Santa Fe new Mexican. [volume] (Santa Fe, N.M.) 1898-1951, 1900-02-03

In the very face OF the public senti-
ment which is to be found at every
cross-road and county seat Of the land
and which has forced all political or
CARNATIONS in the country to proclaim
as their fundamental plank and pledge,
ANTITRUST legislation" congress Is
being asked to lease the public lands
to the highest bidder without limit as
to area or location. No more perfect
machinery was ever contrived for
crushing the flock master or small cat
tie owner out Of his occupation.
1t was a lease law which enabled the
'fsquatters' of Australia to seize upon
all of that grand country, and today
the governments there are buying it
back at an enormous expense, to make
a place for the Solicitors" homestead
ers).
Oour government Is not needing the
small income which might possibly be
derived therefrom, and the motive for
| such legislation is only to be found
among those who urge it's adoption, and
those we find are the cattlemen.
Nor do they deny it, but confident in
their ability to carry the measure
through, they openly proclaim their
purpose.
HOW LEASING WAS INDORSED.
The governors Of the states west Of
the Missouri river were called to meet
in Salt Lake City to endorse the bill,
| and the Sd annual convention of the So
called National Livestock association,
held lately at Fort Worth, Texas, was
utilized to boom their project, and this
was done In such manner as to make it
| appear the wool growers endorsed the
| proposition. By extensively advertis-
ing that the best interests of all stock
men were to be supported i'm the con-
| v~ention, and a special invitation ex-
tended to flock owners, quite a number
of wool growers were induced to at
tend. When these sheep men arrived
in Fort Worth, they found the walls of
the town and the halls and hotels plac-
arded with the motto Welcome CATTLE
men," Not a banner bore the device
Welcome stockmen," or Welcome
sheep men," and when the resolution
as to forest reserves was adopted. it
read, not for the opening of the reserves
to sheep and goats, the only animals
! excluded therefrom, but "for the pas
turing Of stock"
And again, when the resolution ask
ing for the leasing Of the public do
main was passed, the majority was
101. The affirmative vote contained
the ayes of the representatives of beef
and bacon, Of pelts aud hides, credited
as delegates from the stockyards and
packing houses, really representing
middle men and dead stock, not live
stock. In addition, the 100 delegates
from Texas voted aye, although there
within the limits of the state. Kansas
! City, Chicago and Omaha have little
sympathy with wool growers, for they
furnish but little of their raw material,
and it is evident Texas cattle owners
would be glad to increase their pastures
at the expense Of the owners of stocks
in surrounding states and territories.
The National Wool Growers Associa-
ton, as has been said, has made it's pro-
test against the first of these facts, but
why Is no meeting of the association
called or at least of its executive COM
mittee, and a most emphatic demand
made that the concession on the wool
tariff be refused; that the forest re-
serves be open to sheep as they are to
cattle, and that the lease laws be re-
jected and the corporations, trusts and
combines be revoked as they deserve?
GEO. H. WALLACE.
Santa Fe, N. M, Jan. 81, 1900.