El Paso herald. (El Paso, Tex.) 1901-1931, 1917-11-26
CARS ARRIVE: CATTLE SHIPPED;
RELIEF NEEDED EAST OF PECOS

HE government Is making good its promise to furnish
the cattemen Of the southwest for transporting
their cattle out of drouth stricken areas to market
places where feed and may had The largest
cattle movement the southwest has experienced in years is
under way The railroads rushing empty through
TO shipping points and loaded trains moving east and
north RequistOning in large numbers throughout
other sect51s Of the country, act for which the
service commission deserves credit has ended the fear that
very large numbers Of cattle would die barren ranges
through the inability Of their owners to move them.
West Of the PecOs Texas and parts of Arizona and New
Mexico are dry and forage IS short but conditions much
less severe than east Of the PecOs West the ranges
not greatly than usual the losses cattle have
not yet been large enough to give great concern East of
the Pecos 1t IS said that caemen and farmers face utter
restitution after two Of the very years imaginable
But even conditions west of the Pecos might very
much worse heavy cattle shipments being made through
Tucson, FL PasO and Albuquerque. Amarillo reports that
dung the week ending November p, 1891 of cattle
passed through going east. That would mean a shipment
OF between $1,000 and 10000 cattle At the time 761
empty went west to the Pecos and Slaton divisions
According to government figures issued by the bureau of
markets. 1896 head OF cattle were shipped through
Amarillo IN October, against 1879 head last year The
sheep movement 1850 head in October 1917 as com
pared with 5753 year ago The cattle shipments for the
nine months ending with October totaled 221463 head
about three times as great the movement during the
same period last year.
Shipments through e Paso show an increase over nor
nal also but they always heavy for FL Paso is the
chief cattle center Of the southwest and the increase the
movement Is less pronounced than at Amarillo This
the reason that large part Of the range country
which shipments through FL Paso drawn unaffected
by the drouth and consequently going along as
usual and shipping only their marketable stock.
As usual when critical condition arises and IS given
vide publicity absurd suggestions and proposals remedy
follow One Of these IS that catemen ship their hungry
stock to Michigan where It IS represented that large
acreage Of grazing land IS available sparsey timbered
regions The offer Is mpractcable because Of the
cattle could not afford such long haul because the weak
eued cattle from the sections would before they
got there and because the Michigan grazing ground soon
would be deep under snow if not already covered
The food administration much more practical. It
Communicated all the cotton seed cake in Texas fixed
price and offered to catemen whose range forage
had vanished Some cattemen contend the basic price, S.
ton f b. Galveston too high STILL though lower than
the prevailing market price before the food administration
ntervened. However the food administration, its
Wandering, scarcely take mans cotton seed cake from
him without paying him what he VIII consider at least
fairly reasonable price for it. and the Stockman who
herd to naturally VIII be willing to pay fairly for feed
it. and the cotton seed cake much cheaper than
alfalfa hay raised II the southwest but insufficient
quantity to meet the demand
As for the great drOuth stricken region OF the Peco
the suggestion by Gov Hobby and the state food admins
traitor that congress appropriate S5oOOOOoO for relief Of the
farmers and cattemen needs to be taken seriously, if
ports Of the very grave conditions existing there are reason
ably accurate People coming of localities where ag
culture the manstay say farmers have had crops at
al for two seasons and nearly desperate They tell of