Ottumwa semi-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1899-1903, 1903-02-26
Continual Warfare Between West
ern Cattlemen and Farmers.
FORM PROTECTIVE ASSOCIATION
Oklahoma Farmers Have Organized
Have Lodges, Signs, Grips and
Pass Words-Cattlemen Quitting
Public Lands.
[BY H. ]. MAHIN.l

proposed COMMISSION 10 Investigate
the public land question of the west
will not be appointed. The proposition
was voted down in Major Lacey's COM
mittee the other day. 1t is safe tol
say that Major Lacey was not pleased
at the result. For several reasons heI
favored the commission and has also
been personally assured by the
President that he, too, thought
it would be good thing. 1t is an
open secret that the measure was de-
feated by the votes of the members of
the public lands committee who repre-
sent what is known as the arid land
states. A congressman from an arid
land state is hardly likely to recon-
mend or urge legislation even to cor
rect evils that he knows to exist and
especially would he hesitate to recon.
mend grazing law when he is likely
to meet with political opposition in
his own locality by the cattle and
sheep men, who will never agree to a
law that will require them to pay for
that which they are now getting for
nothing. But commission would not
be so handicapped and true report
from them as to the actual conditions
would no doubt receive proper consid-
carlton from congreSsm en- who do not
live in the arid and semi-arid regions.
1t is easy to see that this is just why
the arid land congressman would fear
even to vote for such commission.
The public land problems of the
west are getting to place where they
must be met. A continual warfare is
going on and has been for many years
between the farmers and the cattle
men. The legislature of Oklahoma,
| the territory now suing for statehood,
is about to officially announce that
| Oklahoma is farming country and
that the men with the grazing herds
must keep off the land of the men
with the hoe The battle has been
| fought from the east line of Okla
homa to the west and 1t has not al,
ways been bloodless. 1t has, however,
in the main, been a struggle of num-
bers OF people against few men of
wealth and power and a desire to re.
tain their long timed privilege of graz
| ing on government lands There has
always been sentiment among the
! best posted settlers that the short
grass country" was untitled for the
4 growing of crops. The homesteaders
i who came in late, however, were true
pioneers. They were willing to ex
pertinent with the short grass" coun
Il try and filed their claims there. The
cattle men resented the intrusion and
the struggle was kept up all along the
/ line, until now there is very little land
left in Oklahoma that is not labeled
mo thoroughfare," by the farmer.
Major Lacey, who has made deep
4 study of all public land matters and
who probably knows more about the
Question than any other man in Wash
ington, says that many of the stories
about the struggles between the far
mers and cattlemen are not at all ex-
aggerated. One of the fiercest fights
that the settlers had was probably in
Roger Mills county in the west of
Oklahoma. There the settlers had the
proposition of an actively adverse
county government to contend with
together with an organized and hostile
element of cowboys and cattlemen.
The success of the farmer depended
upon the success in securing the adop
ton of the herd law, local option
arrangement by which the people OF
any subdivision of the county might
say whether the cattle of that section
should be controlled and herded off
the crops or allowed free range, which
meant the destruction of their crops
The election on the herd law proposi
ton had to be called as result of the
majority of the inhabitants Of the sub
division petitioning for the same
lr-o hi
ter with the petition when it was pre-
scented to the county Judge. Then {
lawyer was employed to draft the pc
tition-the lawyer had to be brought
from a hundred miles east of the
scene in order to get one who woulG
do the right thing by the homestead
ers-and petition was framed thai
could not be denied The first election
/ for Roger Mills county was called
That was two years ago. The Satul
day before the Tuesday on which thu
vote was to be taken the cowmen Sc
cured an injunction and the election
was restrained. That ended the at
tempt at that time.
, The situation became one of sleep
: less nights and days of toll for tn,
men with the growing crops. TIL,
crops had been planted in the faitl
election would be held and it wa
known that the proposition woul,
: carry by vote of at least three t,
one. 1t was time when the cattl
were mysteriously killed and home
steaders suddenly packed their effect
, in prairie schooner and drove out 0
the country. Sentiment and the ms
cessity for doing something, however
drove the people on the farms to ge
together. The result was the forms
. ton of the most peculiar secret societ,
in the whole southwest.
About the time the election failed,
: music teacher from Atkinson, Kans
: filed on good looking quarter sec
9 ton in Heger, Mills county, and wen
= to live in dug-out thereon and starr
= ed farm. He considered the cause @
a homesteader and looked the situs
ton over. Then he began the formt
ton of a secret, oath-bound and care
fully guarded organization of wester
: Oklahoma farmers. The order is cal
ed the farmers Protective associatio
l. and has now at the age of one yea
, | 81 mr. p