Daily Arizona silver belt., 1907-12-04

I oAy NuVWCu tut tA1SttHNt Ol ETCdt fraud upon the public domain, and their recommendation for changes in
 the law were made with the design of
 conserving the natural resources of
 every part of the public lands by put
 ting 1t to its best use. Especial atten-
 tion was called to the prevention of set
 tlement by the passage of great areas
 of public lands into the hands of few
 men, and to the enormous waste caused
 by unrestricted grazing upon the open
 range. The recommendations of the
 Public Lands Commission are sound, for
 they are especially in the interest of
 the actual home maker; and where the
 small home maker cannot at present
 utilize the land they provide that the
 Government shall keep control of it so
 that it may not be monopolized by a
 few men. The Congress has not yet acted upon these recommendations but
 they arc so just and proper, so essen
 tial to our National welfare, that l feel
 confident, if the Congress will take time
 to consider them, that they will ulti-
 mately be adopted.
 Public Grazing Land
 Some such legislation as that proposed
 is essential in order to preserve tho
 great stretches of public grazing land
 which are unfit for cultivation under
 present methods and are valuable only for the forage which they supply. These stretches amount in all to some BOG, ,000.. 900 acres, and are open to the free
 grazing of cattle, sheep, horses and goats, without restriction. Such sys-
 tenn, or rather such lack of system,
 n,nn fhat h., .s, used as wasted by abuse. As the West settles the range becomes more and more over-g -grazed. Much of it cannot be used to advantage unless it is fenced, for fencing is the only way by which to keep in check the owners of nomad fiocks which roam hither and thither, utterly destroying the pastures and leaving waste behind so that their presence is incompatible with the pres ence of home makers. The existing fences are all illegal. Some of them represent the improper exclusion of actual settlers, actual home makers, from territory which is usurped by great cattle companies. Some of them represent what is in itself a proper eff fort to use the range for those upon the land and to prevent its use by nomadic outsiders. All these fences. those that are hurtful and those that are beneficial, are alike illegal and must come down. But it is an outrage that the law should neeessitate such action on the part of the Administration. The unlawful fencing of public lands for private grazing must be stopped, but the necessity which oecasioned it must be provided for. The Federal Govern ment should have control of the range. 1 whether by permit or lease, as local necessities may determine. Such con- trol could secure the great benefit of 1 legitimate fencing, while at the same | time securing and promoting the settle ment of the country. In some places | it may be that the tracts of range ad- | jaeent to the homesteads of actual set | tiers should be allotted to them sever ally or in common for the summer graz. | ing of their stock. Elsewhere it may be | that lease system would serve the | purpose; the leases to be temporary and | subject to the rights of settlement, and 1 the amount charged being large enough | merely to permit of efficient and bene- ! fcial control of the range by the Gov | ernment, and of the payment to the ! county of the equivalent of what it | would otherwise receive in taxes. The l destruction of the public range will con | tinue until some such laws as these are | Fully to prevent the fraud | in the public lands which. through the | joint action of the Interior Department | and the Department of Justice, we have | been endeavoring to prevent. there must ! be further legislation. and especially | a sufficient appropriation to permit the | of the Interior to examine ' certain classes of entries on the ground | before they pass into private ownership ! The Government should part with its | title only to the actual home maker, not | to the profit maker who does not care | to make a home. Ouru prime obpect is to secure the rights and guard the in ! tercsts of the small ranchman, the man | who blows and pitches hay for himself. l It is this small ranchman, this actual | settler and home maker, who in the long run is most hurt by permitting thefts of the public land in whatever form