, 1907-03-02

everybody to use and share equally
with you, tho owner somebody Is
wronged. The government has the 9TH
er alternate sections-the white checks
and pays no tax. The man who
owns nothing. who comes in like the
gr%asshopper pest with his great flocks
of sheep INC cattle, thus has the bene-
fit Of what has cost the buyers Of rail-
road land vast sums of money, and
upon which they are daily paying
taxes, while the interloper neither
misses a meal nor pays a penny.
place Hardship Upon Some.
"This is where the unfortunate sit
uation comes in Is to fencing; and you
might as well cut out Of this whole
proposition the fact that there may be
a few great Illegally fenced areas In
the United States. There Is not one
of them that 1 or anybody else but
the owners themselves wish to pro-
tect. But when you come down to the
man who has bought two, four, or more
sections of railroad land which he
can not fence without fencing in two,
three or more alternating sections of
government land, and you say that he
shall open up the whole mass of broad
prairie, his purchased land with the
balance; that he can not keep his own
stock upon his own land, but must
contribute his all to the rowing, pirate
bands of vicious owners, who pay
taxes nowhere and rob ranges every
where; that an owner can not get any
benefit from his own land that others
do not get, and still he shall pay the
taxes year after year, do you not place
upon him a hardship?
Harm to True Settler.
again, in this checkerboard belt
it matters not how a man undertakes
to fence in his own land, If he has
four miles square, two of the govern
ment's and two of the railroads, and he
fences them, a settler has only to &c
through one fence to settle upon that
inclosed government land; but you
let a man who has, say, ten miles
square of such land, and he fences the
railroad land, each black or alternate
section by itself, and you have no
only fenced every government section
but you have put the government sec
lions where an incoming settler has tt
go through four or five fences to ge
into the center sections, and you have
benefited nobody, but have brought II
limitable harm to the man who is
true settler and who has his none.
invested and who ought to be pro
tected.
Az to Grazing Fees.
"The senator knows I have been in
terrupted. The proposition, as it cam
to the committee, was that there woul,
be a plan adopted, first, to protect ev
cry settler under every one of tn
laws now upon the statute books an
on any part of the land upon whicl
he saw fit to settle; that, II he cam
where there happened to be an inclof
ure, he had the benefit of grazing hi
domestic stock free, and had the frs
chance to rent the land around him
second, the government would organic
such grazing districts as it SCENE
necessary to organize from tim
to time, the other land re
naming just as it o is, open pull
lie domain; third, the division Of tn
ranges between different settlers wa
to be accomplished by local men IL
terested and responsible to their neigi
bors; fourth, the charges were to b
nominal-a fraction Of a cent an acr
in favored spots-so that the amour
collected presumably would owe onl
the expenses of administration; tina
If there were any surplus funds the
should go to the states In which tn
amount was earned.
Presidents Wish to Aid Settlers.
"Mr. President, l am not going ful
Their into this, except to say again tina
the forester, MI. Pinchot, is in nowis
responsible nor is the president as t
the condition. l have described; an
it is their wish to aid the settlers i
IO-1r1ov,iDr th1C- 1tR ny,1tfnn arl =
prevent indiscriminate stamping GU
and ruination OF the ranges. They ar
simply undertaking to disentangle
difficult and complicated condition, !
it may meet the views of those intel
ested in it to have them do sc.
Endorsement of Forester.
." want to say of the forester tina
there has been nothing said here t