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The Waco evening news. [volume] (Waco, Tex.) 1891-1894, February 27, 1892, Image 5

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WACO DAILY NEWS, FEBRUARY 27 I892.
jMmWiwiwW'www "' ! wui wiii Mil mmm
THE FIRST C-I
Firod by Judge Clark at Woathor
ford Today.
Thousands of Pooplo Listen to His
Speech.
An
Ablo and Masterly Effort By
Our Warwick.
The
Hogg Administration tinea
Eull of Holes.
gpccislto Tlio News:
Weatiieiuoiid, Feb. 27. Judgo
Clark spoke hero today to tho largest
crowd over seen in Weatherford. The
crowd was full of enthusiasm and
frequently went wild with applause.
Judge Clark's speech was us follows:
Fellow Citizens: It is said that
after the charge at Balaklava, and
which resulted in the useless loss of
manv brave and valuable men, the
cry went up from the army as the
remnant retreated back to its lines,
"somebody has blundered." And so,
when we look abroad at this fair land,
and recall the many wonderful advan
tages vouchsafed to us by a kind
Providence, and which ought to make
us the freest and happiest and most
prosperous people upon earth, and
realize the stagnation around us, the
prostration of trade, the loss of confi
dence, the oppression of labor, the
destruction of investments, the arrest
of progress and tho general devasta
tion and ruin which rises up before
our vision, that same cry repeated by
the English soldiery, might well be
repeated now with reference to Texas,
for "somebody has blundered."
Texas, to-day, ought to stand among
tho sisterhood of states the brighest
and most peerless star in the galaxy.
God has done for us more than we
could have asked. He has given us
a land fruitful beyond computation,
an atmosphere more genial than any
enjoyed by the children of men and
a people who will compare most favor
ably with the best, the bravest and
the truest of which history eives ac
count. And yet, no thoughtful citi
zen of the state, who respects his rep
utation for veracity, can say aud say
truthfully, that Texas is prosperous
to-day. For some reason her devel
opment has been arrested, prosperity
has left her borders, stagnation and
blight have come upon her people,
her agriculture is depressed, her labor
fails to find remunerative employment,
her money is garnered in banks, her
people are distressed beyond meas
ure. And yet she is tho banner
Democratic state of the union. It is
to be supposed that her government
and her laws are based upon Demo
cratic principles, If these principles
and their application have produced
these results as legitimate consequen
ces, I do not hesitate to say for my
sell, that I am ready to abandon any
party which advocates them. If a
strict adhearance to the teachings of
Thomas Jefferson have resulted in
prostrating these people and bringing
them to their political and commer
cial ruin, causing desolation to sit
upon their hearthstones and sadness
to rest in their hearts, theso principles
have been erroneous and ought to be
abandoned by a free people. But, if,
on the contrary, this result has been
attained by an evasion or a pervers
ion of those principles, we cannot go
back too soon to their reassertion,
and ought not to neglect or forego
any effort until they are re-established
as the land marks of our government.
For one, I do not hesitate to say, and
I believe it with a fervor equal to
that of an enthusiast, that all the evils
and all the ills under which our peo
ple now suffer, come from a departure
fion the true principles of democratic
government as taught by the fathers
of the republic, and that we can trace
every well founded complaint uttered
by any man or by any class in our
midst, to a neglect, either from ignor
ance or design, of these principles
which must be the essential bases of
every well organized republic.
The trouble has been, fellow citi
zens, that in our mad rush for wealth
and for power and for office, we have
not been careful to observe the tiue
land marks aud the true principles of
genuine liberty in our country. Too
frequently we have been disposed to
sacrifice principle for expendiency, to
base our political action upon what
we thought might win and not upon
what we thought was right. And the
result has been that our platforms
of party principles have become pa
per promises, aud their fulfillment has
been usnylly postponed to some
more convenient season so as to
evade responsibility, or to retain place.
It is time, my fellow citizens, that we
should call a halt on this line of poli
tical action. If we are a party of
principles we must assert theso prin
ciples, and not only stand by them,
but be ready to fall with them and for
them. If we are a party of trimmers,
the sooner we acsnowledge it and
disintegrate, the better for ourselves
and the country. In so far as the
govermental evils under which wo
are laboring may come from federal
sources, every Democrat can very well
congratulate himself that we as a
party cannot be chargeable therewith,
for we have not had possession of
this government for thirty years. It
is true we have not done all that we
should have done to abolish that sys
tem of legislation which has precipi
tated these evils upon the coui.try,
and our sins of omission may bo
many, but except in rare instances,
no sin of commission can be properly
laid at our door. I say except in rare
instances, becauso we are not al
toeether blameless even upon this
basis. Somoofthe most advanced
steps toward centralism in our gov-i
ernment have been precipitated upon
the country through Democratic in
strumentality. I allude to the inter
state commerce law and the oleomar
gerine law but I do so not with the
inspiration of carping criticism, but
simply as illustrative of the tenden
cies of the times and of the broad
road we are traveling to destruction
I have no desire or intention to enter
upon the question of lederal politics,
neither does it concern me in this
camoaicn who shall be president. I
have already spoken upon Federal
questions with no uncertain sound,
and, and I retire those issues here
and now with tho simple remark, tlut
notwithstanding any mistakes of tho
Democratic party, I decline to join in
any rebelion against the organization
of the party, and expect to support
its nominees most heartily, no matter
who they may bo. lam here to-day
to discuss Texas interest? solely, to
join issue with those who have been
in power in Texas for two years past,
and to lay before you my views ol the
situation and tho tendencies of legisla
tion, in order that with joint counsels
we may improve our condition. I am
here as a candidate lor governor in
opposition to the candidacy of the
Hon. James S. Hogg, the present in
cumbent of that office. I am not
here to abuse him personally, or to
say ought against him in so far as he
as an individual is concerned. With
his personality I have no concern. I
propose to deal only with his public
acts as a servant of the people. And
I am candid enough to say to you,
that if, as governor of Texas, he has
proved faithful in all things; if he has
upheld and protected your constitu
tion; if he has .faithfully and unsel
fishly administered your laws; if he
has so acted as to manifest that he
has regarded your former confidence
as a sacrea trust to do administered
solely for the public benefit and not
as a personal chattel to be used in
the interest and for the behoof of
himself and his chosen friends; and if,
under his administration, content
ment and prosperity have come to
your homes, aud happiness reigns
upon your hearthstones, you would
be an unwise people to demand his
retirement in behalf of any other cani
datj, for ho would be entitled to a re
nomination and a re-election at your
hands. If, however, ho has proved
unfaithful; if he has disregarded your
constitution, either through design or
ignorance; if he has administered
your public affairs as if they wero pri
vate property belonging to himself
and to be used only for the benefit
aud advancement of himself and his
friends; and if, under his rule, and as
a consequence thereof, prosperity has
spread her wings and sailed away to
other lands, leaving behind her many
hopeless hearts and ruined homes and
a general prostration of material and
commercial advancement, then you
woald be equally unwise if you did
not demand an immediate change in
that office.
There can be littlo of sentiment in
your decision, fellow citizens. The
question is purely practical. Individ
uals or individual interests, so far as
the iucumbency of public office is con
cerned, count as an'.infinitesimal quan
tity when compared with the welfare
of a whole people; and tho unwritten
law ol a mere custom cannot outweigh
the public security and the public in
terests. That under ordinary condi
tions It has been a party custom with
us to continue a governor in office for
two terms is not pregnant even with
the suggestion that this custom must
be observed to our own detriment. If
the present governor of Texas de
serves a second term at your hands,
lit will receive it; if measured by his
public acts, he fails to come up to
this standard, he ought not to receive
it. This is tho sole question for your
decision.
I am not vain enough Lto assume
that even the governor or myself are
indispensable to Texas or to the
party. Doubtless there are other
citizens of the state who could serve
her better than either. Indeed a wail
comes from some sources that neither
of us are desirable in the present
emergency. But, nevertheless, the
governor and myself are here, and
circumstances have made us oppos
ing candidates for the highest office
within your gift. Speaking for niv
self, and, knowing the governor as I
do, I think also I could speak for him
in thisjjehalf. We have entered upon
this race because we are proud to
represent opposing ideas in govern
ment; and so far as I am concerned,
I will add and the governor can
speak for himself when he addresses
the people that I am not a candidate
for my health, nor am I a candidate
m behalf of any one else, nor have I
any idea of waving my claims (if claims
I have) for the benefit and advantage
of some fellow who is sitting in the
grass waiting for nominating lightning
to strike him. There is no room in
this raco for a politician of the neuter
gender. There is no special demand
at this juncture for the appearance of
some pliant fellow who happens to be
made at a time when backbones had
given out and the Lord used a jelly
fish for the purpose of supplying that
portion of his anatomy. There will
be no room in this fight for a hybrid
ticket composed of a Chinaman and a
linger. This is a c ntest of ideas; it
is a battle of principles, and it will be
fought to a finish before the people of
Texas between Governor Hogg and
myself, regardless of dark horses or
any other kind of a sable animal. The
governor will want to be re-elected on
the principles and policies represented
by his administration, and I will seek
the same high honor upon the princi
ples I advocate. The advantage if
advantage it be that I hold over
him, is that his day for promises has
passed, and he must now be judged
by his proformances; his public acts
are now on trial before you, fellow
citizens, and his past promises are
useful only for purposes of compari
son. The day of undue passion and
excitement, of angry prejudices
aroused, or harsh words spoken be
cause of intolerance of opinion, of
false hopes excited by promises in
capable of fulfillment, have all passed
thank God, never to return I hope,
and we stand to-day amid a peaceful
atmosphere with the clear sunlight
beaming upon us in full effulgence,
enabling us to search all places and
find the Hying truth.
That the condition of Texas has
changed within the past two yoars,
and changed for the worse, no man
can deny. Her people are burdened
as they never were before; hei mate
rial development is arrested; new en
terprises are hardly discussed, much
less projected and executed; her farm
ers in great measure are impoverished;
her laborers are without employment;
her commerce and business is siag
nant, and nearly two-thirds of the
state still awaits development. Only
two years ago your retiring executive
congratulated the state in his farewell
message upon the flattering measure
of prosperity which then obtained
with our people. To day a blight
seems to have settled upon us and
prosperity is a reminiscence. Our
lands, the chief basis of our wealth
and our credit, by name of constant
attack upon the titles are unsalable
and unpledgable, and our banks only
are possessed of nny money. The
laboring masses are crying aloud for
some relief, and even the accumula
tions of the rich are taking wings and
flying away, we know not how, wo
know not where. Money, which
moves the world, comes to us n )
more, and the little we dig out of the
ground leaves us as wo reach out our
hands to grasp it. This condition of
stagnation comes with peculiar hard
ship upon the poor. Usually wealth
is not affected by such depression; it
is always able to take care of itself,
and capital, when unprotected or an
tagonized, seems to possess wings
with which it can fly to other lands
and here enable its possessors to
revel in their accustomed luxuries,
but the poor must remain and starve,
for they havo no other alternative. If
it be a crime on the part of govern
ment to oppress capital, how much
more grievous, how much more dam
nable is it when by means of such op
pression it lays its heavy hand upon
abor, for labor cannot live without
employment, and stagnation means for
it starvation Now it would be unjust
to charge the whole responsibility for
this condition of affai s upon the
present administration in Texas. It
comes from several causes; from a
scarcity of circulation; from the rob
bery of a tariff which ruthlessly tram
ples us under foot for the benefit of a
favored few, and deprives us of the
power of making exchanges of our
products for the products of other
countries who wish to trade with us
and to buy of us; and it comes also
from an organized system of robbery
under various guises by which, under
U12 forms of legislation the functions
of our government have been per
verted to the accomplishment of pri
vate ends and for private gams. But
the chief cause, so tar as Texas is
concerned, is attributable to our own
notion. We have passed through
similar emergencies in the past, but
without such conditions as confront
us to-day. Tho crash ofl873 found
Texas prosperous, and its effects were
scarcely perceptible here, because the
prostration in other lands and in
other states coupied with the liberal
laws and inducements then held out
by Texas to the world, brought to us
a tide of population and a flow of
capital for investment, which enabled
our people to secure prosperity with
out beiig reminded of the fact that
other states and other countries less
fortunately situated were suffering
serious evil. To-day the slates of the
north and of the east and of the west
and of the northwest are prosperous
and their people contented; even from
some states of the desolated South and
Southwest conies no wail of discon
tent. But Texas, which before sur
passed all of her sisters in the rapidity
of her development and building up,
stands to day the chief sufferer; and
for what? Because, in an evil hour,
we listened to the demagogue and
forgot our wisdom. Our peoplo were
taught to believe that those who came
among us to help us build up the
state, were public enemies and ought
to be in our penitentiaries. They
were taught to believe by designing
and unscrupulous partisans that the
chief function of the railroads of the
state was to rob the people of their
substance and that they were rioting
in their illgotten wealth, when a slight
investigation would have convinced
the most skeptical what yaur com
mission already admits that three
fourths of the railroad mileage of the
state was bankrupt. It was charged
that the stock of the railroads had
been watered and that the people
were being taxed in order to pay div
idends on watered stock, when m
truth and in fact, as is well known to
day, there had never been a railroad
in Texas that ever paid one dollar of
dividend on its stock. They we're
told that bonds to an unlimited
amount had been issued upon the
mileage of the railroads and that in
order to pay the interest on these
bonds the people were being ground
to the earth by exorbitant rates levied
upon tuem by tnese unscrupulous
carriers. And yet there was scarce a
railroad in the stato that paid its inter
est on anything except the first mort
gage bonds and usually upon the
basis of about $ I8,ooo to the mile,
cheaper than the road could be built
at the present time. They were told
and the apprehension filled them with
alarm, that aliens were swarming
upon uh, individuals and corporations
were seizing upon and gradually ab
sorbing the lands of the state so as to
deprive our people of their homes;
when as a matter of fact, if there was
one thing above another which an
alien did not want, it was Texas land.
And the people grew desperate while
reflecting upon these evils so greatly
magnified and entered upon a career
of legislation which scarce has a paral
lel in the history of republican com
monwealth. We threw behind us in
our efforts to reach a remedy and a
preventive, for evils many of which
were imaginary, principles of govern
ment sanctified by the blood and
efforts of our ancestors in their strug
gles for liberty, and the effort of our
action has been only to vindicate in
lines of sorrow the soundness of these
principles. We proclaimed to -the
world by our yotes that we did not
want other people's money to come
here and help us develop this great
land, and other people have kept
their money at home. We announced
in a manner equally official and au
thoritative that we believe railroads
were a curso to the country, and we
wanted no more of them built, and the
world has taken us at our word and
has not built any more for us. No
Texan has ever been found foolish
enough to put much of his money in
a Texas railroad, and the yankee has
been equally as smart as the Texan,
lor thoro is nut little Yankee monoy in
a Texas railroad They had better
use for thoir nionov up in the Hast
aud s.o they prevailed upon tho alien
o come and put his money in railroads
horo through thorn, nnd tho railroad
tniloago of Texas ropresents to a great
degrco the confidence of tho nlicn. Tho
Eastern man had better u?o for his
money; ho kept it in thb shape of
money so as to doprcdato upon ua
whenever our crops began to move,
auu inurooy no nns snown moro sa
gacity than tho alien, for Yo doubles
it pretty muoh every season oithor in
interost or in speculation. And in
order to sec that hn is duly fostered
and encouraged in his deprcdationH,
wo passea an alien laud law which has
resulted only in driving tho alien from
us, and preventing him from dealing
directly with us, and onabling tho
Yankee to borrow tho alien's money
at four por cent, and lend it to ub at
ten. Tho logio of Governor Hogg's
oloolion two years ago was tho culmi
nation of a series of aggressions upon
capital which had been invited hero
for investment undor n guarantoo of
protection. It was the closing act of
a long war inaugurated for , political
purposes, and its result has cost Toxas
and her people many, many millions of
dollars.
T am not hero for tho purposo of de
fending railroads, for they have abler
men than myself employed for that
purposo. I have no connection with
them and no special interest in them,
exoopt in so far as their intorest may
comport with tho interest of the peoplo
of Texas, llocent lessons in govern
ment have taught us that theso inter
ests aro reciprocal and inter-dopend-cut,
and that a blow aimed at one will
necessarily recoil upon tho othor.
Texas oinnot destroy her railroads
without bringing ruin upon hor poo
pic, no moro than sho could destroy
hor peoplo without injury to lir rail
roads. Wo aro in tlio samo boat and
must float or sink togothcr.
There was no necessity, follow-oiti-zciih,
for a disturbance of buBinoss or
a terrorism of investments from tho
p'lssago of a commission law or an
alien land law. Othor Statos havo
these laws upon thoir statuto books
which hnvo worked no sorious
detriment to their people, but not
suoh laws as Gov. Hogg recommended
and approved. Tho administration of
railroud affairs by a commission is not
necessarily hurtful to the railroads or
to the State if conservatism prevails in
our legislation and administration. It
was promisod us two years ago by
those who felt that tho problem of
railway control was unBolvablo exoopt
IIIIUULIII L1IU IU1II1 Ul II VIIUIUJIOOtUU,
that no radicalism should obtain in
our legislation and that thoso of us
who wore distrustful of the plan wero
unnecessarily alarmed. But the result
has more than vindicated tho gravity
of tho apprehension, aud we have, to
day, upon tho Statuto Hook of Texas,
a constitutional monstrosity in tho
shapo of law as the result of our ox
neinuout. I undertuko to say as a
lawyer, and if tho test is ovor applied
in any court, I am willing to submit
my vindication to the judgment of tho
Court, that this commission law, un
dor whioh eight thousand live hun
drod miles of railroad is being oper
ated, managed and controlled to day
in Toxas, will not stand ouo hour of
judicial scrutiny in tho Supremo Court
of Texas on aooount of its violation in
many provisions of both our State and
Federal constitutions. That it 1ms
not been attacked ih due, porhaps, as
much to my own efforts as to any othor
oause, for my advico has been to
theso pooplo to obey tho law and trust
to tho justice of the pooplo of Texas
foraromody. I havo told them that
tho peoplo of Texas aro a liberal poo
ple and a just people; und that thoy
would not tolorato wrong on thoir own
part whon discovered. And if ir
could be made to appear to them that
gross injuiiico was boing done uny
person or any intorest thoy would bo
more prompt to remedy that injuetioo
at tho ballot box than would a court,
and the remedy they applied would be
moro cflloaoiouB. This commission
law is not tho result of tho matured
judguiont of your Jaw makers. It was
drivon through the LogiBlaturo under
whip and spur, and few of tho luoin
bors undorstood its provisions or their
effect. It came as tho ultimatum of
tho Govornor, and waB so announced
and understood upon tho flour of botu
Houses of tho Legislature. It wen
deolared that its ainnudment would
not bo tolerated; that the Governor,
being responsible for the commission,
domanded this law or nothing, and tho
LegiBlaturo yiold-d its judgment and
passed tho law. Other measures wero
propoaod far moro Htatosmaulike far
moro just and moro free from oonsti-

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