The independent., 1903-06-04
Range Fences

EQltOT lndopendont. l wish TO dis
cuss the range fence question with the
associate editor. Ny life, thirty-six
years, has been spent on the public
domain, not as cattleman, but some
times as homesteader, on my fathers
homestead and on my own, but mostly
as surveyor; sometimes as deputy
United States land surveyor and as
deputy United States mineral survey
or. The range fence does not always
denote hostility towards the settler,
but often greater safety for the set.
tiers stray cattle or horses.
Because 1t has been made an instru-
ment of warfare upon the smaller cat
tlemen and homesteaders does not i'm
ply that 1t always is or usually is.
Every case must have Its own merits
or demerits. There is no doubt b,t.
that men often combine to hold gov
erpment land away from would-be
settlers, but the range fence is not an
aid to such devilish design; it is rath.
er hinderance For instance, if
settler gets Up in the morning on
fenced range and finds his stock gone
or killed he at once suspicious the
owners of the range fence that sur
rounds him and every neighbor and
settler who hears his disaster will sec
ond his suspicious. / cannot explain
the causes of the downfall of the big
cattle companies who stoop to directly
injure a poor man, but know that a
cattle company cannot long exist in
the face of cordial dislike among
so11x
neighbors are all poor men.
The open range Is the farmers
worst form Of gambling; he raises
few calves on his farm, puts them out
on the range in the spring and gets
them back fat in the fall. This is the
first year, or while he has but one or
two. AfterWard when he has ten.
twenty, or more, he usually misses all
the velvet and then to make his loss
more complete spends time and money
hunting the lost ones. Permission to
build range fences, If it could be
properly controlled, would be ben
eft to the small farmer who lives
adjacent to arid pastures.
You certainly do not have knowl-
edge Of all the facts when you attri-
butte the greater part of aridness to
grazing animals introduced by white
men. Because oats, corn, ETC., may
have made grand crop at some time
and some place in the arid west does
not even suggest that it always would
or that it usually would produce a
crop.
| have been where no cattle or sheep
ever ranged, on the Navajo reserva-
tion, and where few ponies ever
ranged, and the vegetation was very
much the same as in localities where
1t had been more closely grazed. II
does not injure most grass to be
grazed, but rather aids in distributine
seed and starting the seed to grow,
because most grass seed will pass
through the alimentary canal of graz
ing animals without injury. Cattle
men are producers and as such are
the prey as other producers are of the
speculator and the trust. Don't lend
your voice to breed hate among the
men who are doing something for us
all; rather help to Join all producers
in holy alliance that we may meet
a common foe and vanguish hirn-the
transportation monopoly.
e. e. CAMPBELL.
Cisco, Utah.
CThe associate editor has no recoI-
lection OF taking any stand on the
range fence question. 1t is a subject
he is not familiar with. Doubtless
Mr.. Campbell refers to some COM
munication which appeared in The In
dependent.-Associate Editor)