nment get that strong!_" the Colonel
said forcefully. "That's one of the basic premises. We have no standing
army, only the New Texas Rangers. And the legislature won't authorize
any standing army, or appropriate funds to support one. Any member of
the legislature who tried it would get what Austin Maverick got, a
couple of weeks ago, or what Sam Saltkin got, eight years ago, when he
proposed a law for the compulsory registration and licensing of
firearms. The opposition to that tax scheme of Maverick's wasn't because
of what it would cost the public in taxes, but from fear of what the
government could do with the money after they got it.

"Keep a government poor and weak and it's your servant; let it get rich
and powerful and it's your master. We don't want any masters here on
New Texas."

"But the President has a bodyguard," I noted.

"Casualty rate was too high," Hickock explained. "Remember, the
President's job is inherently impossible: he has to represent _all_ the
people."

I thought that over, could see the illogical logic, but ... "How about
your rancher oligarchy?"

He laughed. "Son, if I started acting like a master around this ranch in
the morning, they'd find my body in an irrigation ditch before sunset.

"Sure, if you have a real army, you can keep the men under your
thumb--use one regiment or one division to put down mutiny in another.
But when you have only five hundred men, all of whom know everybody else
and all of them armed, you just act real considerate of them if you want
to keep on living."

"Then would you say that the opposition to annexation comes from the
people who are afraid that if New Texas enters the Solar League, there
will be League troops sent here and this ... this interesting system of
insuring government responsibility to the public would be brought to an
end?"

"Yes. If you can show the people of this planet that the League won't
interfere with local political practices, you'll have a 99.95 percent
majority in favor of annexation. We're too close to the z'Srauff
star-cluster, out here, not to see the benefits of joining the Solar
League."

We left the Hickock ranch on Sunday afternoon and while Hoddy guided our
air-car back to New Austin, I had a little time to revise some of my
ideas about New Texas. That is, I had time to think during those few
moments when Hoddy wasn't taking advantage of our diplomatic immunity to
invent new air-ground traffic laws.

My thoughts al