Omaha daily bee. (Omaha [Neb.]) 187?-1922, 1911-10-14
RICH STATE, NOT AN EDEN
Developments in Wyoming Detailed
by an fastener.
MANY OBSTACLES REMOVED
Lines of Progress Points TO Irriga-
tiOn, Cultivation, stock Rails
ing and Also Home
Feeding.


Wyoming has laid her foundation
stones and is just beginning to build"
declares a Boston Transcript writer who
has completed a three weeks tour OF
the state. Unlike most visiting corre-
spondents who limit their observations to
car window. the BostonIan went far
into the interior and left hardly a nook
unexpected" The result is a critical
study OF present conditions, the changes
wrought in a few years and the indicated
prospects. The writer says. in part:
Wyoming today Is not the Wyoming OF
owen Wsters "virginian" Indeed. the
Wyoming Of that book had already
passed in 1902. when the volume was
written. The great free ranges had
gone; the day Of the small farmer and
the irrigation ditch had begun. This
meant much. The economic structure of
life changed with this change. The beef
raiser who pastured his stock over a
quarter Of the state passed away. and
with him went the cowboy as literature
knows him-the Woodworking, hard-Iiv-
ing, picturesque cowboy riding recklessIy
in the roundups and tramplng, in chappes
and spurs, into the hospitable and fire.
NNNhN o1AOOhs EIOhlibI Jay u SHOW nel0
annually at Cheyenne, is about the onIv
time and place where you see cowboys
and cowpunching as they used to be.
Proud OF the past which made the state
what It is, Wyoming yearly commemo-
rates II by this new historical pageant.
II Is only the extremely eastern and ir-
responsible tenderfoot who comes away
from that stirring exhibition with the
idea that what he has witnessed is a
representation OF wyomlng's regular life.
Grab Game Checked.
With this development of wyoming
away from the old range life, the Roose-
velt-Pinchot conservation policy has had
much TO do. Before that policy could be
put into operation and later, for a while
after II had become settled fact for
corporate interest to grapple with as
best they might, certain aggregations Of
capital got away with many rich depos-
its Of coal, fields OF oil and other valu-
able minerals. and today hold and ex-
plot these natural resources wholly to
their own advantage; the state has Sc
cured 20 itself no royalties whatever.
These companies own town sites, run the
stores and deliver the votes to the salts
factory candidate. It is the story OF
Pennsylvania Steel and Coal all over
again. But aside from these exceptions,
wyoming is being developed in the main
rightly and progressively. refer partlc-
ularly to the disposition OF agricultural
lands to the small landholder-the kind
of immigrant for which wyoming is to-
day advertising.
Irrigated land Of the richest kind with
abundant water supply at from s25 to
500 an acre is perhaps wyomin's best
offer to the farmer Such land can be
bought on easy terms and from respon-
sible partles-either from the state it.
self. from the national government or
from private irrigation corporations I'M
der state control and supervision. ''The
crops" said farmer, speaking of this
kind Of proposition. should take care
of all payments after the down payment