The San Francisco call., 1899-11-01

thought it a good speculation to locate
! some lieu on some grazing land toler-
is well watered and will grow potatoes in
great abundance and all other things
that -oo0 Will e. mature ,n1 at an altitude
paid the State fees, but could not
make the first payment, so 1t is State
| land. Knowing of this 1 gave a rich
stockman of the same county q map of
1t and told him he could get 1t for 81 25
an acre. He examined ii and said 1t
would not pay. Now one acre of this land
is worth whole section of some of the
land one can see from the car window
between Lancaster and Saugus, and yet
If it can be rented for 10 cents an acre
! the State would not keep 1t long.
The wild ranges of California are used
up TO their utmost now, and yet little
valleys and watering places in the noun
tains that have commanded range have
not sold for much more than 81 an acre
We must count on sheep from which TO
get our revenue-our S500,o00 Suppose we
assume that one-third of our three mil
lion sheep are fed on Government land?
We would have to get so cents a head out
of them for the use Of the land,
Now admit that quite revenue might
lands, but these people have told us 10
cents an acre and $500. 900 as the result.
an and IL they must mo- not be permitted to plead
the BABY act-they are great teachers.
If the lands should be rented to the best
advantage it would be to large syndi-
Gates, who would crowd out smaller
evil so great as to make 1t debatable
question as to its policy on that ground
alone. If the Government should enter
on scheme of land leasing 1t would have
to make different prices on the land, be-
cause there is vast difference in it and
this would give rise to fraud and fayorit-
ism. Then to make it all one price-10
cents-everybody would have to be kept
of Government land who would not pay
that price, because If not nobody would
rent, ard then all land not worth 81 an
acre would not be used and that would
be 70 the detriment Of the State and its
people
Then the authorized spokesmen OF the
build reservoirs in the mountains and
then have no system of distribution other
Ihan voluntary cooperative companies,
Ihat is thousand fold worse than that
1u-csnl ueoal huInbug. Ihey are going to build
reservoirs up on the headwaters of such
river as the Kings with say 200 square
miles to be served, and let a lot of little
voluntary cooperative companies go after
u as best they mayl No law to protect
the rights of those too weak to protect
their own, no laws to make those pay who
ought to pay! The congress, or the prin-
cipal part of 1t, made money fighting the
olstrlct plan of distribution, and it all the
time announced that that work must go
to the wall in order that the fee may be
earned. If 1t is provided that all must
pay who get benefits and all in the range
OF benefit shall have a right it comes to
the basis OF the district system. and the
earned! Alongside this sort of humbug-
gerry the 10-cent price falls into utter
nothingness
IT is said that there were a whole lot
OF good men in that convention. or course
there were, but take the proceedings and
see that very few run 1t. We have all
! been in conventions of the sort. few
prepare a programme and all the rest