Santa Fe daily New Mexican. [volume] (Santa Fe, N.M.) 1885-1897, 1889-02-14
Executive OFFICE,
Territory of New Mexico,
Santa Fe, Feb. 10, 1889.


To the Council of the 2Sth Legislative Assembly:
Gentlemen: l have the honor to trans
NIT herewith, to the house in which it
originated, council bill No. 40, Gan act to
prevent the overstocking OF cattle ranges"
without executive approval.
Section l of this bill prescribes the
method whereby possession OF the public
domain can be acquired-simply by APP
propriating and stocking range thereon.
Section 2 provides for the protection in
such possession of persons who have SO
appropriated and stocked range on the
public domain.
These two sections, taken together,
combine to establish possessory right,
the Infringement of which, in certain
forms, is made punishable by fine and
imprisonment.
TO make a law which prescribes a
method of taking possession of any por-
ton Of the lands of the United States, and
then to provide for the punishment of
trespass thereon, is to legalize that pos
session and thus create o possessory
right, SO far as it is in the power of the
territory to do so.
A possessory right in the soil is thus
guaranteed by the territory, in contraven-
ton of the organic act, section 1851, Re-
vised Statutes, which declares that mo
law shall be passed interfering with the
primary disposal of the SOIL"
TO further illustrate this point, we will
suppose that the legislature were to pass
law giving to persons of any other class
of the public neutrality-suspicious. for
instance-the similar right to take posses
sion of any desired area of "the public
domain of the United States" by "appro-
priating and stocking" it with farming
implements and work cattle, and horses
and COWS, instead Of range cattle, with
out the consent of the United States, and
then provide for the protection of such
possession against trespass by punitive
laws. Would it be contended for a mo-
ment that such a law would be valid
Yet it would establish precisely similar
condition to that contemplated by this
bill.
If the legislature can give possession
and use of the public lands in the one
case, it can with equal legality and pro-
priety do so in the other.
This bill is therefore so much in the
nature of an attempt at the primary dis
posal of the soil' as to make it exceeding
ly doubtful, if not dangerous legislation.
This alone would seem to be sufficient
to establish the invalidity of this bill, but
there is a still more serious economic OBJ
lection. The passage OF this bill into the
form of law would tend to discourage the
immigration OF farmers to New Mexico.
1t would be public notice to that class that
practically all our available public lands
have been set aside to be occupied as cat
tie ranges-that the claimants of these
ranges are authorized by law to occupy
and possess unlimited and underlined
areas of the public domain and call them
their oranges" with power to eject tres
passers by fine and imprisonment.
The effect would be to exclude from
vast regions of New Mexico, so long as
the law should remain in force and effect,
the school house, the church and organ
lied society, as they are known in the
higher conditions Of American life and
American civilization.
fully appreciate the need of protec-
ton to the legitimate stock industry OF
the territory against the rowing, predatory
and irresponsible cattle men and herders
from other states and territories, who are
here to-day and there to-morrow-any-
where to obtain temporary subsistence
for their stock without cost to themselves
and to escape taxation-but that protec-
ton can not be obtained through viola
ton of the fundamental law of the terri
tory, and ought not to be through the dis
enlargement of agricultural development
The hope of New Mexico is in the en-
enlargement, not encouragement, of her
agricultural industries.
EDMUND G. Ross.