White Pine news weekly mining review. [volume] (East Ely, Nev.) 1910-1920, 1912-05-12
CONSERVE LANDS
FOR PUBLIC GOOD
EXECUTIVE ORDERS IN AID OF
SMALL STOCK OWNERS AT
FEET SIX COUNTIES IN UTAH
AND WYOMING.

Withdrawal of public lands for
use rather than from use is the latest
piece of practical conservation.
The president, by executive order,
under the withdrawal law has with
drawn from entry many tracts of
unappropriated public lands which
contain springs or small streams.
These watering places control the
public range over large areas in Utah
and Wyoming and the withdrawal
of these lands will in no wise in
terfere with the use of the springs
or streams but will in fact insure
the possibility of public use. Con-
troll of watering places by strong
private interests and the resultant
monopolization of grazing on the
public domain are believed to be
prejudicial to public interest. and
the president regards the setting
aside of these watering places for
public use as serving a distinct and
beneficial public purpose. in har-
mony not only with the letter but
with the spirit of the act of 1910.
The three Withdrawals already ap-
proved by the president represent
an aggregate are of about $4,000
acres in six counties in Utah and
Wyoming, and include tracts of
public land known from the records
of the United States Geological
Survey and the General Land Office
to contain 24S springs and streams.
1t is we'll known that in the
Rocky Mountain and Pacific coast
states there are many large areas of
excellent grazing lands in which the
number of places where water for
man or beast can be obtained is
relatively small. Sometimes the
shortest distance between water
holes is 10, 20, or even so miles.
Some of these watering places are
springs, some of them ponds of
alkaline water, some of them small
streams flowing down from ada
cent hills or mountains and becom-
ing lost on the edge of the desert.
The lands in large part support a
growth of grass and small brush
which is excellent fodder for horses,
cattle. or sheep, and as practically
all these areas are government land
they are free range" for whoever
my care to Craze his stock thereon.
However, stock can not live without
water, and unless watering places
are available TO a stock owner it is
impossible for him to utilize the
range.
As a result of these conditions it
has come to be common practice in
some parts of the west for a big
cattle or sheep outfit to obtain pos
session of the few scattered water
holes in a certain area and by this
means to monopolize the grazing
privilege almost as effectively as if
1t actually owned every acre of the
area. In consequence the small stock
owner has been placed at a
serious disadvantage and in many
localities has been forced out of
the business.
This practical development of the
conservation policy in order to pre-
vent monopolization of the public
grazing lands will not insure equal
opportunity, under present con-
ditions, but 1t prepares the way for
future legislation. Should congress
at any future time decide to pass a
grazing law the retention of these
watering places in public ownership
will make the enactment of a salts
factory law possible; whereas if the
water should pass into private
hands the framing of a law proyid-
ing for the control of grazing on
the public domain would be useless,
because the law itself would be
imperative.
The present action will really be
beneficial to both large and small
stock growers, although 1t will
doubtless not be pleasing to those
who desire To exclude rivals from
the range by acquiring the water
ing places themselves. The com
competition and struggle for ex-
istence have in many places, how
ever, grown SO keen that even to the
largest outfits the strife has become
~burdensome, and to some of them,
at least. the removal of n of
tho aa,,oae IF contention hu 4ho