, 1908-01-27
AN OPINION OF GREAT VALUE

the mduaStulth VI llNt SloSh oh IhN
public domain than Hon. Robert Tay.
lor, formerly senator for Natrona coun'
". For thirty years he has followed
the business and he has owned all
kinds of stock. Sheep has been his
main business and in their handling
he has used large areas of the public
domain. As he has stated, his opera
lions have extended from California
TO Nebraska, and as he looks back oy-
err an %eventful life, he forcibly remarks
that he recalls a trail Ct blood from
California to Nebraska. He believes
in the government taking control OF
its property and giving legal posses
sion to the rangemen under conditions
that will insure peace, good will and
permanently in the business. In one
of the best letters on the subject it
has been our good fortune to see, ad'
dressed to the editor of the Casper
Tribune, Mr.. Taylor says:
"I think it is fairly well known
throughout Wyoming that | am a believ-
er in and the earnest advocate of range
control. For more than fifteen years
have honestly believed in it, and never
more strongly than today. l believe 1t
Is for the best interest of the west and
the nation at large, that just as soon
as a fair and equitable bill can be pass
ed, the government should lease every
acre of its lands that stock a be
grazed on, and hat it Is for the best
interests of the stockmen themselves
that they should lease every acre their
stock grazeS on. And practically every
man in the west who owns or is settled
on a quarter section of land, or more,
is a stockman, big Or little. With mo
1t is a straight business proposition.
A condition not a theory, confronts us;
although the situation never gets acute
in any section until the range is owe
stocked. 1t is a condition that cannot
be defended on either moral or eco
nomic grounds. A condition that in
many sections Of the west today calls
for dead lines, and makes of every
otherwise good and honest citizen be
hind them n potential criminal, a muir
derer or masked destroyer of property.
This in defense of what he wrongly
thinks Is his right to enough of the
public lands to support his little herd.
A condition that all over the west has
compelled and is compelling many a
good honest man, in attempting to &C
Quire title to the land that he. thinks
absolutely necessary for his business,
to strain his conscience, commit per
jury himself or wink at it in others.
CFor proof of the first Of these charges
see George S. Walkers list of rewards
offered by the State Wool Growers as
ISOLATION for the arrest and conviction
Of perpetrators of outrages against
sheepmen committed within the last
few weeks and years. For proof OF
the second, see the records of the fed
eral court at Omaha, or wait a little
till n similar record is made in Chey-
Cnne.) -
Surely this is q serious condition Of
affairs, a national disgrace, and calls
for immediate remedy. How any good
citizen can justify himself to his own
conscience in standing idly by or even
advocating and upholding the continu.
ance indefinitely of this condition, is
a mystery to me-. That any far-sighted
patriotic statesman, as all our western
congressman are, l am proud to think,
should try to minimize the evils of this
time honored abuse, this custom of the
fathers, and e~Xaggerate the inconven-
fences of controlled grazing, calling it
United States landlordism,' Russian
izing Of the west etc, seems incredi-
BILE; nevertheless they do.
And surely on economic grounds,
the common sense of the stockmen
should urge them to welcome a mea
sure of legislation that would change
their business from an annual gamble
or fght-sometimes both-to a safe.
conservative, law abiding and perma,
nent proposition. OF course any one
knows that ownership of the lands
would settle all trouble. But that is
impossible under the present land
laws, and l seriously question whether
it would be good policy to ALLEVIATE
the government title to these lands
until the lapse OF years had shown
conclusively what sections, if any,
were utterly untitled for agricultural
development and settlement. In the
meantime a good lease law, giving lie
gal control of the lands, would have
the same effect perhaps because cheap
err and better for the stockman than
ownership and would run nc danger of
at once exhausting the possibilities of
the future.
Leasing the range is nc experiment.
Wherever tried IL has been a y