Fort Worth daily gazette. (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1882-1891, 1885-03-31

TO provide cattle syndicates and corpo-
rations with free range; coupling
this distortion with plea for rev.
enue for the school fund, the public
was deceived and blinded, and 1.-THE
syndicates and corporations outside OF
Texas" enabled to tie up the W,si
from settlement by the aid of the very
men who would have the most bitterly |
opposed such absorption Of The country |
II they had not been hoodwinked into |
the belief they were opposing the de-
signs of the cattle syndicates while
performing the very service desired by
them. Strength was given the decep-
ton by representing the West
rs fit only for grazing purposes,
and the assertion that If Texas
did not derive lease rental
from Western lands for the school
fund, no one but foreign stockholders
In cattle companies would ever derive
any profit from those tens OF millions
OF acres Of public domain.
The land lease furore was co.eval
with the introduction OF corporate
capital into the cattle raising business.
AS settlement pressed to tho westwa d
the area of cattle raising became re-
stricted and this, while the demand
increased in consequence of immigra-
tor, etc. At the same time railroads
were extended into the heart Of and
across 1.-The grazing regions" and
brought the product of the ranch
within q few days OF all the great
markets OF the Union. Cattle, Of
course, appreciated rapidly in value;
the COW, that had cost from 81 to $40,
produced calf that now sold for al
most as much three year-old steers
we're carried by the railroads
to markets in which they
brought from S25 to $40; the stories of
the marvellous profits of cattle raising,
based on the old time values of stock
cattle, reached Wall street, London,
Dublin and Edinburgh. Companies
) were formed, and from Canada to Mex
leo corporate capital sought invest.
ment in cattle. The consequence was,
that the Texas owner of 5U00 head of
cattle, who would have been glad to
sell for 1876, 600 or $40 000 found himself
the possessor Of property valued at
800, 600 and producing q revenue of
from 25 to so per cent. even on that in
flated valuation, and was called
"king," "baronn and "lord" by the
men who had not also been caught ac-
cidently In the cattle raising business
by the railroad extensions.
But the railroads not only carried
. high pri3es for cattle into the West /;
they carried the actual settler as we'll,
. and the inroads OF the pillow and the hoe
: on the range were resisted by the men
u to whom the range had become 80
r prof able. A farmer was IS nester,''
and sheepman was too contemplate
Is to live on the same earth with these
U lords of the range. But neither de-
Il risiou, Winchester rifle, six-shootel
nor South Texas cowboy ruflian could
Is stay the progress westward of settle
II ment, and the man with the hoe hal
captured the country as far west q!
IL Baylor, Coleman and Taylor counties
J" and pushed his pickets even many
u miles further since the railroad made
\ q "cattle king" out of the "cowman.
Despairing of force, ridicule and an
d noy ance, the cattle corporations re
L sorted to the law and to misrepresenta
"a tio,s of the sdaptsbility of the West
I just as was done in Kansas; and al
a along the line there has been and is q
N strenuous effort by cattle com
o. panies to hold the country iron
N settlement In order that thei
to own profitable business may b
is perpetuated. Montana, Wyoming
~ Nebraska, Colorado, Dakota and New
m Mexico cattle raisers are petitioninl
s, congress for lease law; cattle con
u psnies have secured lease law in tn
aT Indian territory; in Oklahoma cattle
II. men occupy the ground; in Texr
they have dected their purpose undt
Id the specious plea OF providing aschot
by fund that shall relieve the state {
on school taxes; and the real question l.
nd shall the cattle companies perpetual
to their business at the expense of Il
aw settlement OF the country, by mesI
1e' of lease law Let any man read IL
rec arguments of the lease advocates, al
Icy cay whether they do not contend &
nd the very thing the cattlemen ha'
t." declared in open conven ions tn
ale they want The lease Ia
led advocates and the cattle compsni
ills may be impelled by different motiv,
rn- but they are working for CONNIE
lch ohject-and that is the perpetuation
1as the cattle-raising business on b
lie ecale, and lease advocates are, within
so ly or unwittingly, the organs and /