Santa Fe new Mexican. [volume] (Santa Fe, N.M.) 1898-1951, 1899-12-11
Dangerous Lease Law Proposed.

main 10 Vne exclusion OF the smaller
cattle n and the sheep growers.
1t is for the purpose of securing the
support of the west that the governor
of that state has called a meeting for
this month at Salt Lake City of the
governors of the arid states and terri
tories. In order to obtain their ndorse-
ment, the suggestion is made that bv
leasing the public lands a fund for the
be secured.
Last summer the secretary of the de-
partment Of agriculture visited Wyo-
ming, and was shown the exhausted
ranges of that region where there had
been o~vercrowding, and was assured
that We're leasing permitted the range
could be redeemed, because the men
who would fence would protect the land
and give opportunity for grass to again
grow. This prospect and the possibili-
ty of building up a fund for the con
struction of reservoirs Won the supper.
of the secretary, and are liable to be con-
vincing to congressman of the east, who
may think it proper for the arid coun-
try to secure funds in that manner for
irrigation work, by letting those who
are willing to pay for grazing privileges
have the sole use Of the land. Unfor-
%tunately, when the measure comes be-
fore congress, New Mexico will have no
vote to cast against it, through lack of
statehood, and If the bill proposed be-
m a law it is predicted that it will
result in widespread disaster and ruin
to the many small owners of cattle, and
practically destroy the sheep industry
Of the territory. The big cattle COM
panies and owners would be about the
only ones who could avail themselves of
such a law. They would be willing to
pay the highest price, as others could
not afford to fence great tracts of land.
The sheep men do not, as a rule, want
limited, fixed locations, for their f1ocks
thrive best by taking a wide range.
They can live with less frequent re-
course to the water supply and thrive
in many localities where the grass is
scant. The flock owners could not COM
pete with the great cattle companies for
the leases of the range, and would have
to leave the country.
There is proof enough at hand in the
result of the leasing law in Texas, by
which the great cattle owners control
the whole range country of the state,
and within the past two years hundreds
Of thousands of sheep have necessarily
been driven from the plains of Texas to
the hills of southern New Mexico, which
until then had fed sheep. Many Texas
sheep mem have been compelled to
abandon the business. Many small cat
tie men have had to sell their cattle or
drive them to New Mexico. The big
herd owners of Texas have had to pay
but from = to ) cents per acre annually
for grazing lands in that state.
The fund to be derived from leasing
the lands would be but a poor recon-
pense for the destruction of New Mex
ico's greatest interest and the depriva-
ton Of many thousands of people of
their chief source of income. To-day the
sheep industry is the source of the
greatest prosperity to the territory. The
cattle men of New Mexico and the sheep
men have not been in conflict to any
great extent. The cattle men have in
the main confined their operations to
the section in which the earlier inhab-
itants did not locate and esta blish the
sheep industry, which had made a con
tented and prosperous people long be.
the advent of the cattle men. At
present the relations between the two
in this territory are not
strained; on the contrary, they are
friendly. The man with a few hundred
or a thousand sheep can live where his
ancestors dwelt and support himself
and his family. But let the lease law
be passed and the big cattle men of
will extend their holdings BY
the lands sought by the sheep
men. But this is not all; they will fence
in much Of northern and central New
under leases, and the %populous
ScdiillcS, "iCIS LII ages lIG p6OplS
have had ranges for their sheep with /
out destroying the heritage Of natures /
will become the fenced-in do !
of alien corporations and non-res-
dents. Where villages have long stood,
only a few cowboys sufficient for the |
attention demanded by herds fenced in,
will be found. When these great leas-
ing outfits gr%avitate north and west |
from Texas and lease water and land
sheep men must go, and the people |
also; where the latter could go it would
hard to say. The result must inevi- |
tably be that the flocks will be sent to
he butcher. The small owner on the
course or spring with a few head
If cattle or sheep will no longer have a
range for his little bunch of stock, and
will have to abandon his homestead or
sell to the leaser, and thus add to the
monopoly of the big Texas or Wyoming
corporations.
The proposed lease law, while de-
signed primarily for the northern
would apply to New Mexico, and
much Of the territory simply pri-
reese yes for the Texas and Wyo-
ming cattle companies, which would be
destroying one interest for another In
fewer people would find support,
it would ruin many citizens of the
erritory whose living is dependent up
IN their f1ocks Of sheep or small herds
" cattle.
1t Is time for the whole people to real
re what an injustice and disaster the
Of such a measure would bring.
Territorial Lands Going.
Governor Otero and his associates Of