The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1907-02-13
TOUGH ON THE sHEEPMEN.

/ TOUGH ON THE SHEEPMEN.
/ IL open confession is good for the
soul those cattlemen I'm conference
with the president must have done
their souls a heap OF good one in
genious stockgrower suggested that the
number OF offenders who had fenced
government lands illegally would in
clude the entire membership OF the Ma
tional Livestock association: and an
other said he had been compelled to
pull down his fences because he had
fallen into disfavor politically ana
could no longer get favoritism.
As might have been expected the
cattlemen are i'm favor OF the presi-
dents plan for government control IF
the open range, which would include
( permission to fence lands designated
! by the president OF payment OF fee.
on the other hand the sheepmen who
regard the government pastures as
their own oppose any control that VIII
involve payment for use OF the lands
| or limitation of the domain in which
they may Craze their fIocks
| Between these two opposing views
there is no likelihood OF congressional
action a this session, but the presi-
/ dent has one advantage in his threat
to order al the fences down unless an
| a agreement Is reached Then he adds
this queer rider in a letter to Senator
! Warren: The utmost l will consent
TO so far as my power extends in the
matter OF legislation, is to continue
such fences as in my judgment it is
right and proper for me- to continue,
/ Ny first care is for the homesteador
and small stOckman."
Ordinary law-abiding citizens sup
posed the federal law prohibiting
! fences was to be observed whether the
president thought some of the Fences.
in his judgment, as he puts II, ought
to be continued or not When a New
Mexican rises to say that he and his
associate cattIemen have maintained
fences illegally on a tract OF $4,000
square miles for twenty-five years with
immunity. It would seem about time
/ for somebody to enforce the law.
Another surprising thing about the
l
the nomadic sheepmen. These are the
men, he says TO Senator Warren.
"who Craze wandering flocks of sheep
and who do not promote the real set
Element OF the country. These are the
men whose interests are diametrically
hostile to those OF the home-makers.
who wish to eat out and destroy the
Z
TO live: and who. when they have thus
ruined the land of the homesteader and
small stockman move elsewhere to re-
peat the process OF devastation"
That ought to make good reading fer
the sheepmen of the west who have
shippers. who have sworn by him
night and day ever since he got into
office and who have shouted them
selves hoarse every time he has taken
his pen in hand or got his voice into
action. OF course the cattlemen who
have fenced hundreds of thousands of
acres in Wyoming Illegally and still
have it fenced are little white angels
with pink wings and seraphic crowns
on their heads They, the cattlemen
who inclose the streams on public
lands. who serve notice on the sheep
men to get off the earth. or words to
that effect, are the real friends of the
small homesteader for whom the presi-
dent has conceived such a sudden and
violent liking. A cattleman do wrong?I
Perish the thought; the real offender,
the peril that stalks around by noon
day and shutdown is the herder with
his woolly charges.
AS for the homesteader. If the presi-
dent would annul that order holding UP
patents for lands, an order suspending
a law OF congress without any right,
the homesteader would feel lot more
cheerful than he ever will reading q
lot Of gush telling about his virtues and
the need of protecting his rights from
sheepmen.
In the last analysis the whole ques-
ton is properly matter for congress.
and no one else. to settle. To vest
power in the executive or in an execu-
tive department is to invite a repe-
tition OF the Determinations in forest
reserve permits. the favOrs to political
sets. wherever federal appointees are
given discretionary powers in the mat
ter Of grazing permits. Let congress
settle the question and then let the
president and his department heads en-
force the law as they find it i'm the
statute books, and there will be less
need for buncombe about sheepmen, or
cattlemen. or homesteaders.