The Winslow mail., 1925-06-19
CATTLE AND SHEEP
INDUSTRIES ABOUT
DONE FOR, THINKS
SENATOR ASHURST

Senator Henry Ashurst, in a
statement made to the Blade
Tribune (Florence) last week, re-
garding the condition of the cattle
and sheep industries in this state,
declares they are about to be ex-
terminated through the "red tape,
prolixity, delay, huge expense ac-
counts, .ukases and prurient itch
and injustices perpetrated upon the
stockmen by officials of the for
estry bureau.
Senator Ashurst said:
"The national forests or forest
reserves in Arizona have now been
administered about twenty-six
years by the federal forestry bu-
reau, and at the conclusion OF this
twenty-six-year period, during
which time scores of millions OF
dollars of the money of taxpayers
has been expended by the federal
forestry bureau, we find the follow
ing conditions:
"The cattle and sheep industries
are about to be exterminated; sheep
and cattlemen who have lived lives
of industry, rigid economy and
prompt taxpaying are now either
ruined or soon will be ruined and
reduced to bankruptcy by the reck-
less and ignorant, relentless poll
cies of the forest bureau. Steak on
the plate is now almost beyond the
slender purse of the common citi-
zen: steak on the hoof brings no
profit to the cowman.
Mutton has tripled in price
while sheep have dwindled in price.
Wooden clothes are at peak prices,
but the flockmaster must accept
an inadequate sum for the fleece.
1t is the same old story coming
down through the ages; the pro-
ducer sweating and toiling and
receiving scarcely living as a
result of his toll, while the con-
sumer is paying double prices. TIC
help reduce this spread between
what the stockman receives, and
the consumer pays, ought to engage
the attention of officials, but seem
ingly it does not.
"The federal forestry bureau, in
it's abysmaI lack of familiarity
with our national forests, believes,
or pretends to believe, that were
sheep and cattle prohibited from
grazing upon national forests, the
forests would be safe from fires.
The very reverse is true. If sheep
soon be NO forests and the bureau
will then only administer burnt
over areas. 1t was when sheep
and cattle were excluded from the
California forests in 1905 and from
the Idaho forests in 1910 that the
destructive fires ragged. The irri-
gated lands will soon be parched
and the reservoirs dry, should
sheep and cattle be excluded.
I11S wv SllCy JO1A .
the forestry bureau has planted no
trees in Arizona and has neither
reforaged nor regrassed an acre in
Arizona.
.This forestry bureau has prac-
ticed tyrannies and injustices upon
the helpless citizen to an unbeliev-
able extent Instead of placing a
tho
stockman and homesteader, it
treats him as an intruder. This
bureau sedulOusly refuses to en-
pIoy citizens of Arizona for Off
cials, but sends hither from other
and far away states a swarm OF
mollycoddIes to harass our people
and eat out their substance. Con-
scious of it's own mal-administra-
ton, and recalling it's foul injus-
tices. this bureau attempted to de-
feat the senate resolution proposing
an investigation of the public lands
and forest reserves. Failing to de-
feat the resolution, one OF the OF
ficials hurried to. Arizona, osten~
siblv to make field examinations,
but it is believed his mission is to
endeavor to forestall the work OF
the committee.
"The national forests properly
patroled would be a perpetual
blessing to Arizona, but as they
have been administered by Wash
ington bureaucrats and ill-lntormed
shaIlow-pates, they are being de-
stroyed.
"The forestry bureau is now an
engine of oppression and the SEN
ate will either mend or end this
bureau.
Neither German nor Russian
bureaus have exceeded the 1nJus-
tices perpetrated by this fedora!
forestry bureau.
RED tape, prolixity, delay, huge
expense accounts, ukases and prurl-
ent itch for favorable mention are
its gods.
"It moves but seldom, and then
in the wrong direction"
-O-~-----