Since 1874 Texas has been Democratic by large majorities. The carpet bag constitution of 1869 was replaced in 1876 by the consti tution now in force. In 1874 the Texas Rang ers, a famous State constabulary, was organized to protect the frontier from Indians. The debt left by the Davis administration was paid during the succeeding Coke, Hubbard and Roberts administrations. In 1884 fence cutting wars that arose because of the rapid spread of barb wire demanded special and drastic legislative action. The old Capitol burned down in 1881 and 3,000,000 of acres of Panhandle public land was paid for a new granite Capitol begun in 1885. The most important struggle since Re construction days was that of 1892 when Gov. J. S. Hogg fought and won a hotly-contested campaign which resulted in the establishment of a railroad commission with large powers and the passage of anti-trust laws and laws re stricting the alien ownership of land, Prohi bition, first voted on in a State election in 1887, has since been a much-fought issue. At
present all of the people live under well-en forced local option laws. In 1896 the United States Supreme Court fixed finally the boundary of Texas by awarding Greer County in the forks of the Red River to what is now Okla homa. Texas from time to time has suffered from river floods and from tropical storms along the coast. At Galveston in 1900 thousands of lives and much property were lost in a storm. Out of this calamity grew the Galveston Sea Wall and the commission form of city govern ment. The supremacy of the Democratic party, threatened for a few years by Populism before the Democrats adopted free silver in 1896, shows no signs of failure. The political prob lems now before Texas are the development of a more efficient system of public schools, the reduction of farm tenantry, compulsory invest ment of life insurance funds in Texas securities, abolition of the fee system of paying county officials, penitentiary reform, reforms in legal procedure and better public roads.