The Idaho Republican. [volume] (Blackfoot, Idaho) 1904-1932, 1922-01-19


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He thought one-fifth of them might
be justly assessed in Bingham county
for the summer. They would often
be found ranging in Caribou and
watering In Bingham. He believed
that the way to adjust the claims
between the counties was for the
assessors to assess the stock on the
| feeding grounds and then apportion
1t among the counties instead of
trying to identify them on the range
in summer. Mr.. Hansen said he was
familiar with the methods of the
stockmen from Gentle valley and
he believed that more than one-fifth
of the stock would range in Bing-
ham, but it would be a fractional
matter Of possibly one-third.
The ElsmOre Herd
Regarding the herd heretofore re-
ferred to as belonging to Nkhel Els
more and ranging every summer in
Bingham county, and mentioned
heretofore as being S68 head in the
summer Of 1919, he said that Mrs
ElsmOre took grazing rights in her
own name for her father, Alex. Har-
ris, and for her brothers, Wells and
Frank Harris, and that her own in
dividual holdings would be only a
part of the combined herd. If she
were represented as a tax dodger be-
cause her own cattle were not taxed
in Bingham county, this fact SHOULD
be stated and brought out to clear
her record. AS matter of fact they
paid their taxes in their own county
and If they were not assessed in
Bingham county as The Idaho Re-
publican and the commissioners had
stated, it was not their fault, but the
fault of the assessor of Bingham
county, and it was unjust to them
to be published as tax dodgers when
they were paying all demands that
were made upon them. Further, he
said that the Elsmore and Harris
herds did not total 86S head in 1919
nor nearly that much. He said he
was familiar with their business that
summer and he was sure that 86S
was too much. ~
Range Rider Counted ~
Mr.. Trego said that the figures
were given by ]. D. Murphey, the
range rider, who was employed in
1919 to count the cattle on the
range, and that he produced his rec
ord for the tax commission last
spring. 1t was leather bound book,
arranged in. alphabetic order, and
he stated that he counted the stock
at the feed yards, the shearing cor
rails and on the range, and that the
record of the pure bred males was
a matter of his own knowledge and
he recorded the brands and ear
marks and the pedigree numbers of
the males and showed to whom they
belonged. That record showed the
Elsmore herds as already stated, and
he had published the range riders
record in good faith and still be-
lieved the commissioners should call
in Mr.. Murphy and his book. Mr..
Hansen approved Of the suggestion
and Mr.. Trego called the COMMERCIAL
hotel and was told that Mr.. Mufphey
was stopping there, but that he had
gone out into the country that day.
Changing the Record
Mr.. Just reviewed the record and
said he would like to have III cor
rected or revised to show that Mr..
Farmer in giving his testimony had |
said that he could not say how many |
animals the various members Of the |
association actually had on the
leased lands, but was merely giving |
the amounts they had engaged or |
paid for. Mr.. Just said the news |
paper article reported him as having |
said that they usually put as many
animals on the range as they had !
paid grazing fees on or more, when
as a matter of fact it should have
read less" where the paper stated |
more He said that herds had
been decreasing ever since the hard
winter when hay was so high priced,
the time when stockmen lost about
rs per cent of their animals. They
had built up their herds and in
creased their grazing privileges as
fast as they could. A man had TO
make application far in advance ana
had to keep paying on his applica-
tons in order to hold the privilege 1
OF buying grazing privilege, and on
this account many of the stockmen
paid for more privilege than they
had animals to Craze, just because
they hoped to build up again to the
Did margin or above it, and when
lines got hard and stockmen were
going broke, there was general
of shortage of animals to,
Use their grazing privilege for the
season Of 1921 for large amount .
II stock and did not use it at all,
md yet ,Trego had listened to Mr..
Farmers statements made from the
edger account, and spread the idea
hat Austin had stock on the leased
ands but was not assessed. Austin