800 



TEXAS. 



Militia. The State Militia, which consists of 

 2,610 officers and men, was maintained at a cost 

 of $9,377.17 for the last two years. The State 

 also supports an active force of 32 men, known 

 as the ranger force, whose duty it is to preserve 

 order and enforce the law along the exposed bor- 

 ders of the State. The cost of this force for the 

 two years was $44,285.01. 



Public Lands. The report of the State 

 Commissioner for the past two years shows that 

 6,577 patents were issued, covering 3,115,968 

 acres, against 10,584 covering 7,580,356 acres 

 for the two preceding years, and against 13,700 

 covering 8,017,729 acres for the two years end- 

 ing Aug. 31, 1886. In former years the State 

 was prodigal with its public lands, granting to 

 railroads 38,837,120 acres, and to other internal 

 improvement companies 5,128,320 acres; but a 

 change of policy has been made, and the remain- 

 ing public land's are reserved for actual settlers. . 

 Of the original grants to corporations the rail- 

 roads have forfeited 3,926,080 acres, and the 

 other improvement companies 141,760 acres, 

 through failure to comply with the terms of the 

 grant, and their actual holdings are reduced by 

 these amounts from the figures given above. 



Under the act of April 1, 1887, providing for 

 the sale or lease of school, university, and asylum 

 lands, the Commissioner has sold in the past two 

 years nearly 2,000,000 acres, adding to the per- 

 manent school fund about $4,500,000, and has 

 leased about 8,000,000 acres. The interest on 

 these sales now yields the available school fund 

 about $200,000 annually, and the annual reve- 

 nue from the leases adds $300,000 to this fund. 



Deep Harbor at Galveston. The move- 

 ment to secure a deep harbor on the Gulf of 

 Mexico, to which the products of the States 

 west of Mississippi river may be carried for 

 transhipment by sea, reached a successful con- 

 clusion in September of this year by the passage 

 through Congress of the River and Harbor Bill. 

 That measure contained an appropriation of 

 $500,000 for the improvement of Galveston har- 

 bor, and further authorized the Secretary of War 

 to contract for the completion of the work ac- 

 cording to a survey made in 1886 by Govern- 

 ment engineers, who have estimated the cost at 

 $6,200,000. The deepening and improving of 

 the harbor according to that survey is, there- 

 fore, a matter of only a few years. 



Political. On May 13 a State Convention of 

 the Prohibition party met at Fort Worth, and 

 nominated a State ticket, headed by E. C. Heath 

 for Governor and J. M. Thomason for Lieutenant- 

 Governor. The platform contained the usual 

 resolutions against liquor-selling. 



Tha Democratic State Convention was called 

 to meet at San Antonio on Aug. 13. Early in 

 the year several aspirants announced their can- 

 didacy for the gubernatorial nomination and en- 

 tered into an active contest therefor. The chief 

 question in this preliminary contest was whether 

 a railroad commission, with full powers to regu- 

 late railroad rates and traffic, should be estab- 

 lished. The leading champion of such a meas- 

 ure was Attorney-General Hogg, who secured a 

 large majority t of the delegates to the convention, 

 and was nominated on the first ballot without 

 substantial opposition, and the following persons 

 were chosen as his associates : For Lieutenant- 



Governor, George C. Pendleton; for Treasurer, 

 W. B. Wortham ; for Comptroller, John D. Mc- 

 Call; for Attorney-General, Charles A. Culber- 

 son; for Superintendent of Public Instruction, 

 H. Carr Pritchett ; for Commissioner of the 

 General Land Office, W. L. McGaughey. The 

 platform contains the following declarations : 



We believe that it is the right and duty of the State 

 to regulate and control the public highways within her 

 limits, and that effective regulation is impracticable 

 without the agency of a railroad commission ; there- 

 fore we recommend an amendment to Article X, sec- 

 tion 2, of the Constitution of the State, relating to rail- 

 roads, submitted to a vote of the people by the last 

 Legislature, and we demand and pledge the enact- 

 ment of a law creating a commission covered with all 

 power necessary to prevent abuses and discrimina- 

 tions, and to make, establish, and maintain reasonable 

 rates of railway charges for transportation of passen- 

 gers and freight having origin and destination within 

 the limits of this State. 



We demand that, as a general diffusion of knowl- 

 edge is essential to the preservation of the liberties 

 and rights of the people, the constitutional provision 

 requiring the public free schools to be maintained for 

 a period of not less than six months of each year shall 

 be freely and faithfully complied with, and that the 

 university, its branches, and the other public educa- 

 tional institutions be properly endowed and main- 

 tained. 



We demand that suitable provision be made by the 

 State for the home of disabled confederate soldiers. 



The Republicans met in State Convention at 

 San Antonio on Sept. 5, and nominated the fol- 

 lowing ticket: For Governor, Webster Flana- 

 gan ; for Lieutenant-Governor, W. K. Makem- 

 son ; for Treasurer, J. B. Schmitz ; for Comp- 

 troller, William Westhoff ; for Attorney-General, 

 J. T. Hayne ; for Superintendent of Public In- 

 struction, M. Lindner ; for Commissioner of the 

 General Land Office, J. K. McDonnell. The fol- 

 lowing is a part of the platform : 



We unhesitatingly favor the Australian ballot sys- 

 tem and all other proper measures that will render 

 our elections a free and honest expression of the will 

 of the people of our entire country. 



We recognize the right of the State to control cor- 

 porations and regulate transportation companies with- 

 in this State, and we favor the enactment of such laws 

 by the Legislature, and their enforcement through the 

 courts, as will prevent unjust discrimination or "extor- 

 tion on the part of public common carriers* as against 

 the interest of the people of the State of Texas. We 

 are opposed, as being contrary to the theory and ge- 

 nius of our Government, to clothing with legislative 

 and judicial powers a railway commission, and oppose 

 an amendment to Article X, section 8 of the Consti- 

 tution. 



We demand an adequate appropriation by the Legis- 

 lature for a free school term of six months or more an- 

 nually. We further demand a uniform system of text- 

 books, to be printed under the direction of the State 

 Printing Board, and furnished at cost. 



We commend to the people of Texas the establish- 

 ment and maintenance of a home for the disabled and 

 invalid Texas soldiers of the late war, with those en- 

 listed by the republic, with proper provision lor their 

 maintenance at the expense of the State. 



At the November election the Democratic 

 ticket received its usual large majority. For 

 Governor the vote was : Hogg 262,432, Flanairan 

 77,742, Heath 2,463. The State Legislature 

 chosen at the same time is almost entirely Dem- 

 ocratic, the Republicans having a few represent- 

 atives in the Lower House. Two amendments to 

 the State Constitution were adopted at this elec- 



