The Washington times., 1907-10-01

(Continued from Second Page.)
any class Of men could in the
slightest degree atone for failure
on our part to shape the laws so
that fEey may work for the perma-
nent good Of the hOme-maker.
This is fundamental, gentlemen,
and is simply carrying O0t the idea
upOn which / dwell in speaking to
you of your own farms here I'm
Iowa.
Now in many States whore the rain
feu Is light Il Is a simple sosurdity 10
expect any man TO live, stiH less 10
bring up a family. on 100 acres. " mere
1,e are able to introduce irrigation. the
homestead Gun be very much less In
siza--cnn. for instance. be forty acres;
and there Is nothing that Congress has
done during the past six years more I'M
portant than the enactment OF the na-
tIonal irrigation law
But where irrigation Is not applicable
and the land can only be used for graz
ing. It may be that you cannot run more
than one steer to ten acres, and II Is
not necessary TO be much of mathe-
rnatician In order TO see that where
such is the case a homestead of $50
acres will not 60 Sar toward the sup
port OF a family. In consequence OF
this fact homesteadcrs do not take up
the lands in the tracts in QueStion.
'The1, are left omen for anybody 10 graze
unon that wishes to- The result Is that
. LIre men who use them moderately, ana
not with a view to exhaustinE their re-
sources. are at the mercy or those VINO
Wha
y,lv intend 10 skin the land in the pres
ent. For instance, the small sheep
farmer who has n home. and who
wishes that home to pass on to his
children improved in value. VIII natU-
rally run his flock so that the land
will support IT. not only today but ten
years hence; hut a big absentee ship
owner, who has no home on the land
at ell. but simply owns huge migra-
tory fiocks of sheep. may we'll find II
10 his profit to drive them over the
small sheep farmers range and eat l.
all out. He can then drive bis flOcNS
on, whereas the small man cannot. OF
course. TO permit such q state OF things
is not only evil for the small man, b,,t IS
destructive OF the best interests or The
country. Substantially the same condi-
tons obtain as regard cattle. The Gus
tom has, therefore. grown up Of fencing
great tracts Of Government land with
out warrant OF law. The men who
fenced this land were sometimes rich
uleI, VINO, Dy IeIlcilE II. kept out actual
settlers, and thereby worked evil to the
country. But in many cases. whether
they were large men or small men. their
object was not to keep out actual set
tiers. but 10 protect themselves and
their own industry by preventing over
grazing Of the range on the part Of
reckless stock owners who had no place
IL the permanent development of The
country, and who were indifferent 20
everything except the profits of the mo-
rnent.
Position of Government.
To permit the continuance of this iIe-
gal fencing inevitably tended TO very
grave abuses. and the Government has
therefore forced the fencers 10 tala
down. their fences In doing this we
have not only obeyed and enforced the
law, but we have corrected many har-
rant abuses. Nevertheless. we have
also caused hardship. which. though IN
avoidable. I was exceedingly unwilling
10 cause In some way or other we
must provide for the use OF the public
range under conditions waich shall
lnure primarily TO the benefit OF the
Hctuai settlers on or near IL. and which
snail prevent Its being wasted. This