St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1888-04-21
CATTLE KINGS MUST GO.
The Settlement Of the Country in Small
Farms Drives Them Out.
MUST FOLLOW THE BUFFALO
The Small Outfits Now Make the Money,
and Take the Country, and It
Is Well It Is So.
Special to the Globe.

CuItOlldl lCCtHlly dpptdIcu Ill blo CIli-
cagO Times commenting on the very
apparent Shrinkage in profits realized
by the great cattle companies in the
West, and corresponding depreciation
in the values of shares of the different
companies. There is deal Of truth in
the fact that the cattle companies, as
they once existed, are being wiped out
gradually, and the process is one that
progresses in direct ratio as the West
settles up. 1t is the incoming settler
who is responsible for the falling off in
profits experienced by the great corpo-
rations which once almost ruled the
plains of Dakota, Nebraska, Kansas,
Colorado, New Mexico and Texas. AS
many, nay,
MORE CATTLE
are now raised and sent to market,
the difference being that the herds are
smaller, and are owned by more in
dividuals than formerly. The ''cattle
king" is rapidly going to join the
buffalo. He'll be there before the
Indian. 1t does not require a close or
astute observer to see wherein lies the
benefit springing from the abolition of
these great companies, There is an
and the owning of cattle. In an in
stance where one man or corporation
controls thousands of acres, an injuS-
tice is worked to other men, who are
thus deprived to a certain extent of
their privilege to become proprietorS.
The same is true
OF STOCK RAISING.
The time was when the mighty herd
of X Y Il or 2 ID Q, or some other great
outfit would easily swallow up and as
simulate the little bunch of stock owned
by John Jones or Peter Smith, or other
individuals with temerity sufficient to
attempt to raise stock in competition
with the cattle kings. But nature her.
self and the universal order of things
favored the John Joneses and Peter
Smiths, and they have become more
numerous than the big outfits whose
stock once occupied the range. The
provisions of the governments land
laws, which secure to every man who
wills a quarter section of land, have
done more than any other agency posi-
bly, could to break up the QuaSi-mo-
nopOly held by
THE CATTLE KINGS.
When the settler first came he sought
out the land along the streams and soon
he had it fenced. Then came the first
difficulty for the great herds. The
stock had to rustic for water. Then the
next settlers took the next land back
from the streams, and so ON, until the
stock not only had to rustic for water
but must also rustic for grass. And
then the cattle kings hunted up new
ranges, and when these were found the
wave of civilization flowed over them,
and, like Dickens Little Jo," the cat
| tie kings had to move on, and they have
been moving on until they have about
reached the jumping-Off place. This
transition has not been an easy one.
hides of the gentle bovine did not give
up their sway over the fertile Western
plains without making struggle to re-
tain possession of them. There was
many clash between the pioneer set
tiers and the cowboys. 1t is on record
in Nebraska where two settlers
WE'RE FIRST HANGED
and then buried, their only crime being
that they had dared to locate on land
wanted for range purposes by cattle
outfit. This, of course, is an isolated
case, but it is fact. The inevitable
course, however, and the great corpo-
rations gave way to it. The busy
granger, when industrious, could raise
crop, and in addition find time to at
tend to his little bunch of stock. In
the winter he could shelter and feed
them, and when spring came he had
cattle for the market while the stock
man had not And so it went, and so it
goes, and will go until the extinction
OF the cattle company and the cowboy is
as complete as that of the buffalo. There
are some sections of the West which
will never be farmed. The chief of
these is found in Eastern Montana and
Northwestern Dakota. The country
there is broken and contains too little
arabic ground. 1t will never support
the large herds that formerly ranged in
lower ATTITUDES. In recent article in
the Century, Theodore Roosevelt stated
that the greatest danger these men on
the ranges of Montana and Dakota had
was from OverStOcking. 1t takes good
sized patch Of ground to keep steer in
there, the grass being SO scarce, and
when an additional head of stock is put
on the range all must suffer. This, and
the severe winters are combined to make
stock raising up there an extremely
HAZARDOUS INVESTMENT,
as many have found out recently. 1t is
the small outfits which make the money
now. The man who owns one hundred
HCdi oUdHuo d UCIGCl ClldlCC lOI pIOUI
than the corporation that controls a
thousand or more. The days of the cat
tie kings are numbered. and yet few
years and the ranges will know him no
more forever. But in his place will be
found the settlers who will build up the
country with prosperity far more per-
maneht and beneficial than can come
from corporation, the sole aim of
which is to gain as many dollars as pos
sible from the business.
VALLEY CITY'S MAYOR.