The Colorado statesman., 1909-01-16
IN MEETING OF NATIONAL. ASSo.
CITATION AT POCATELLO,
IDAHO.
M ENSE GATHERING
PRESIDENT GooDlNG SAYS RE
DUcTION OF TARIFF WOULD
RUIN THE INDUSTRY.

Pocatello, Idaho. - One thousand
sheepmen attended the opening ses-
sion of the National Wool Growers
Association convention in this city
Thursday and listened attentively to
a bitter arraignment of the federal
forestry bureau by President Fred W.
Gooding of Shoshone.
Gov j H. Brady in an address of
welcome in behalf of the state pro-
voked laughter when he said he would
like to invite the wool men to the
cooling shade of trees in Idaho's for
est reserves We're it not for the fact
that the reserves are bare of trees.
From nearly every western state
delegates are present The biggest
single delegation arrived from Boise.
1t included Governor Brady and a
number of state officials. also about
half the members of both houses of
the Legislature.
The forenoon session of the con
vention was devoted entirely to the
Midwinter Sheep Show Over 500
sheep are entered.
The welcome of the state was by
Governor Brady and in behalf of the
city Mayor LouX welcomed the dele
gates. Col E. ]. Ball of Laramie, in
responding, sounded the keynote of the
convention, when he said:
Clifford Pinchot has had control of
something like 16O,OOO,OOO acres of
land, and he failed to get control OF
500,O00,000 acres, which was fortunate
fnt ho /
we are afraid to own land and tried
to get rid of what we possessed.
"One man there who owned a vast
tract was held up to the public as
bad citizen, and dangerous. Last year
he divided his holdings and sold the
property to 500 farmers of the East,
representing about 1000 persons. This
we have ascertained is more than the
forestry bureau has done for the peo-
pie in more than five years, with 1GO,
100000 acres at their command"
President Fred W. Gooding in his
annual address said:
"A reduction in the tariff schedules
on wool at this time would produce
the same result as the placing of seSol
on the free list under the Wilson bill
1t would undoubtedly ruin one of the
most important industries of the
United States.
'Inhumane, as well as costly to the
shipper, is the law which forbids rail
roads to carry stock for more than
twenty-eight hours without feeding
and watering" according to Presi-
dent Gooding.
THE railroads. he said, should be
forced by law to consider live stock
trains as second class trains and at
least give them right-of-way over all
other classes of freight at a minimum
speed of not less than sixteen miles
per hour"
Mr. Gooding disputed the statement
that sheep are detrimental to forest
growth and said they were a benefit
in removing the underground which
spreads "a fire. He denounced the for
estry and reclamation bureaus as aca-
demic and tyrannical.
Il would suggest" he said. that
Congress be induced to ask the gov
ernor of each of these western states
wherein the national forests lie to ap-
point a committee of good, reliable
business men, familiar with western
conditions, to make a thorough inves-
tigation and report on these national
forest and reclamation projects"
He compared private and government
irrigation enterprises to the disadvan-
tage of the government and argued for
state control of forests and reclama-
tion.