Hot Springs weekly star. (Hot Springs, S.D.) 1892-1917, 1901-05-03
sTOCKMEN's MEETINGS

ClNyDNNILN - MLL l. Il OO
"A Stock Paper Discusses Some Phases of
The annual Gatherings.-Don't
Like the Meeting Places.
CLAY Robinson " Co.'S Live Stock
Report gave very interesting resume
of the work of the recent conventions
held by the stockmen of the north
west. from which we make the follow
ing extract:
When 1900 closed and the echoes of
the great international Show had
~.scarce died away l made an inward
Wow that no convention or meeting of
stockmen should see my face till Skin
= ner's dream should be realized next
December. And so the meetings at
Salt Lake, San Antonio and Denver
. passed by, and they got along in the
writer's absence brilliantly. After all,
one swallow maketh not summer.
During trip to California, where the
hills were covered with glorious green,
where the great valleys we're clothed
:: with robes of color, and the COW festive
with food, succulent and strong i'll it's
Z youth, and even when autumn comes,
!. for the seed of the altilerea lying on
I. the ground is nectar to cattle, the
sapell was broken.
Numerically the Rapid City meeting
Is. the great convention of the north
west. The big owners are there and so
are the small ones. They all come,
q and as the business is divided up in
that country more than any other dis
trict into small herds the attendance is
/ larger and the interest manifested is
more intense than at any other place I
have oeen this season.
But all in all these meetings were
humdrnm, dragging, and, except lndl-
vidually, very uninterestiDg. So far
as business is concerned the executive
: committees might as we'll have metand
done the routine business, and the
reason is not far to seek. In the first
place all of these meetings are at small
towns, good in themselves but the ia
cilities are poor, in rooms and rail
roads, in locolnotion, in everything
that makes live town. Why should
the South Dakota Association persist
in meeting at Rapid City when they
could convene ut Hot Springs, where
there are good hotels. two railroads
and every facility for looking after the
crowd? Why should there be two
meetings in Montana at small towns
which have but one train a day each
way? Why not meet ut Helena, which
has splendid train service and hotel
accommodations for big crowd
There the men of Montana could gath.
er and have meeting worthy of the
= name. 1t is an easy run from Utah
and Idaho, from Washington apd Ore
gon. This is the day of concentration
OF economy of time and space, and
while the cattle business on the range
has been more or less happy -go-lucky
we must appreciate the fact that sucf
days are past and the cattle men of thu
west has today been forced, more ever
than the politician, to look after hi
fences. We are passing into these re
gions from the open range to the err
of fences. Texas. Colorado, Wyoming
western Nebraska and Kansas hav'
gone into the clutches of barbed wire
and TO translation of thetgreat cattl
st Montana and the Dakotas t.
Npdition is in the air. Thel
;. all-important question o
i, =. INVASION. Can the two in
Alcesr in harmony together
ing Comp tins of the land business
- .'.ran,',s oann Ds;' or leased lands? These ar
E cpH1 tnng questions, open for discussion
but at the above meetings you hea
not an echo about them, except tn
growl of some old timer who sees tn
changes coming and appreciates then
not. Conventions in the main ar
good-there may be too much palavel
a little more whiskey drinking than
\ good for the body as we'll as the sou
but they lead on to business, to inter
change of ideas, to trading, to renewa
of acquaintances. Such being tn
case it is important that they be bel
at convenient points. When a railroa
magnate wants to buy IA road he goe
to,New York to buy it, not to Oshkosh
Vhere has been no winter in tt
Nthwest and this is bne of the bles
that come 20 mortals now al
Il for there was little or no gra:
khe range last fall. and yet catt
sheep have come through wit
nominal loss, and, as we rushe
foss the country in II Pullman, stoc
7ell, more especially in mort
oming. But my advice to IL
hen of these regions is "Don't {
ain,"" for lightning scarcely ev'
-, <,u3co in tho Same Mace IA