Little Falls transcript. [volume] (Little Falls, Morrison County, Minn.) 1876-1894, 1884-12-12
CALIFORNIA CATTLE KINGS.
Come Of the snoba and Snobocracy Of the
Pacific Coast. ..-

Come Of tho snobs and snobocracy Of the
Pacific Coast. 1899
San Francisco Letter to PostDispatch
This is the land of luck, and fortunes
tavors, like the rain, fall pretty much
alike on the just and the unjust. OF all
inc kings, I have seen up to date,
whether mining, cattle or railroad king,
The last-named go to the front in the
matter of assumption and ridiculous
self Importance. It is small wonder
shat Californians detest the railroads;
the real wonder is that the antagonism
between the people and corporations
has not gone to sanguinary extremities.
Fortune has favored some shockingly
unjust men, and they abuse their power
and position very much as one might
suppose Warren Hastings did his as
tendency in India.
The magnates here are veritable ma
hobs, and their attendants even assume
languid superciliousness to the last
degree presumptuous and insane. A
millionaire whose interest lies largely
with the roads assured me that those
corporations had entirely overdone the
extortion business, although he believed
their enemies had, in some instances,
unnecessarily abused them. At the den
Of railroad king all the underlings,
and they are legion, come and go at the
call Of an electric bell, and the autocrats
are as difficult to approach as the Gear
Of Russia: but when one meets them
there seems to be little in the intellect
ual or general ability to warrent their
exclusiveness. Their homes are places
their grounds are Shaw's gardens, and
their attendants and equipages are gor-
geous and innumerable. The cattle
kings of the coast, Miller and Lux, are
rated at SIS, 900, 900 to $40, 900, and
were poor men twenty years ago. MIR.
Lux told me that they had about so, 900
head of cattle and 115 900 head of sheep,
of which latter theykill 6, 900 per month.
They; own On irrigating canal worth
81, 900 900, fences 800 miles in length
fortune IN itself; in California 600, 900
acres Of land; in Nebraska 10000 acres
and $4,000 acres Of alfalfa grass. They
lately bought 5000 cattle in Nebraska,
with large land and water privileges.
Speaking of ranches and herding, he
said:
"Our free grass is g matter of the past.
The Legislature is against us. We arc
compelled to take care of the stock. IF
our cattle do any damage at all we must
pay heavily, as the people are prejudice
ed against any one they may be pleased
to call q monopolist. And yet, by their
severe measures they are constantly en-
. HANGING the price Of meat. We are COM
PEELED to buy land and fence it, which in
wolves a vast outlay ofmoney away. They
must build fences anyway, and, if the
smaller holders would fence securely
against stock, we could Craze at less
expense and they would have cheaper
meat, but you can't make ear-sighted
man see long distance--he must pay
for his spectacles. California, as a
grazing State, is thing of the past.
And then, you see, we are heavily tax
ed. We are rated arbitrarily at fix
ed sum per head, and there is no dodg-
ing or securing revaluation at a lower
figure. We are interested largely
in Oregon, Nebraska and Montana,
and in everything that pertains
to the cattle interests OF those
localities, and will either be pres
ent in St. Louis personally or by repre-
sentative The convention is g. neces-
sity to the business, and no cattleman
should fail to lend his conntenance or
counsel; we must stand together Or all
will suffer. And the people, the con-
sumers, will suffer. I have no doubt
that if the citizens of the United States
could understand the matter, they
would see that their. interests and ours
are Identical.
One thing has hindered the growth
Of the cattle interest, which as hurtful
influence will, to a great extent disap-
pear after the convention in St. Louis,
and that is the timidity Of capital with
respect to cattle growing. Formerly
banks and bankers only loaned to cat
; tie man at rates of interest which no
other business could pay, and the con-
/ sequence has been the ranchmen have
had to thrive under grievous loads.
Now that the matter has become better
! understood the cowman gets more rea-
sonable rates, but even yet the feebler
men are unfairly dealth with, and they
must all look to the convention and its
! result for relief from many discr1mina-
tions against them"