New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1902-09-22
TIE WESTERN STOCK VAR.

While the echoes of the mimic battles fought
along the Eastern seaboard are dying away. the
embers of real war are smouldering on the great
pastures of the Far West 1t is estimated by
q Colorado authority that in the last ten years
of the widespread conflict between cattlemen
and sheepmen on the grazing lands Of the public
domain the average yearly slaughter of men has
been five hundred and that the total loss Of hu-
man life has more than equalled the total of the
army's fatalities in the Philippines and Cuba
Within the same period, it is said, six hundred
thousand sheep have been wantonly Killed oy
the cattlemen, at a loss of s., 100000 to the
sheepmen The latter, as the figures show. are
usually the party worsted. their stock being
more easily killed and driven off, and their
shepherds less effectively organized than those
of their councillors and oppressors. According
to an Oregon paper the cowboys throw dyna-
mite among the fiocks, killing hundreds with
single cartridge and sometimes their shep-
herds with them. Here is months record OF
the bloody doings in two States reproduced
from 1.-The San Francisco Calf:
On June 30 the settlers in the north end of
Grant County, Oregon, armed with Wlnchesters,
surrounded ali the large herds OF sheep on the
range and killed them all. In Bear Ealiey, III
the same State the settlers shot all the range
sheep and killed the teams and pack horses
of tle herders and shot ali their dogs Two men
were also shot. Near Black Canyon, In the
same State masked horsemen held up the
herders and killed all their sheep. AT Landor.
wyo on July "a a band of one hundred and
fifty armed men, masked and mounted, killed
the herders of several thousand sheep ana
slaughtered all the animals. In addition TO the
several thousand sheep slaughtered. sixty-five
thousa nd were left without herders or dogs,
and scattered off the range INTO barren noun
tains where they soon starved to death or
were DESTROYED by wild animals. July % sew
eral thousand sheep were slaughtered by rifle
men on the range south OF Pendleton' On the
Grand Junction. Col, Twelve
masked men attacked a valuable herd OF Angora
goats and killed five thousand OF them. Inc
owner Mrs Irving had six hundred more on
another mart of the range. and next day was
notified that they would also be Killed II they
were NOT removed from the Pion Mesa. On
August . a Mexican sheepherder at Grenada,
Col. was murdered, his body mut1lateo eho MS
sheep killed.
| What can be done to put stop to this law
| lessness and murder? Ones sympathy Is natu-
rally with the owners Of the sheep, as belng the
oppressed in the unequal conflict, and as having
just as much right in the public lanos as the
cattemen. On the other hand, II lett 10 'heih-
selves. sheen will inevitably drive cattle from
any range TO which they have equal access so
| that the cattIemen have some excuse for their
| contention that the freedom of the ranges for
sheep means the wiping out of the cattle rals-
| ing industry in that particular section and the
| consequent increase of the price of beef TO the
/ consumer. But when such arguments are en-
ployed IL is possible to find plausible ones on
| both sides; why, for instance, has the con-
sumner Of beef any superior claim to consldera-
ton over the consumer of mutton and wool
| If. indeed, he is not generally the same person!
"The Kansas City Journal believes that the
conflict is irrepressible and only to be ter
minated by the exhaustion of one or the other
party; for. in its opinion the busting OF both
| sheep and cattle from the public domain would
mean the hosting of the price of meats. while
the leasing of grazing lands otherwise unoccu-
PIED would check legitimate settlement We
readily appreciate the force of the second ar
gument without conceding the soundness of
the first. New-York is at a great distance from
the seat Of hostilities, and 'tenderfoot' sug-
eesnon may meet the scorn OF such Western
| students of the situation as THE Journal but
before admitting the impossiblity OF mitigating