The National tribune., 1902-07-24
" WHO'S ELBOWING ME?"
Competition in the Cattle Country.
Ray Stannard Baker, in the August Cen
turyl

Ray Stannard Baker, in the August Cen
tury)
For 10 years. more or less. say. from
1874 to 1854. and later than this in the
Northern range. there was universal pros
perity and plenty of money; to be i cow
man meant being Il small but powerful king
with princey kingdom, the boundaries OF
which were set by precedent and by the
honor of cuStom--aS far as Il man on horse
back could see, and by water-as firmly
as if corner-marked and title-dceded. Thee
was no rent and virtually no taxes to pay.
4 man might own 100000 cattle and not
an acre of land, though he claimed range
rights to 10000 acres. and enforced those
rights with blood and iron.
Apparently this was Il new sort of free
life in which man had risen above the old
slow rules of thrift. 1t was simple buSi-
ness: turn the cattle to grass, and when
money was needed, round them up and sell
them.
But the lucky dog sometimes has diff
culties in enjoying his bone in peace.
Lured by the stories of sudden richness in
the cattle country, other men, as bold and
hardy as the first. flocked in from all parts
of the world. and began raising big and
little herds. The building OF the railroads
across the continent stimulated immigra-
ton; the great Texas boom followed the
completion of the Texas Pacific Railroad in
1888. At first the early corners welcomed
the new rangers, sold them cattle at eXor-
bitant prices, chuckled at their innocence.
allowed them to come in on the ranges, and
grew richer and richer. There We're times
when Texas steers. big and little. brought
50 each on the range. But the tide
swelled, and the cattle continued to in-
crease enormously. Presently the first real
settlers, the ''nesters' of Texas, who
wished TO fence the land for farms. ap-
peared in numbers, and the early comers.
hn 20 hat
Who's elbowing me?' they inquired, and
there was prompt and effective shooting
and the wholesale cutting of the new
fences.
Many good men lay down in the hot
sand. never to rise again. But that. bad
as it was, did not tell the whole story of
destruction. If cattle had been killed in
stead of men. the trouble might have been
averted. but the herds went on multiplying
until they covered all the range. giving it
no rest Winter or Summer. Each cowman
scrambled for all he could get; he argued
that if he did not take the grass his neigh
Dor would. And who cared n rap for the
future. Life was short and money tangi-
bic. At first there had been enough grass
TO support one steer to every two acres Of
land; in half a dozen years a steer did well
to make his living on FIVE acres After
that the ratio steadily widened. So great
was the struggle for new territory that
whOle NERDS OIL cattle sometimes went ~
miles or more to water and then back
again, galloping every step, and working
hard between times to get enough from
the failing ranges to keep life within their
lean carcasses. And today there are many
parts of the range that will not support 10
cattle to the square mile. one steer to every
GA acres, and it is a good range indeed that
will feed steer to every 20 acres. There
are whole ranges in Texas. New Mexico.
and Arizona. once rich beyond belief. that
are completely deserted and given over to
the desert.