The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1903-08-12
Mr.. Dean Thinks Cattlemen
Won't Surrender Easily.
Means Much to the Owners of
Cattle.
PRESENTS A PROBLEM.
Quarter Section Will Be of Lit
tie Use.
Necessity of Having Extensive
Ranges Apparent.

The United States district attorneys
Office here anticipates a determined re-
sistance on the part of the cattlemen Of
western Kansas against the enforcement
of the federal statute prohibiting the
fencing of government land. What the
cattlemen, and the district attorneys
Office also, would like to have is a de-
cision setting forth precisely what con-
stitutes the enclosure of government
land. Nearly 10 suits are in prepara-
ton, to be brought in the United States
district court by Attorney Dean. In
these suits every conceivable method of
enclosing federal land is included, and
by the time they have all been settled
ii IS probable a very clear idea of what
constitutes the Offense will be secured.
IN previous suits brought in Fzansas
and elsewhere the validity of the land
fencing statutes, which was passed by
congress In 1885. has been tested and
affirmed in the United States supreme
court. However, very few cases brought
under the statute present parallel situa-
tions. This statute holds it to be Of
tense to enclose by fence any govern
fence has no title or claim or to in any
way interfere with the access of pros
pective settlers or of the public at large
to it. 1t is the purpose of the law 10
AAldht oil government ldIQ Tree IdHBG
and to permit no person to have advan-
tage in its use
Since the first opening of western
Kansas lands to settlers vast amounts
of it have been proved up and much CT
it lost to the original owners on tax
sales. Scattered over all the short
grass" counties are thousands of acres
of very poor grade government land,
useful only for pasturing. A quarter
section is insufficient to furnish q liv-
sim
amount than that can be preempted.
Could the cattlemen purchase the
ground, outright, it would be sold readi-
" Unpreempted quarters dot the
ranches of the big cattle companies.
These companies, to reserve their range,
have resorted to various devices for
fencing in their own animals and fenc-
ing out those of other ranchmen.
In instances drift" fences are used.
The drift consists of miles upon miles of
straight fence, attached to nothing at
either end. A few miles to one side may
be the fence of another ranch At
either end of this drift riders are sta
toned to prevent the animals from
wandering out and thousands of acres
of pasture are in this manner reserved
for the use. Of one ranching company,
the prOprietors of Which own perhaps
but a fraction of the land over which
they Craze. Within this partial enclos-
ure settler finds his quarter. section of
tie of the big grazer, or he finds the
section line road fenced up in the drift
fence. From these annOyances fric-
lions arise, and in most cases, the COM
plants received by the district attor-
ney or the general land office come
from this source. 1t is a practice for
the ranchmen to place an employe or a
friend upon some tract of government
land to homestead it under the ordinary
course, but this is a slow process. Oc-
casionally quarter will be homesteaded
by a settler whose intention is to hold
up an adjoining ranchman, who is
anxious to buy it, for. an exorbitant
price.
Some of the suits now in preparation
are against two or three persons to-
gether. A line fence of one ranch may
join a line fence of another. at an angle,
and the latter line may be similarly
Joined by a third. The result is the en-
closure on three sides. of a tract con-
tanning government land which is used
for grazing by still a different ranch
man. The question will be to decide
who Is to be blamed for the enclosure,
the man who uses the ground or the
ones who built the fences. In various
ways western ranchmen reserve pieces
of government land for their exclusive
use and evade the spirit of the law,
which the federal land office. through
the district attorneys office is trying to
enforce.
In the statute prohibiting the fencing