New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1884-05-01
J1kD PIRACY,

The House Committee on Public Lands mas
submitted n very emphatic and strongly worden
report on the bill to prevent the unlawful oc-
cupancy of public lands. This report shows
that tho abuse against which the proposed law
ia directed Is serious one The committee
rcports that while corporations of cattle-brced-
ers have nnawfully enclosed large tracts OF
fertile land in Wyoming Dakota, Arkansas
Texas and elsewhere, many of these acts of
land piracy have been the work Of foreigners,
who have thus in peculiarly insOlent manner
undertaken to fence out the American people
and to prevent them from settling upon lands
belonging to their own Government. or course
such occupancy Of public lands Is as unlawful
when Americans are tho actors rs when 1t is
done by aliens, but there Is an exalted audacity
in the idea of foreigners coming to the United
States and cOolly taking possession of millions
of acres of grazing lands in open defiance OF the
laws. The cattle corporations are in many cases
English or Scotch They employ considerable
bands of herdcrs or cowboys, and with the ald
of these retaincrs thoy are able not only to
break the law with impunty, but to threaten
and terrOrze poor men who may be IN their
way or who NAV protest against their methods
seizures of the public land may if allowed to 90
| unchallenged and unpublished permanently de-
plcte the territory available for the people
Hitherto the cattle corporations have had things
their own way in the sparscly settled regions
where they bear sway Poor men have been
| frozen out " by them, and though there mas all
the time existed ample authority for the eXer-
else of force I'm diSpossrSsing them II mas APP
IL. L.,
| parentlv been nOhody's business to put the law
| i'm motion The committee says truly that the
evil sought 10 be abatcd is ntOlprahlc." IT IS
| indeed an unhcard-Of thing that foreign al
vcnturers should be allowed to fence IN "hole
! counties, at the same time fencing oht lntehd-
inc settlers, keeping the cattle OF poor men
! from wafer closing mail routes In fact altering
| the face of the country to suit themselves ana
| their greed of gain. The committee says
rightly that there Is no other country on the
earth where such outraGcS would b" tolerated
bnt they should also have stated the fact that me
extent of the abuse has only recently been made
known. and that the remotcness OF the scene OF
action must be held accountable for at least
some of the inactiOn which seems so repre-
hcnsibe.
There can be no doubt that settlement has
been retarded in the regions affected by the
course of the land-thevcs. The only check to
the monopoly of the cattemen in some OF me
Territories has been the spread Of sheep-farm-
ING. which is death to rangc-fccding for cattle
The wire-fcnce business, however, has beer
abused by these corporations so recklessIy tina
unless Congress passes the bill for the abate'
mcnt of the evil it is to be feared the people
who have suffered most will organize ant
undertake to redress their own grievances
and in that event there is liable to be serious
trouble. the responsibility for which must res
unon the Government. 7 he facts OF the Situa
ton once brought to the attention of Congress
there can DO no excuse for failure to adOp
,,rount remedial measures