Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1892-04-20
THE OTHER SIDE OF IT.

The suggestion in Mondays DISPATCH
that there may be more than one story
with regard to the '.rustlers" who have
been represented as organized CATTLE
thieves is fully corroborated by an article
in the Philadelphia Press based on state
ments from a member of the Western
Cattle Association. -o
The men classed by the great stock
owners with whom they are at war as
rustlers are largely small ranche-owners,
having herds of few score head of cattle
each. There may be those among them
not scrupulous as to the means of increas-
ing their herds. as the habit of gobbling
mavericks" or unbranded cattle was
taught to them by the settled policy of
the great cattle-raisers In the past. The
disposition of the mavericks" seems to
be at the bottom of the whole difficulty.
Originally the rule was that the flotsam
and jetsam of the plains belonged to the
first person who found and branded them.
But recently the rule has been changed,
and it is hardly too much to say that the
changes show settled disposition to SUBJ
ject the small ranchers to vital disad-
vantages.
Indeed, these regulations, whether stat
utory or simply edicts of the stock associ-
alton, proceed on the assumption recently
reflected in the telegraphic reports that all
the small settlers are thieves All maver-
icks must be sold at auction under regula-
tions which exclude the small men from
their purchase The stock association
made out blacklist of all cowboys own
ing small ranches or brands, and by ex-
Guiding them from employment placed
stimulus on the occupation of hunting up
stray unbranded cattle and branding
them.
Finally, an extremely high-handed rule
of the stock association enacted that when
a small rancher shipped cattle to market
the proceeds of the sale were withheld
until he could prove ownership of each
individual head The only competent
proof ,being bill of sale from large
stock-owner, this utterly excluded the
sale by the small ranchers of stock they
had honestly raised; and, as no such regu-
lation was enforced against the large
1t amounted to practical
coniscation. From johnson county, where
this trouble began, over s25, 900 was with
held in this way, and the johnson county
ranchers in return held a roundup of their
own, in which undoubtedly they took care
to secure enough cattle to compensate for
their loss. This was the seattle raid'
by the other side as an
organized robbery. 1t was responded |
to by the latter with the expedition to visit |
lynch law on the small ranchers. The |
result of that lawlessness was that after |
one or two murders the forces of the |
were surrounded and they |
are now in peril of being lynched.
This gives much clearer view of the |
outbreak than has previously been given
to the East 1t shows lawlessness on both |
sides, introduced by the early methods of
the great cattle-owners and aggravated by |
the determined efforts to drive out the
small ranche-owners whose presence is
to the owners of the great
herds. 1t presents the example of laws
passed in the interest of the richer class
failing of enforcement and after that the
resort to violence to punish private inju-
ries Unless these statements are disproved
5he large ranche-owners cannot maintain
heir claim to be the sole defenders of law
,r even of honesty.