, 1908-02-05
WILLIAM II. HOLIDAY
ON RANGE QUESTION
Continued from page ~

va "SaihS NhA''h AolNo uliu VIII
always stay violence until the mature
judgment of the people can analyze
theories and determine their place in
social evolution.
Much as my immediate interests are
interviewer with the live stock indus,
try, as 1t has developed in this part of
Wyoming, | cannot but regard the bit.
ter feeling as expressed against the
president a part of the temper that as.
sumed or special privilege is apt to
manifest when the public welfare de.
mands a surrender of such privilege
in whole or in part.
There has been a striking illustra-
ton of this within the past year on
the part of certain great interests
that fail to appreciate that the i'm.
portance of law and justice is as es,
genital for their own safety as it is
for public order.
Authority Must Be Had.
have drifted from the question that
prompted this letter; namely. the at
titude of certain interests that oppose
leasing grazing rights on the public
lands. To return, in all civilized coun
tries authority for the public good
must be lodged somewhere. In the
American government we have a sys.
TEN of delegated powers that has
grown from the New England township
meetings to state and national gov.
eminent, the people always retaining
for each branch the power to do all
those things that can be more quickly
and better done by the resident citi-
zens of the respective branches.
An Immediate Necessity.
If | nm able to comprehend any part
of the public land question in this part
of the country, as the question must
evolve in the next few years, it is
that there should be immediate author,
ity by the national government over
the use of the public lands,-whether
in forest areas or on the plains, direct.
ed solely in the interest of unobstruct-
ed development consistent with the
highest welfare OF the citizens not only
of today, but for the generations thai
will follow. Such authority ought to
extend to the coal and iron deposits
of the country in the control of which
there should be no monopoly.
1t may be probable that such author.
ity will sometimes err in judgment on
matters affecting local interests, but SO
long as the congress has the power to
remedy defects in the land laws, minor
errors would be as a passing cloud,
when compared with the irreparable
damage and retarding influence of i
'go-as-you-please' policy, if it can he
called a policy, in the use of the for
ests and the great grazing areas in the
trans-Missouri country.
1t is not an exdggeration to say that
the owners of large herds of live stock,
as a rule, %deprecate the en~croachment
of n%sighbors. That is to say, the class
of men whose labor has brought the
wild lands in the several states under
cultivation, from the beginning of set
Element on the Atlantic coast, on to
the present time.
Certainty Desirable.
Millions of men with their families
are trying TO secure homes in THU
country, where the natural increase in
population is augmented each year by
more than a million immigrants from
Other countries. 1t is only reasonable
to presume that before another ten
years will have passed the flock own
ers in Wyoming will be impressed with
the necessity of an authority that will
Limit the grazing privilege of each own.
er of live stock, and at the same
elusive right to the use of a
certain acreage; excepting always the
right to acquire d homestead by a bona
fide settler and the further interven-
ton by the government to prevent ov-
engraving and the consequent destruc-
ton of the natural forage on the plains
and in the national forests.
Surplus Should Go to State.
If a small fee per acre is to be charg
ed for grazing privileges, then what
ever money there may be after a rea,
sonable cost for supervision has been
paid, should go to the state in which
it is collected, t. be used for reclaim.
ing lands, building roads and main.
tanning schools.
If the people of the whole country
once understood the isolated life, the
courage and the indefatigable struggle
that is necessary to bring the wild
lands of the semi-arid west under cul-
t~ivation, so that such lands will be
more fruitful and a source of great
wealth to the nation, then no part Of
the funds from the sale of such lands
by the government or for grazing fees
would be permitted to go into the ma
tional treasury for other uses than re
claiming lands, building roads and
maintaining schools in the respective