The evening leader. (Tarpon Springs, Fla.) 191?-19??, 1917-10-22

this county or state can never be pros
porous.
How can they produce under bur
densome handicap with cattel roam
ing at large and making pestilence Of
a virtue-namely scrub stock and thai
produced at the other mans expense.
Then taking it from the tax point
of view: A man comes to our county;
ne buys a piece of land to raise truck
on; at once he assumes an obligation
to pay the state and county tax on
that land. Is he then allowed to pro-
coed to cultivate his land? No, he
then has to build a fence as an addi-
tional tax upon him by the cattleman
before he can claim possession or get
the free use of his property.
There is no free ground. 1t cannot
be free to the cattleman and free to
the agriculturist at the same time;
this is physical, financial and moral
impossibility. When we. hear of free
range, it is the cattleman's voice who
shouts free range, that old desire of
the Satan in man, to get something
for nothing and that at his brothers
expense. 1t is ignorance and mis-
take to talk of anything being free
on the face of the globe, except sal
walton, and man, as a rule, doesn't
want that. The burglar is. man who
! wants to get something free; he some
times succeeds but sooner or later
pays the price. For the same reason
that / put gun in my pocket to pro-
tect myself from highwayman, I
put fence around my land to protect
myself from the cattle. The cattle, it
rs true, are not responsible beings, but
I y. all the laws of man, the owner of
Ne is responsible and should be
fslsn there is the new settler whom
we ask to come. He wants to buy a
piece of farm or truck land; he goes
to the man who has the legal title and
pays him for the land; then he gets
busy to the fact that the legal owner
did Esss deliver full possession, and
could not do so, because the unwritten
law of the cattleman puts possession
of all open lands under the sun into
their hands; therefore, he, has to pay
a second time for his property, in the
way of tax put upon him and paya-
BILE, Indirectly, to the cattleman, in
the shape of a fence. This can justly
be called the fence or cattleman's
tax.
What about the loss caused by lack
of production, the thousands of acres
lying idle or turned over to his males
ty, the scrub COW? What about the
thousands Of poor people who could
be brought to cultivate the ground,
who could do SO If it were not for the
fence tax placed upon him by the un-
written law of the cattleman?
What about the annual forest fires
set by the cattleman each spring ?
What about the loss from these cattle
mems forest fires? Hardly a year
passes but some fencing is burned,
some orange grove damaged, and
some one made to suffer financially
from the cattleman's spring burning.
Has any one ever been paid for his
loss from forest fires? The cattle
man gets on his horse and rides
through the woods dropping or flip
ping his lighted matches into the dry
grass with never a care for where it
will go or whom it will damage. What
of the young timber damaged by these
cattleman's fires. The government re-
port saws these forest fires cost the
people millions. Does the cattleman
care? No. He says, 'To hell with
the people"
Now from the point of view of good
stock: Is it not fact that we ell
know the scrub stock we see roaming
the woods of this country are pitt
able sight at times-allowed to drop
and starve to death by the roadside?
If the humane society could locate the
owners, am sure there would be ar
rests made for cruelty on animals suf-
fering from starvation and lack of at
tention.
If we make this county a -no-fenee
law county, venture to say there viii
be big improvement in agriculture
and in the livestock industry; the
graded hog will come in, the blooded
cattle will come, and the pastures will
be planted and cultivated. The grow
ing of grass will become an industry
A bunch of stock wellIcared for is .
fine sight and paying investment
We can never have fine stock in this
county while the cattlemen have
souatter's claim on your lands, bu'
free your lands from the cattlemen
then fence your pastures for your owl