Fort Worth daily gazette. (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1882-1891, 1884-01-29

n nliia sd d"e eating guns, could arrest
, .D,ve ,nnr old woman, and her crime
CO.. nermitting the cow to escape wo ',t
,ndar fine bill be treason. .n,nH ,
u ,uhan n man opposes a bill and does no,
relieve it for the public gJ1ih
no should attack u VIII
nr r and destroy it 10y reason reason;
not Inv sarcasm. TO show 10 Mni.
length the gentleman had 10 s.let 1
his imarlnation to reach the cpns iii,
sim he did about the old COW, l Mn
read the section of the Dill, anu .ne
only one, that makes any reierunoTT MI w.
the crime of treason. sec w. he
Governor of the state shall cause " W
enrolled, armed and equipped, IRON
time TO time, such number Oh troops III
addition to those now in service 70 Nv.
as n constabulary force III ana vi lam
az he may deem necessary 10 secuie
n,,nishment for violators oil tnis ac.j
not TO exceed -, but II OFydnn'-."
and armed resistance to law shail ou
cur, he shall then cansed to be enroileu
and eauipped such number Oh lIoUpe
rs may be necessary TO suppress 'he
| same as treason"
Comment is not necessary 10 snow
how far-fetched the burden OF the sen
ator's song was. There are features III
| this bill that / am opposed toi .heio
are n number of them, but the uhuer.
living principle of the whole OIL Is INA,
! free grass is thing of the past, aug
! that free grass and fence-cutters hiust
90. And in order to accomplish these
| Two OBJECTS we have Just got TO remove
! the temptation to free grass oy passing
reasonable lease laws, ana then COM
( mel stoclxmen to either own or lease
| their lands or quit the BUSINESS. me
opposition tell us that all Una,
! il necessary is 10 pass goou
lease law and all these LANDS
will be taken up Mt once and matters
will settle themselves. Let us see
how that will be. Would that rene
! DIV fence.cutting? Certainly NOT;
| There are men in this state who VIII
not lease or buy land a. long rs they
can get free grass. II you lease the
lands YOU of course expect that many
! of the1u will fence them, and do you
propose to protect their fences" VIII
/ not those who do not lease or own
land cut their fences. unless you make
il an offense for them to have stock
above certain number on the COM
mons, without owning or controlling
lands for their support? II
you lease it to them and
prohibit them from fencing
it, how are you going 70 protect them
from those on the same range, who VIII
not lease or own lands unless you make
it an oifense for them to remain on the
range without owning or leasing
land?
You stockmen are willing to lease
these lands, but they demand that we
pass law by which all will he com
pelled to either own or lease the lands
they Craze on SO that all will be upon
an equal footing. They do not want
to lease the lands and will not do it sc
long as you prevent free range. They
do not want to be compelled TO fence
these lands after they have
| leased or bought them because
if they fence it they are
bound 10 fence up the lands of Other
| people aad corporations, and 1T place:
! them in the power of those who wish
to blackmail and harass them. Anc
if they do lease the lands, those who
have no land but plenty of cattle vii
cut their fences; the result will be, yot
will not lease any lands, and the grea
school fund must be idle fer some time
to come, to enrich the stocklman at thu
expense of the school fund. Simpl!
making fence-cgtting felony will no
stop it. You may make it q hanging
offense ii you want to, but you canno
make law to make evidence 10y
which you eau detect them in thu
crime.
II is charged by senators that this is
bill in favor OF the rich men. a
more absurd proposition could not b,
made. The bill protects ninety-nin'
men out of every hundred in the state
by permitting them to turn loose t.
Craze twenty-five head of stock, ex
elusive of those less than one year old,
whether they own any land or not
There are over 800 900 farmers in this
state, and less than 1900 stOckmep
and there are nineGy-nine of every 100
who Go not average nlnety-tive head
OF cattle, and instead of making i, {
burden to that class of men
we make ii n blessing by compelling
them to ranges either owned o. lease d
by them Every tanner VINO has had
all the grass eaten up around him by
those who own cattle and no land w ill
agree with the friends of this bill that
of the state. The bill viii not work Il
hardship upon the people of this state
or even respectable minority of them.
Nearly every farmer in th state hiss
at least l6O acres Of land, If he has
not we give him the right to turn
loose twenty-five head of cattle on the
range as Il matter of right. If he has
100 acres of land, if he does not want
to inclose il he can turn loose one
I animal for every six acres of land he
owns, and in this way we make it pos
| sible for man with 100 acres to turn
loose upon the range fiity-iive head of
/ cattle. IT is not the farmer that this
| bill seeks to punish. 1t is the man
who owns from fifty to his thou
Hsand of cattle and no land that we
seek to control. The worst fence-c cut
ting in my county came frcm few
/ men who owned from 100 to 500
head Of cattle, and no land
sufficient TO Craze them on. Their
neighbors had fenced up their grass
because these men were in their M DIST
in order 10 get the benefit of their
I grass, and these men seeing that free
glass is going, they raise the cry CT the
communist and declare that the wire
fences must go, and knowing that
there are men ever ready TO cor. init
crime, they organize their clan, place
a little money in their treasury, and
hire the midnight assassin to destroy
all the fences in their range. They
seldom go in person to do the work,
but they have made the irresponsible
| man their tnnl aithar hv birino hin,