, 1901-01-18

dustry was not looked upon with favor.
and was not popular. With the reduc.
ton Of tariff in 1888, followed by the
scare incident to the Mills bill, ranch
wool growing languished; sheep be-
came reduced one-half, or more in
prices, few men went into the business,
while many of the old ones went out.
Like the unlucky man who grasps an
electric wire they did not want to
hang on, but they could not let go.
Meanwhile the severe winters and
billiards. and non-counting of cattle
had gone on until the evidences we're
SO unmistakable hat book count would
no longer suffice in the purchase and
sale of cattle, that a change became i'm
perative, and cattle, like sheep. we're
transferred by actual count; and then
it became evident that storms which
had winked out SO many of the sheep
had also destroyed the cattle, and that
there must be a new system of bust
ness inaugurated; that, instead of ne
electing the cattle and preserving in
office or safe, snug and warm, the
tally-books, and keeping owner and
foreman on high rations at club or no.
tel, the cattle must have care and food,
the same as it had been demonstrated
sheep must have. And thus the two
industries were reduced to a parity,
and the legend that the cattleman was
the aristoCrat and the sheepman the
IN these years, what with low prices
for beef, hides and cattle, low prices
for mutton and wool, the industry of
wool and meat growing on the west
ern ranches, was precarious; but i'm
provement came apace, and We came
under the wire. after favorable legis-
lation in 1890, at a good gait of i'm
provement, and turned into 1892 all
happy and nearly all prosperous.
But alas and alack for the sheep
man, A great change was close at
hand.-a change that wrecked happi-
ness and fortunes and threw conster-
nation and decentralization into almost
every sheep camp in this nation; ana
the western wool-growing region be-
came strewn with the wrecks Of sheep
mems hopes and homes.
A Torrent Of Disaster.
Mr.. Chairman, and gentlemen, in al
most the twinkling of an eye, a west
ern cloudburst sometimes makes of a
peaceful gorge or valley, a seething,
roaring. tearing devouring torrent
in which a herder's flock may be suck
ed up and drowned in few seconds
time and before it can be driven to a
place Of safety. A prairie fire may sur
round a flock of the unOffending and
helpless creatures, and in a few NOM
ents a little fortune has vanished.
Again, fire sometimes burns a ranch or
corral, or sheds, and s%uffocates the
whole or part of a flock. At times,
and unfortunately they are of too fire.
quent occurrence, a blizzard will take
possession of a flock, or of all the flocks
in some n part of the country, and
whirl them along in the binding snow
until beyond the control Of the herd
ef and his faithful dogs, and after per.
haps miles of travelling, the sheep drift
over into some gully already partly
filed with soft snow. where the lead
ers of the flock struggle and plunge,
and those in the rear tumble over and
upon them until they are suffocated,
killed and buried beneath the terri
bly, driving snow. At other times
drought of summer may cause thous-
ands upon thousands to die. Again,
disease-and the only one that is pre-
valent or dangerous among us is the
scab-will overtake a flock, late in the
season, where the owner is unprepar-
ed to dip, and many will succumb to the
ravages of this terrible parasite. But
not one or all of these misfortunes to-
gether, ever created such havoc with
the sheepmen and his fiocks as i'm
mediately followed the passage of the
notorious Wilson-Gorman Tariff Bill,
which even the then president repud-
lated as being IAN instrument of per-
fidity and dishonor." The sheepmen
agreed that it was an Infamous and
perfidious measure-but from a differ
ent point of view. The Executive saw
perfldity because there was too much
protection in the measure for wooden
manufacturers; while the sheepmen
saw dishonor, and worse, because they
were stripped Of every vestage of pro-
lection.
The fate of the ranch wool-grower
during that period and until relieved
by corrective legislation, can, In the
concrete, be given in four words:
They all went broke" Some went
out of the business, others couldn't let
go, but drifted before the gale. Banks,
moneylenders, merchants and others
were interested in the sheepmen, and
SO their troubles were pooled; the
grower was in honor bound to stay in
! and help out those financially interest.
ed in and with him; and SO old clothes
and still older ones, were fished out
and donned: children were taken out
Of school, and with women folk took
the field in herding, lambing and often