USA > Texas > Tarrant County > Fort Worth > History of Texas : Fort Worth and the Texas northwest edition, Volume II > Part 2
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The student of public affairs will find an interesting parallel between the problems confronting the legislatures of 1879 and 1915. However, few would have the temerity to class the support of the public schools as an extraneous burden of the state. The Legislature of 1879 had little choice in the matter, so it trimmed appropriations unsparingly. bringing them down to an amount less than that for the preceding bien- nium. However, the Legislature did not adopt two of the governor's most sweeping recommendations, namely (1) to reduce the appropriations for the public free schools below the one-fourth of the general revenue allowed by the constitution, and (2) to inaugurate a speedy sale of the public lands in any quantity to any purchaser. Fearing that there would not be sufficient revenue to meet current expenses, if the appropriations for the free schools and the interest on public debt should stand as fixed by the Legislature, and being determined to avoid a deficiency at every cost, Governor Roberts vetoed this portion of the bill. His action created intense excitement ; the Legislature adjourned next day ; but his message so ably defended a "pay as you go" policy, that he was able to carry his point. At a special session of the Legislature the appropriation for the interest on the public debt was re-enacted, and the appropriation for the free schools was limited to one-sixth of the general revenue for the next
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two years. In 1881 the Legislature again appropriated one-fourth, and the governor approved it, but in the meantime he had been subjected to much abuse and criticism for his veto in 1879.
Provision was made for the sale of school and public lands; the former at one dollar an acre in quantities varying from one-quarter to three sections, (in 1881 increased to seven sections,) the latter at fifty cents an acre in unlimited quantities, the proceeds being divided equally between the schools and the public debt. These acts, coming at a time when settlers and speculators were pouring into Texas in large numbers, increased the permanent school fund faster than the board of education was able to invest it under the restrictions imposed by statute. Governor Roberts adopted the questionable plan of buying state bonds at a premium of forty per cent. The sale of public lands in large bodies greatly stimulated speculation in these lands. For both these results he was severely criticised. A justification of his course, in his own words, is as follows :
"The public lands and those belonging to the school and other funds were for the most part in the western portion of the state, a great proportion of which were not and never would be adapted to farming. * * To utilize those lands for stock-raising, to which they were adapted, it was necessary to allow large tracts to be purchased by persons who had means to engage in that business in a dry country. Another consideration was that it was better to sell the lands at a fair price and increase the school and other funds to help pay the public debt, thereby relieving the people from taxation, than to continue donating them to railroad companies. It was also ap- parent that it was better to let the lands belong to individuals who would pay taxes upon them than for the government to continue to keep them for any purpose. The experience of our past history in land business was that, however careful the government has been to prevent them, frauds would continually be perpetrated in its man- agement, which conclusively demonstrated the impropriety of the government's undertaking to handle such property permanently. It was evident that there was no propriety in the state government holding the lands for speculative purposes. * * For the in- crease in the common price of land at any time does not arise from anything that the government does to raise the price of it, but from the labor and capital expended by the people in settling upon and improving parts of it, which makes the balance of it more valuable ; and for the government to demand more for it then is in effect spec- ulation on what the people have done to enhance the price of the land." (Comprehensive History of Texas, II. 247.)
In his message of 1881 the governor was able to report that the state treasury went on a cash basis on May 1, 1879. Retrenchment in gov- ernment expenses, taxation of everything taxable, rigorous collection of the taxes due, and a large increase in the wealth of the state had com- bined to work this result. The connection existing between the general revenue and the public school fund was terminated by providing a special school tax, and in 1883 the constitution was amended by placing the maximum state tax rate at thirty-five cents on the $100.
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FRONTIER PROTECTION
Very closely connected with the financial problems, confronting the new administration in 1874, were those having to do with the suppres- sion of lawlessness and protection of the frontier. "The large emigra- tion from other countries, the former spirit of speculation and subse- quent monetary depression and want of profitable employment, the exten- sion of our frontier and the changed condition of a large colored popu- lation, have all contributed to generate and exhibit an amount and char- acter of crime and civil wrong entirely unprecedented in this country. * The very inadequacy of the power of correction has provoked * * outrageous wrongs as a substituted remedy, without and against the law." (Roberts' Message, 1879.) "Texas has an Indian frontier and a Mexican border of not less than 1,500 miles, on which her people of necessity wear arms habitually for defense. Five-sixths of the popu- lation of Texas may be found in one-third of her territory. The re- mainder of the country is in the common acceptation frontier." (Coke's Message, January, 1875.)
The vigorous enforcement of the laws filled the penitentiary to over- flowing. The number of convicts in that institution on January 1, 1876. was 1,723. What to do with the prisoners became a great problem and continued to perplex the state administrations during subsequent years. As there was not room within the walls, and since the state at that time owned no farms, a majority of the prisoners were hired out; but the treatment they received at the hands of the lessees was denounced as vicious even in its beginning .* To carry out reforms the erection of an additional penitentiary was undertaken, with a view of employing a large number of the prisoners within the walls. But finding profitable employ- ment within the walls has been difficult for the character of the labor to be employed.
An act of 1874 to provide for the protection of the frontier against hostile Indians, Mexicans or other marauding of thieving parties author- ized the governor to organize a battalion of mounted men of six com- panies of seventy-five men each. This force was the beginning of the present Texas Ranger force ; its permanence has been due to its dual character of military force and of peace officers. The Rangers relieved the frontier counties not only of Indian depredations but also of the equally troublesome lawless characters that sought refuge there. Their influence on the development of the frontier was very great. During the twelve years preceding 1874 no new counties had been organized in the West. Through the confidence of security restored by the Rangers the frontier settled so rapidly that fourteen counties were organized be- tween 1874 and 1878. The taxable values of twenty-three border coun- ties doubled within this short period. The adjutant general of the state. in the fall of 1880, "made a tour of inspection and observation on the
*In speaking of the lease system, it must be stated that Texas has never surrendered the care and control of its prisoners into the hands of the contractors. When a railroad or an individual hired the convicts, the state sent along its own guards who exercised the same control over the prisoners as if engaged in state work. The state emploved physicians to look after the prisoners' welfare. While this modified form of the lease system had many advantages over the out and out lease, it has not been proof against abuse.
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frontier from Fort Elliott, in the northern part of the Panhandle, to Menard County. *
* * I found the country wonderfully developed and improved since my last trip to the frontier two years ago. The out- side settlements are now from 50 to 100 miles further west than they were then. The tier of counties which contained the border settlements three years ago, their only population at that time being stockmen, who lived in picket houses and dug-outs, are now settled and rapidly filling up by an industrious and thrifty class of farmers. *
* * The stock- men have * moved from 50 to 150 miles further west and
northwest. * There is now almost a continuous line of large ranches from Devil's River on the Rio Grande, via the headwaters of the Concho, Colorado, Brazos and Red rivers to the Canadian, in the extreme northern part of the Panhandle." (Report of the Adjutant General, 1880, p. 29.)
Fighting Indians was only a small part of the Ranger's arduous task, and this practically ceased, even in the wildest portions of the state, in 1884. The Ranger force has since been greatly reduced as regards numbers, but it has not been discontinued because of its excellence as an instrument in dealing with lawless men. In proportion as Texas settled up, and the demands upon the time of each person increased, Governor Roberts states, the disinclination on the part of the people to give aid in any way in the execution of the laws increased, except on full compensation in money. Hence Rangers were called on to assist the local officers whenever the latter were in need of aid in making arrests of desperate criminals, or to escort prisoners threatened with vio- lence, or to attend court to preserve order, or to protect jails against mobs.
FREE EDUCATION
The constitutional provision for a system of public free schools set apart an enormous quantity of public lands for its endowment. An annual poll tax of one dollar and a sum not to exceed one-fourth of the general revenue, together with the annual income from the permanent fund, were set aside for the support of the schools. The lands for a decade remained unproductive of revenue. The income from poll taxes was necessarily limited. The constitution made no provision for sup- plementing state funds by local taxation. Yoking the available school fund with the general expenses of the government made it impossible to increase the former without at the same time trebling the latter. There was much demand for a reduction of the expenses of the government. Added to this was the fact that the public mind had not recovered from the rude shock experienced during radical rule from the attempt to force upon the state the unsuitable, extravagant and onerous system provided for in the old constitution, with its brood of devouring officials. There- fore, Governor Coke gave it as his opinion that the people would have to be led by slow and easy approaches through practical results, which all can see, to the realization of a system suitable to their condition and within their ability to maintain.
The entire machinery of the former school system was swept away. To meet the large decrease in the school revenues the scholastic age was
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changed from six to eighteen to eight to fourteen. This reduction in the number of scholastics practically made it impossible to organize schools in thinly settled portions of the state. To inaugurate a new system of free schools a board of education was created, composed of ex-officio members who already had all the work they could do. That vague and indefinite something, the community, was made the local unit. Teachers were not graded and little attention was paid to their qualifications. In 1877 the average length of the school term was three months and the average salary of the teachers thirty-five dollars.
The principal income of the school fund was the one-fourth of the general revenue of the state. During Roberts' first term the share con- tributed by the general revenue was cut from one-fourth to one-sixth. An effort was made by speedy sale of the school lands to increase the permanent school fund and thus recoup the revenues from that source. For four years the policy of disposing of the school lands amounted to little short of squandering several million acres of land, besides laying the foundation for huge private and corporate land holdings. The con- plaint that the school law "proceeded upon the idea of providing for the compensation of the teachers more effectually than for the teaching of the scholars, for whom the money has been distributed to the coun- ties" resulted in an act establishing a ratio between the salary of the teacher and the attendance of the pupils. Some attention, too, was given to the classification of teachers into three grades according to their quali- fication. A secretary for the board of education was employed. By the aid of the Peabody fund normal schools for the training of white and colored teachers were established, and summer normal institutes inau- gurated in 1881. The University of Texas was opened in 1883. This year also an amendment to the constitution was adopted which com- pletely changed the basis of support of the public schools from the gen- eral revenue of the state to an annual ad valorem state tax not to exceed twenty cents on the $100 valuation any one year. The amendment fur- ther provided for the creation of school districts in which the state tax could be supplemented by a local tax. The sale of the public and school lands at former prices was stopped, and a law enacted regulating the leasing and sale of these lands at much higher prices. The office of state superintendent of public instruction was created in 1884, and the general school law was much improved. These measures of Governor Ireland's administration marked the beginning of real progress in the public free school system of Texas.
ECONOMIC READJUSTMENT
"For sixty years before the war the Federal Government was administered so as not to be the adversary of the agricultural interests of the Southern people, and, as claimed by the Northern people, prejudicial to their commercial and manufacturing inter- ests, which made them dissatisfied and caused a political conten- tion. That difference culminated in the war between the sections, North and South. Since the war for thirty years the national government has been administered in a way to result in promo- ting the commercial, manufacturing and general moneyed inter-
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ests of the Northern people, and, as claimed by the Southern peo- ple, prejudicial to their agricultural interests, which makes them dissatisfied and causes a continued political contention." (O. M. Roberts, in Confederate Military History. XI, 148.)
"Prior to the political revolution of 1860, the wealth of the United States was distributed among the inhabitants in some just proportion to the capacity of men to acquire it unaided by legislation. The government had rarely interfered with private affairs and the people were left to their own exertions in the acquisition of property. As a consequence there were few colos- sal fortunes, and the peril of accumulated and organized riches was not imminent. Since then it has become common for the Government to aid certain classes of industries by bounties, pro- tection and other species of unequal laws, and under this impetus individual fortunes have grown to such gigantic proportions that conservative and thoughtful men are appalled at the enlarging power of concentrated capital. * *
* To this harmful and indefensible legislation there have been added in recent years the oppressive and audacious operations of trusts and conspiracies against trade, and between them the exactions imposed upon the great masses of the people, enriching the few and tending to unjust division of wealth, have grown intolerable." (Governor Culberson's message. January 16, 1895.)
After the war there was a rapid influx of capital and population. The principal development along commercial and industrial lines in Texas centered around the construction of railways, appropriation of the public lands and exploitation of natural resources. Of greatest immediate importance the railroads outranked by far all other enter- prises. Through their interstate relations they brought to bear on the people of Texas the effects of the policies and legislation existing beyond our limits and beyond the control of the state. The principal owners of the railways and of other large corporations were non- residents. Therefore, federal legislation in reference to these bodies was always of great interest to the people of Texas. The state fur- nished such leaders in congress, as Reagan in favor of an interstate commerce commission, Mills in favor of tariff reform, and Coke in favor of the people against oppressive corporations and legislative corruption of every kind.
RAILROADS
The people of Texas desired railways and made generous dona- tions of land. money and bonds to hasten their construction. The state government appropriated 10,240 acres of land for every mile of road built until the public domain was exhausted. Much of this land was rich and valuable, and all of it was useful to the railways in financing their projects. The total amount of land granted to rail- ways was about 38,826,380 acres, or 22 per cent of the total acreage of the state, an area equal to that of the State of New York. The impetus given to railway construction was extraordinary. From the United States and from foreign countries capital flowed like water into
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Texas railway enterprises. The increase in mileage as compared with the growth of population between 1870 and 1890, was as follows:
1870 Rank 1880
Rank 1890
Rank
Population
818,579 19 1,591,749 11
2,235,523 7
Railway mileage 571 28
2,696 12
8,630 3
The period of extraordinary activity in construction terminated with the exhaustion of public land in 1882, and was followed by an era marked by combinations, over capitalization, extortionate rates and poor service on the part of many of the roads.
In 1881 the Huntington and Gould interests entered into an agree. ment whereby all competition between the two was suspended and the construction of parallel or competing lines was forestalled. These two magnates controlled most of the railways in the state ; the former. the Galveston, Harrisburg & San Antonio and the Texas & New Orleans railways, the latter controlled the Texas & Pacific, Interna tional & Great Northern, the Galveston, Houston & Henderson, the Missouri, Kansas & Texas and the St. Louis, Iron Mountain & South ern railways. In 1885 the Texas Traffic Association was formed. It was composed of nine Texas railroads and of eight connecting lines lying outside the limits of the state. Its object also was to eliminate competition among the roads composing the association. A central committee promulgated the rates which each member was obliged to observe, until the combine was dissolved by the attorney-general in 1888.
Complaints and charges against the railroads were numerous. Local rates were unreasonably high as compared with through rates. The products of Texas manufacturers, said Senator Coke, "are out- rageously discriminated against on our railroads. Manufactured products from distant states are distributed * *
* throughout Texas by the railroads at lower rates than similar articles of Texas manufacture will be carried by them from one point to another in Texas. Cotton goods from Georgia mills are carried at lower rates than the products of Texas mills, and iron manufacturers of other states are favored in the same way over those of Texas." The sen- ator gave an instance; the water works company of Weatherford preferred to purchase iron pipe at Rusk but on account of the differ- ence in freight rates was obliged to place its order in Tennessee.
Rates were not based on cost of service but on "what the traffic would bear." When harvests were abundant freight rates were increased and absorbed most of the farmers' profits. Discriminations between individuals for the same service were constant. Secret rate cutting demoralized business. By granting secret special rates. rebates, drawbacks and concessions they fostered monopoly, enriched favorite shippers and prevented competition in such lines of trade in which the item of transportation constituted an important factor. Another example cited by Senator Coke illustrates this :
"Where are the New Braunfels woolen mills, the cloth prod- ucts of which of the same class, unequalled in the East, were worn all over Texas and retailed in every store in the state ten
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or twelve years ago? This splendid industry by hostile discrim- inations of the railroads in co operation with Eastern manufac- turers has been driven absolutely out of existence." (Coke to Harned, July 26, 1889, in Fort Worth Gazette, August 3, 1889.)
Free passes were used to maintain a privileged class at the expense of those who paid.
"The railways have issued free passes to nearly every tax assessor and county commissioner in this state, who must adjust the values of their property. They have issued them to sheriffs, who serve the process of law. They have issued them to col- lectors, who enforce the payment of taxes. They have issued them to justices of the peace and to county judges, and to most all other judges along the line of their railways who try their cases." (Ex-Governor Hogg's address to House Committee on Constitu- tional Amendments. February 5, 1901.)
The capitalization and bonded indebtedness of railways largely exceed the actual cost of construction. "In prosecuting the East Line case," said Ex-Governor Hogg :
"I proved by the railway officials that this railway line from Jefferson to Greenville cost its owners $7,000 per mile to build it ; that they got from the state 10,240 acres of land to the mile ; that they sold this land for more than enough to pay for building the road ; that they issued $12,000 in bonds and stocks to the mile on the road, and that they ran it many years and maintained it in fine condition : that in 1880 they sold it to other parties for $9,000 in cash per mile, which included the stocks and bonds. The new purchasers immediately placed stocks and bonds on the road for $35,000 to the mile, thus making a clear profit upon the face of the transaction of about $4,000,000. At once the new manage- ment cut down the train and track service, reduced wages of the employes, raised traffic rates out of reason, and within six or seven years ran down the road from a good one to such a reck- less state that no one could get an accident ticket over it:" (Ex- Governor Hogg's address, February 5, 1901.)
INDUSTRIAL PROBLEMS
With the industrial development of Texas a large number of wage earners was introduced. The concentration of wealth and power in the hands of their employers caused the workmen to enter into defen- sive organizations. Reductions of wages of railway employes pro- voked strikes. The interruptions of traffic resulting therefrom caused great losses and much suffering to the people. A strike on the Gould lines was inaugurated about March 1, 1885. Governor Ireland's proc- lamation, and the harsh measures aimed at the strikers by some mem - bers of legislature, were met by directing attention to the disregard of law by the railroads. Public sympathy was generally . with the strikers. The troubles were adjusted by an agreement of March 15, 1885, which was regarded a victory for the labor unions. Perhaps as a result of this victory organization of railway employes under the leadership of the Knights of Labor made rapid progress during 1885 VOL. II-2
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and 1886. Alleging violations of the agreement of the previous year, the Knights of Labor used the discharge of C. A. Hall, a foreman in the Texas & Pacific shops at Marshall, and a prominent member of their order, as the occasion for calling another strike on the Gould lines in March, 1886. In the meantime the Texas & Pacific Railway had passed into the hands of a federal receiver. The railway officials used the receivership as an excuse for refusing to negotiate with their employes. Matters dragged for a month with no approach toward an adjustment. Bitterness increased with suffering. Some destruc- tion of property occurred, and bloodshed resulted in an effort to pre- vent the moving of a local freight train at Fort Worth on April 3rd. The governor ordered several companies of militia and the Rangers to that point, but no further trouble occurred, as the large body of strikers was opposed to the use of physical force. The decision of the federal judge in the case against the strikers held that the employes of a railroad, acting under the direction of the court, are in contempt if they conspire among themselves to leave the service of the road without warning, thereby temporarily crippling the serv- ice. It looked like both courts and the executive had joined with the railroads to oppress labor. It greatly emphasized the necessity of curbing the reckless use of power of these powerful interests; and stirred the Knights of Labor to great political activity during the cam- paign of 1886.
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