New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1889-09-10
DISCROWNED CATTLE KINGS
EVIL DAYS ON THE WESTERN RANGES.
RUIN FOLLOWS THE {. SPARKS poLIcr'-v1cIs.


STUDIES AND COLLAPSE.
Chicago, Sept. a-Where are the "Cattle!
hlngs' and the Cattle Barons' we used to
near so much about? Bankrupt, or on the
ragged edge of bankruptcy. There are fort
innate exceptions, of course but these eXcep.
lions have been very fortunate indeed if they
got OUT in good time extraordinarily fortu.
nate If they had staid in" till now, so much so
mat in all the great grazing region of the Terri.
tories and the new States they may almost be
counted on the fingers. The causes are not far
to Seek
About fourteen years ago, a few adventurous
spirits were struck by the facts that young
cattle were cheap in Texas. beef dear in Chicago.
and the richest natural grasses in the world
10 be had for the asking, without so much as
asking, in every hill and valley of the vast
Rocky Mountain region. They embarked all
their energy, their capital, when they had it,
and when they had not then all the money they
could borrow, in buying two and three-year old
steers in Texas for SIG to sls a head. In the
spring they drove them north by the broad and
wellwatered trail that once fed the vast herds
Of buffalo in their migrations. For two winters
ana summers the young cattle were allowed TO
roam the unfenced ranges of Colorado, of Wy
oming of Dakota, or Montana The expense.
confined to the spring and fall roundup, was
mere song At the end of the second summer.
or earlier in favored places, the cattle, then in
their fifth or sixth year, and rolling fat were
driven perhaps hundred or even two hundred
miles to the railway, shipped to Chicago, and
sold for from $50 to S65 a head. Great fortunes
were rapidly made. The profits were reinvested.
more money was borrowed, often at enormous
interest, and new in great numbers, with
new capital made haste to embark in so ucra-
tive a business.
In the course of few years the ranges were
over-stockcd, the driving trail was eaten out.
the price Of young cattle rose in Texas and the
price of beef fell in Chicago Then the cattle
men took to breeding on the ranges
very few hard winters suficed to show that
there was money in this; in short nothing
but disaster The young calves and the breed.
ing cows persisted by thousands in every bad
storm, and when the SHOWS melted after every
severe winter their bones were found whitening
the plains
Then the prudent Spectator sold out, fortu
nate if he could do SO before others made the
discovery which he had in the language of the
ranch, paid his money to learn. But the more
enterprising and Industrious of tha ranchmen
thought they saw the way to mend this. They
were in the business not to sell but to stay
They would fence the unclaimed desert land,
fertilize it with the waste waters of the noun
tain streams, protect and feed their cows and
calves in the sheltered valleys near the home
ranch and let the hardy steers go on the range
as before
Just then came Sparks, with his sham policy.
backed by a sham public opinion. These in
dustrous and enterprisng cattlegrowers, who
were merely repeating in those arid mountain
wastes the history of American progress from the
Mrrrimac to the Missouri, were branded as
thieves as cattlethieves7 and " land thieves
their fences were cut, their land entries were
denounced as fraudulent small army of detectives
was set upon them and, upon the secret reports Ct
these men, mostly without knowledge ana WITHOUT
character, the whole land system was arrested;
in disregard OF the law, by the officer appointed
| to enforce the law. The injury was lmme-
date and enormous. The ruin of the cattle
| growers was complete. And who was the gamer
| 30 one Not the Government, even granting that
! the Government can ever profit by lnlurng the
| people for the Government has lost the sale o!
millions of acres Of desert in the remote noun
tain region at the very price II was glad 10 take
| for the 1ici garden soil of Illinois and Iowa, IN
| tbc yc-v heart o. the lard. Not the citizen. the
| mythical actual settler OF the Sparks VISION
for il may be doubted if TO this day he has actually
! settled upon single acre of the land thus re-
! deemed for the people - -, ... ,
|
| and worthless desert not a word said nor a
| strp taken toward preserving the one thing OF
value in the whole region-the water. Anybody
might take that-and did. Under me lerfilorl'il
| laws men. often mere spectators, have been al
| lowed 10 i pick the eyes out of the country qn-
| molested But now that the subject of irrigation
is at last attracting proper attention, there VIII
soon be an end of this. ..o
FINALLY during the last fifteen years the processes
of breeding and feeding beef cattle IN all the great
and populous alluvial region tributary TO Chcago
have SO improved that, with favored exceptions.
| tbe Western ranges can no longer compete WIN
the the farmers of Illinois, Iowa. Wisconsin and Min,
nesoa for example in producing beef Tor Pint the
table Thus the poor discrowned catIe k Sndod
bufetcd by fortune at every turn is at last Icfceu
70 sell his " Western rangers to the gamers rs.
These are three or four in number, Practcany
that means one The price they allow nm a. netS
| tbe moor cattle king about $50 head LOT an
ordinary steer. The disadvantage of owning a
thing that only one man wants to buy all men
| know. -