, 1907-04-09
MONDELL ON
RANGE LEASE
INTERVIEW WITH WYOMING CON
GRESHAM ON SOME PRES
EMIT DAY TOPICS
Sentiments First Printed In Newcastle
N~ews-Journal Given for the Bene-
fit of Range Gitsrature@Wouid
Favor Small Leases Under Proper
and Consistent Rules.

The Republican gives herewith some
excerpts from an interview on the last
session Of congress. published in the
Newcastle News-Journal. Mr.. Mon
dell is opposed to an extension of the
present forest reserve permit system to
the public domain, and in this he prob
ably has the support of nearly all the
stockmen of the west.
If The Republican understands Mr.
Mondell's position correctly, however.
he would favor a leasing system that
would give individual control of small
areas, subject to the land laws, to the
stockmen OF the state.
An Immense Business.
Mr.. Mondell says:
"The business of the government has
grown to be SO vast that the time Of
the congress, during the short session,
is very largely taken up with prepare
ton, discussion and passage Of the reg
ular supply bills. A few years ago
there was a great hue and cry about a
billion dollar congress. We have now
reached a time when congress appro-
priated over three-quarters of a billion
dollars in a single short session. To
intelligently prepare, discuss and pass
the numerous bills making these vast
appropriations necessarily required the
greater portion OF the two and a half
months working time OF the short ses-
sion, and never in my experience in
congress have the appropriation bills
been So carefully scrutinized as they
we're in the late session, and large as
the appropriations were it would be
very difficult for the most economically
inclined citizen to point u how they
could be greatly reduced without Grip
ping the legitimate and proper activi-
ties of the national government. "''
Trainmen's Time Limit. ,
"One of the most important laws
passed at the recent session was the
so-called 16-hour bill, which restricts
the time which trainmen may be con.
tinuously employed to sixteen hours.
The bill is an important n not only
IN o of its far reaching effect
but because it marks a decided ad'
vance in the matter Of national control
of interstate transportation. 1t Is be.
lieved that the measure will consid.
erably reduce railroad accidents and
it will undoubtedly have a decided tend
ency to increase the rapidity Of the
movement of freight as it will necessi
tate the running of trains light enough
to cover the distance between division
points, under all conditions, within the
time limit. The Law goes into effect
next March.
Control Of the Range.
The proposed national range con
troll is often times loosely referred to
as a leasing bill or policy and this fact
has brought to its support, temporarily
at least, certain stockmen who are in.
clined to favor the leasing Of at leas'
a portion of the public domain. 49,
The Permit System.
THE national range control. Or the
control of grazing on public lands by
the national government, which has
been SO persistently urged by men like
Mr.. Pinchot, and others, c~ontemplates
the extension to all OF the public lands
of the permit system now in vogue or
the forest reserves. The proposed leg
islation would give the secretary oil
agriculture authority to divide all oil
the public lands into grazing districts
as he might deem proper for admins
trative purposes, and the secretary
would then proceed to determine, az
he now determines in the forest re,
serves, just how many head of stock
of each kind should be allowed &c
range in each of the grazing districts
AS the grazing districts combined
would include all Of the public land
states the secretary would decide just
how many horses. cattle. sheep, etc,
should Craze in any given state, or on
all of the public domain.
No Exclusive Rights.
after having determined the num-
Der of head of stock Of each kind
which could be grazed in a certain
district, stock owners would be called
upon to make applications for permits