The log cabin Democrat., 1909-02-17
OPPONENTS OF STOCK LAW
Letters to the Editor from Some
 Who are Against 1t.
Will Work Great Hardship on Poor Farm CTS and Renters, Accordingto
 Correspondents.

receipt of several lengthy communl- cations from citizens of the county who are opposed to the enactment of a stock law. Our space will not permit the publication of all of these letters. We desire, however, to accord a fair hearing to both sides of the controversy, and as the more important points urged by our correspondents against the law are contained i'll letter from B. F. Bass of Vilonia, we have select ed it from among those received to publish in full. It follows:
 Editor Log Cabin Democrat:
 wish to express my opinion as to the effect of the stock law on the farmers of Faulkner county. It will rob the people of their rights and liberties. God made the green grass and woods for the swine and OK to roam therein, and when the legislature passes law to force the poor people, the honest farmer, to buy land and fence pastures for their stock, it will be robbing them of their right It will cost great deal more than many of us are able to do. It will mean dollars to the rich railroad companies who own the larger portion of the hills of Faulkner county, and the man who owns the hills of Faulkner county is the man who owns most of the county, and is the man who wants a law to that effect. We know that there are thousands of acres of land in this county that are worth nothing where they are situated but for range for the stock of the farmer who lives in the valleys of these hills. When the people have to buy this land it will cost them from $ to S7 an acre, which is more than 1t is worth.
 While most of the farmers have fences around their farms, they had better let them stay and not tear them down to make pasture fences. The stock have i'll most places more grass running on the commons than they would have If the law is passed. Hogs are half of the poor mans living. If he can raise his hogs on the commons, where they don t cost him much, his meat is cheap, and if he has a surplus to sell he can get a good price. But where he has to buy corn at 75c to SI bushel and feed it to his swine the year round, his meat will cost him more than he can afford to pay.
 There are hundreds of farmers who have their farms fenced with wire fencing which would be a good fence for several years, but it could not be moved to make pasture fence. And when he gets it patched up and moved around little hillside for pasture, he won't get to let it stay long enough to pay him for his trouble, until he will have to tear 1t down and put it back around his field, for, gen tlemen, it won't take the people long to find out that they don't need a stock law for old Faulkner.
 About the next thing the farmer will have to do after he gets his pasture land fenced will be to pay a tax to fence Faulkner county to keep the stock from the adjoining counties from coming over and visiting the nice corn and cotton crops of the farmer who lives close to the county line.
 So, friends and voters, l am against a stock law and we must not sit still and let the merchants and bottom landowners run stock law over us, for we will have to give away our cattle and hogs at half price, for there will be no demand for such stock as the farm CTS have now, and they will have to pay two prices for little better stock of hogs and cattle and in many instances they won't be as good.
 I want to tell MT. William Pack, the leader in this movement, that I am not very we'll acquainted with him personally, but 1 think that if he is instrumental i'll caus- ing law of this kind to be passed on the poor, honest farmers Of Faulkner county, he will set the county back ten years more. l believe that I am speaking for about three -fourths of the farmers