Fort Worth daily gazette. (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1882-1891, 1884-05-26


means likely to venture upon farming
on 100, 800 or $40 acres when his petty
bunch Of cows and horses are fenced |
away from the commons by long lines
of barbed wire?
A great parade is made over what
the lease system has brought, in actual
cash, to the state-over the profit to
the school children of leasing their
grass. But nothing has been said,
nothing can be shown, exactly, of
what the state has lost by the lease
system, and what it will lose when the
wealthy, the syndicates and corpora
tons inclose much more, IL not all, in
deed, of the public lands in the West.
1t sounds nice and reads well to be told
that the free grass baronsn the cattle
kings" "the men who have grown rich
off the school children's grass, will now
becompelled to pay for what they get"
But all beneficlaries of free grass, or a
public commons, are not "barons,n
"kings" and ''rich" men and we beg
the Chronicle to thoroughly investigate
and see what proportion of the men
who are profiting by free grass possess
only 100 head of cattle, or 200 head, or
800 head, OIL. 900 head, and THE GA
zETTE intends to aid in this investiga-
ton. "Barons," kings" and "rich"
men are able to pay the lease prices
charged by the state. Let the Chronicle
investigate this matter, also, and see
how many poor men, how many actual
Settlers" have contributed to the lease
fund about which such boasts are
made, and then ask itself how long it
will be until syndicated or individual
wealth has raised barbed wire en-
barge upon the settlement of the West.
Not pasture principalities, not leased
baronies, not syndicated wealth, not
: corporated possession is the need Of
, West Texas. Actual settlers, small
. farmers, who shall make OF Haskell
what Ellis is, and repeat in Taylor
$ what has been done in Navarro, are
, what West Texas needs. These will b,
/ OF greater and more permanent
p benefit to all Texas than all the lands
q the land board can 'tie up' in cen
/. fury. With the little herds of sucl
men eating, without cost, "the schoo
=. children's grass the school fund an,
h every other fund of Texas will grow
!. and produce large leash balances.
a Men constitute state-not pasture
Ia and wire fences-not millions of acre
lie TIED up'' for six and ten years by leases
,s 1t is so popular to rail at "free gras
d barons" and cattle kings wheneve
" reference is made to Northwest Texas
a. that fair discussion Of Stree grass o
E. a public commons, may not be eS
,e pected and at the mere mention of
" ''cattle raiser" the morbid fancy c
v, the average Texas journalist or crud
De statesman at once copjures up tn
q vision of "cattle king" with hi
n. retinue of spurred cowboys ridin
H. rongh-shod over the liberties of til
ID people-seemingly oblivious OF tn
IN fact that there are scores of poor me
US in the business where there is one ric
e. man the demagogue sees the picture
ne too, in his minds eye, and the idea
an peoplen are warned that "the schot
~ children's grass" is being eaten up b
of the rich mems cows. There are ter
40 Of thousands OF acres of land in We.
%. Texas to-day upon which the mesquit
nv is growing In rank luxuriance, and M
he a hoof of cattle can be found grain
he thereon. How much better for Texi
ire that some mans cattle, albeit erich
ed mans, should be eating taxable wealt
by from that grass than that it shoul
he annually grow to waste. But no IL
nd demagogue and the small politician
he abroad in the land; the free gra
baron" and the "cattle king mu
all be reviled, the cattle-raiser must |
he legislated against, capital must /
he frightened and driven from the stat
ito public lands must be "tied up" I'll
M settlement of the country must
bv retarded and the school children g
mis- five cents from leases where the
Drt would soon get five dollars from fe
i'm tile farms and small herds of Gait
iii fattened on free grass.
he The plow follows the ranch, ii
of farmer treads closely on the heels
,rd the ranchman. BY encouragement
,h- the cattle raiser the settlement of I'll
ell country is promoted. The great me
we OF the past are dead; the big brains
$40 the present are tout of politics" or
rec Washington the small fry swim c
res the surface of our state politics ar
DOL to the press the people must look f
ute the needed change-aud the press Sc,
of a free grass baron" in every blade
by West Texas grass and "cattIe king
In every poor cattle raiser.
cir
An Error Corrected.