insurance commissioner is not needed.
SPECIAL LEGISLATION.
The charters of several cities in Texas
require amendments at every session of the
legislature, and the Twentieth legislature
will be troubled with delegations and lob-
byists, from these cities. Special acts will
be urged to pay old, out-of-date j debts
against the State, to authorize claimants
to sue the State for lands and land scrip, to
extend the time for1 the payments on fechool
lands and remit the taxes in many locali-
ties, to create new counties, establish new
county boundaries, and for various other
purposes of local or individual character
and interest. Charters of cities usually
pass without contention, tmt much time is
consumed in reading the bills which usual-
ly re-enact the charters entire as amended.
Snap judgmenthas sometimes been seenred
against the people of a city by these
amendments, notably of late, and it is
to be expected they will not hereafter pass
pass as a matter of course. The cities are
outgrowing their old clothes, and must have
their authority enlarged. They are en-
gaged in extending and rendering per-
manent their trade and trade facilities.
A sharp and vigorous rivalry spurs the
principal cities on to great and costly en-
terprises which are not possible under the
limitations and restrictions of the old-time
characters. If the people interested de-
sire to invest their municipal government
with greater powers in the way of increas-
ing the city debt and taxes the legislature
ought not to object. But there should be
some limit. There really ought to be some
such general authority of the cities to
create debt for specified purposes as
that conferred upon the counties.
The constitution possibly is in the
way, but it may be changed. The
county may create a debt proportioned
to its taxable values. A general provision
of that character applied to all cities, and
the special charters of cities made to per-
mit greater latitude of authority in other
respects would obviate the biennial amend-
ments which cost the State considerable
money nod the legislature much valuable
time. Old state debts come up with the
certainty of death. When the legislature
pays off what is presented in the nature of
deficiencies at one session it is deluded
with the impression that all old accounts
are squared. At the next session it finds
the claim agents and the same lobby in-
fluences of the previous session actively
bolstering up and pushing another set of
antiquated demands upon the treasury.
There are incredulous members who resist
good and bad claims alike, and the conse-
quence is that general legislation is delayed.
Before claims of over two years standing are
permitted to go before the legislature they
ought to be passed upon by a court of
claims or by a district court which might
be required by general law to investigate
them and pronounce judgment upon tneir
justice ana validity. This would save to
the legislature the greater portion of the
time lost over doubtful claims, and relieve
the finance committees of the importuni-
ties and the besetments of the lobby;. The
Twentieth legislature will be solicited to
authorize suits against the State to test
the right of certain persons or corpora-
tions to demand land certificates under the
railway subsidy act. The right to the
scrip accruea before the subsidy act was
repealed. The work for which the scrip
would under the act have been issued had
been performed before the act was
repealed. The repealing act was
rushed through and deprived the
general land office of any authority
to issue railway certificates. On two lines
of railway at least the work of construc-
tion was at the time in active progress. The
land office does not question the fact that
the certificates have been earned, but legis-
lative authority is required to make the
issue. It would seem to be a case ir. which
tbe intervention of the courts is unnecessa-
ry. The legislature certainly is able in a
moment to determine whether scrip should
issue to parties who had clearly earned it
under the law. Another land case to be
brought before the legislature is quite dif-
ferent. Tne parties in interest instead of
asking an appeal to the courts from former
adverse action of the legislature, give no-
tice of appeal to the legislature from ad-
verse decisions of the courts. The two
cases illustrate the bewildering in-
consistencies which are expected
in special legislation. But the
legislature is competent to draw nice
distinctions. The two cases involve the ne-
cessity of distinguishingbetweenland scrip
and land itself. It is noted that the State
has issued scrip for 11,000,000 acres of laud
in excess of the public domain that is not
reserved from location, and the legislature
would appear to be conferring a very small
favor, and at no loss to the State whatever,
to authorize the issue of a few more laud
certificates. Fortified by a favorable decree
of the courts, the legislative conscience
would be expected to acquiesce in the scrip
issue. But when the scrip is issued and lo-
cated upon state lands the court and legis-
lature call a halt. It is then no empty right.
Solid acres depend upon the conclusion
to be reached, But the merits of the
petition for validation of locations have
been set forth in The News, as well as
the obligations to the claims in
in the discussion of the Greer county suits,
and the statements of counsel and inter-
views with parties in interest. No claim of
the kind has ever been more thoroughly ex-
posed in all its bearings before the legisla-
tui e was called upon to pass judgment upon
it. Unquestionably the recent discussion
of it by one of the claimants in an inter-
view in The News, places it in a much
more favorable light before the public.
But conceding the equities of claimants,
F.nd admitting that public policy is forward
by the settlement of the lands, and the
claim of Texas to the disputed territory is
strengthened by recognition of the loca-
tions, it is questionable if the legislature
lias authority to reverse the decision of the
court in favor of the State. If the court de-
clares that the located lands belong to the
State, can the legislature grant the lands to
private persons except for public purposes
or uses? The special acts or general acts
extending the time for paymer t of interest
on school land purchases which operate
special relief are sought in behalf of set-
tlers on school land in the drouth districts.
If the settlers can be retained in their
homes bv anv reasonable relief bill within
the pewer of the legislature to pass cer-
tainly there can be no objection. The
difficulty will be in avoiding constitutional
prohibitions. No constitutional objection
exists to the remission of taxes in the
drouth districts and at the storm-swept
ports of Sabine and Indianola, and every
consideration of justice and humanity
pleads for this relief. A contest for the
creation of one or more new counties out of
the large territory of Tom Green county
will be made. Although the question of
the subdivision of Tom Green and per-
haps other large western counties into new
counties was involved in the election of
representatives of that district and the
vole seems to have been in favor of the
subdivison, j et it is understood the measure
special legislation
that much time is likely to be consumed
over special and local interests. The
legislature is forewarned In time and may
adopt a policy of dealing summarily with
such matters.
THE STATE PRESS,
What the Papers Throughout Texas Are
Talking About.
The Brownsville Cosmopolitan gives no-
tice that after January 1 the free list of that
paper will be suspended. The C. also wants
to see the money, or at least the faces, or
hear the voiceB of delinquent subscribers.
It says: "If you have not the cash just
give ns a talk, anyway." The Cosmopoli-
tan editor can scarcely have read Mark
Twain's book entitled Life on the Missis-
sippi, in which he describes a professional
money-borrower, who so overwhelmed his
creditors with professions of gratitude and
promises to pay that they avoided him as
if they were the dunned debtors and he the
creditor.,, "A talk anyway" will not but-
ter parsnips or buy the baby a frock.
The Laredo Times reports the wajste of
time and failure in results from thie late
session of the grand jury of Laredo county:
The work of the grand jury at the last
term was decided by Judge Russell to be
void, the jury commissioners not having
been appointed at the previous term in
compliance with the law. The grand jury
was consequently reconvened.
The El Faso Herald has a wormy edit-
orial, in which it says:
We were honored by the receipt of a cir-
cular from a San Antonio (Tex.) firm,
which represents that they make medicine
that is an infallible remedy for tape-
worms. It is signed by five San Antonio
doctors, who say it is an infallible 4xcom-
municator of the " fa-ma solium and medio
canulata, the only varieties of tape-worm
occurring in San Antonio." We suppose
the&e gentlemen read our editorial on the
" tape-worm habit," tn which we announced
the startling fact that every male person in
the Rio Grande valley was the corporeal
habitation of a tape-worm. We presume
that the San Antonio parties expect to come
to the aid of the average El Pasoan, who is
wrestling with,the tape-worm. In that case,
of course, we personally would not throw a
single obstruction in the way of tape worm
nor extirpator. But to prevent any misun-
derstanding—our tape-worms are not the
fa>nia solium and medio canulata, such as
disembowels the unfortunate people of the
Alamo city—but our-tape worms are a more
aristocratic family, and do business under
tbe style and firm name of Tamil Nana.
The El Paso Herald says:
As Ihe ttenal Code of Texas now stands
no evidence can be used in a criminal trial,
preliminary or final, which is not given
when tbe defendant was present. In other
words, a person charged with a crime must
be confronted with his accusing witnesses.
This law is really a loophole for a cunning
criminal and his wily lawyer to defeat the
ends of justice. Especially is this the case
on the frontier. We may illustrate by a
case that is very common in this county.
The person charged with an offense flees
over tbe river and avoids arrest. The wit-
nesses of Ihe crime are here aud
are attached. They can not be
confined in jail or made to give
bail or enter into recognizance, with se-
curity, if they make oath of their inability
to do so. Suppose that the defendant be
wealthy and the witnesses poor, and the
crime a grave one. The probabilities are
that the aforesaid witnesses, ere long,
would find it convenient and profitable to
migrate to foreign parts, and never be
heard from again—forever beyond the
reach of subpoena and attachment. Then
the criminal might return and defy the
laws to punish him, or what is of tener done,
demand a trial and be acquitted for want
of evidence. Another illustration of the
weakness of this particular law Is wnere a
person is injured and the times of his death
is uncertain. The person charged with the
offense must be present if his victim's
statement is desired, or this best of all evi-
dence is lost if the victim dies.
Tte remedy proposed by the Herald, de-
scribed below, would conflict with the state
8nd national constitutions, and involve a
return to the old English custom of out-
lawing people who do not appeal to defend
themselves when accused of crime. The
Herald says:
This law should be changed. It might be
amended to be similar to the law of evi-
dence in civil cases. When an offense is
committed and the offender has fled be-
yond the jurisdiction of the court, or his
whereabouts are unknown, he might
be notified by publication or by
notice served personally that tes-
timony would be taken on behalf of tha
State, and that he must appear in person
or by attorney instanter if he desired to
cross examine the witnesses, or be forever
barred from that privilege. This evidence,
properly certified to by the examining ma-
gistrate, should be admissible without im-
peachment of the witnesses on the final
trial, shouldlthe accused ever return or be
caught. The criminal who was guilty would
be forever banished; the accused Who was
conscious of innocence would be protected
by being notified and given (f nil opportunity
to Btand trial.
This would be a long step backward in
criminal jurisprudence and the protection
of personal liberty. No legislator with
knowledge of constitutional law would pro-
pose such a measure.
Livingstone, the great explorer, first went
to Africa as a religious missionary. Inone
of bis first reports as to the best means of
civilizing and converting the natives, he
tamed commerce and trade as the most
hopeful. The Austin Blade, a colored
man's paper, in the following expresses
something of the same sort:
The retrospective eye can see the won-
derful progi ess of the race in this State
and predict with no uncertain ring of truth
that another score of years will place our
people, as a whole, far in the advance of
the year [poor?] Southern whites. Tbe
paramount importance of studying self in-
terest has become associated with the
Afrit o-Texan's ideas of success in life. His
growing intelligence and manifest desire
to know more and possess more will de-
velop in him the speculative trait that
foims for a nation a mercantile character-
istic. Without this no people can hope to
attain an elevated plane of manhood that
will force respect. One great colored firm
—with a reputation for large and daring
transactions, backed by energy and a rep-
utation for spotless integrity—can legislate
laws of custom for the government of this
people, more powerful than the influence
of twenty legislators in the state legisla-
ture. To-day the Africo-American is
making that effort to force recognition. He
is investing in railroads, building cotton
gins, purchasing land for the purpose of
speculation. He is day by day mounting
the rounds of the ladder that reach to social
and business recognition.
The Blade gives Sambo a cut for excusing
his shortcomings by pointing to the ex-
amples of tte whites,
When we fail to succeed through onrown
voluntary ignorance of what we should
know, it is a cowardly presumption to say,
"The white people did." This puerile ex
cuse is frequently heard on oar streets; it
is the stereotyped exonse we frequently
have for our failure in business. One-half
of our failures in mercantile pursuits is
owing; to the unprincipled character of our
degenerated manhood and want of confi-
dence in one another.
Other papers furnish evidence that th®
colored man is capable of beooming a suc-
cessful financier:
JohnMcKee is probably the wealthiest
colored man in the United States; he-
counts his dollars to half a million, and;
lives in Philadelphia. P. A. White, the
prominent New York wholesale druggist, is ,
worth $250,000. In New Orleans, Jonie
Lafon is worth $1,100,000, and Mercer Bros.
$3C0.000. Amanda Enbanks owns $400,000,-
left her by her father, and in many other-
parts ol the Union are others who count up,
over $100,000.
For a republic, France is, as the darky ,
said, when accused of a fondness for the
white man's chickens, " very touchous " re-
garding reflections upon the crowned heads
of Europe. An amendment to the press _
laws is to be submitted to the Chamber ot'
Deputies providing for the punishment or i
such offenses on complaint of the embaa*{
sador of the government supposed to be ag~1
grieved. This is called forth by the publi-
cation of cacards concerning the czar,
which, it is stated, caused great annoyance*
In the Russian capital. France is not yet
enough of a republic to hart. Domestic*'
and foreign policy—all things—are sub-
ordinated to one rnling passion, which:
is to " get even " with Germany. This Is
the secrect of the Frenoh government's ob-
sequiousness toward Russia and the czar.
The London correspondent of the Chlca-j
go Times sends a prediction by a BritlsJ;
admiral that hostilities will commence
some quarter of Europe as early as March,"
as Russia is resolved to seize Constantino-
pie at any cost, and Franoe and'Germany
are ready for a f resh contest of arms. The
reported alliance of Germany and Russia
might mean, then, that Austria would be a
very sick man as well as Turkey.
Decent people had better begin to hold
their noses,as the intelligence is cabled from,
London that divorce proceedings are short-1
ly to be commenced there which will rival
if not surpass the Campbell case In soan-a
dalous revelations. To the casual observer
such a thing would seem well-nigh impos-
sible. _______
Mr. nation Placed Sight.
The News prints the following commu-
nication from Mr. O. O. Nation, editor of J
the Wharton Independent, with pleasure,
as a matter of justice to that gentleman,
and with the explanation that a confusion
of names and a slip of the pencil caused
his pa per [to be credited with utterances far
from its well-knjwn character for con-
servatism and respectability:
To The News.
Wharton, Tex., December 28,18S6.—I was I
astonished to day to see the following in
the State Preas column of The News:
The News, in common with a numberof
other papers, had the misfortune to offend
the Wharton Independent, and it takes no
pains to conceal its wrath. It commences
by expressing the hope that the legislature
will have the good sense to let the libel law
remain as it is, and then points its battery
directly on this paper,saying:
"The Galveston News, at the instigation
of a few 'negro pothouse politicians,""
publishes a wholesale indictment against ,
tbe best people of Washington county. 1
Exactly how much The News received for
inserting this infamous piece of balder-
dash, in its yet more luramohie column#,'
we are not prepared to say. That it was
handsomely remunerated for its contempt-
ible services we do not doubt."
The article copied by The News is from
the Brazoria Investigator, the town where
tbeBiazoria (now Wharton) Independent
was published. The article Is such an ex-
traordinary one, and places myself and the
Independent in such a position, that I am
forced to write you personally.
I have never directly or indirectly favor-
ed this iniquitous law, much less guilty of
writing such an article, which I disapprove
of from beginning to end.
Like The News, I have been & sufferer
from this odious and damnable provision
of our statute, and I consider it a blot on
the fair name of the State, a menace to the ^
press, and an insult to all honest journal-
ists. I think those who enacted it intended
it as such.
While The News and the Independent
have differed on public questions, I have-
always entertained the most profound re-
spect for its owners and the excellent
gentlemen who manage it, many of whom I
have the honor to know.
Fraternally, Oscar O. Nation,
Editor Wharton Independent.
A Suggestion.
To The News.
Calvert, Tex., December 28,1886.—Our ap» I
pellate courts are unable to dispose of the J
cases as they are filed to each term; par-
ties are delayed in the assertion of their
lights, and much injury to parties and to- |
the business of the county is the result.
Let me modestly suggest that the courts
have the remedy largely in their own
keeping. Days, weeks, and in the rfggre- .
gate months, are consumed each year by
the judges in reading their opinions fre-J
quently to empty seats. In nine cases OU'X
of ten neither the parties to the suits nc< I
iheir attornevs are in attendance. A.-
ciently opinions were delivered orally
open court. Now the law requires ojf
ions to be written, filed and recorded, a!
every person can have access to the
What good purpose Is served by keepi?
up a practice which may or may not ha; .
been proper under a different system? £- ;il
This reading wears out the judges, and f
tbe time could be profitably spent in out-
door exercise or in work upon the cases.
Nothing that is not useful can be truly or-
namental.
The Supreme Court, legislating for the
country, by its statute requires the lawyers
to present eases by stating, without argur 1
ment, the propositions of law applicable to>
the facts of tbe case, making a statement of
(lie facts to which these propositions apply,'
and by citing au'horities upon which"tney
rely. If a case can be intelligently pre-l
sented to the court iu this way—and itl
it seems it can—why can it not be re-
turned by the court to the inter-
ested parties by the same method? Au able
leporter has adopted a system very much
like the one here suggested in preparing
bis syllabus of a case; and I venture to say
that a very small portion of tho lawyers
ever look beyond the syllabus, except for
some spec-iai purpose. By adopting such a
system the court would save much time
and dispose of much more business; the
law would be reduced to greater certainty,
as most of tbe confusion in it arises from
the lengthy argument of the juilgein his
lengthy opinion, aud the lawyers aud coun-
try would save thousands o£ dollars now
invested in reports.
If the courts' will not legislate upon the
matter here suggested, will not the legisla-
ture, which, iu ft republican form of gov-
ernment :s charged with this duty, do so? 1
William H. Ham man. jl
The consul general of Costa Rica iU
Paris, having a'fked for a salary, the gov-
ernment has replied that it can not pay tou
its consular service, and has canceled hisj
exequatur, along with those of severi
other consuls, at the same time thanki
them lor their previous services.
Eunice Barton, an 18-year-old ,
Fiederick, W. Ya., was shot dead ,
younger.sister, who was examining
volver that she knew was not loadey
nice was to have been married on
day to Asa Gray, a young farmer^
was buried on that day instead. '
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The Galveston Daily News. (Galveston, Tex.), Vol. 45, No. 249, Ed. 1 Friday, December 31, 1886, newspaper, December 31, 1886; Galveston, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth464984/m1/4/: accessed June 5, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Abilene Library Consortium.