Detroit evening times. (Detroit, Mich) 1921-1958, 1941-05-01
BY WEsTBROOK PEGLER

BY WESTBROOK PEGLER
TUCSON. Ariz., May 1.-Old
Brisbane was great hand
at the sort of pieces which this
one would like TO be, but / am
not much good at it, and prob
ably will stammer and gag and
may rip il out of the mechanical
writer and throw it away.
Old Double d ONE, or Big
George. as the cartoonists in
the Hearst hyena room used to
call him, would go tooling across
country in a train of cars and
talking to himself in his record
ing machine about the prairie
dogs and cacti. erosion, irriga-
ton and Gght-years.
And In no time he would be
finished with another instalment
of column which had more
readers than any other in the
history of the package-goods edi-
torial tr a d Except. perhaps,
Odd MeIntyre,s.
Brisbane was a good reporter.
because he just assumed that
most of his customers or con-
sumers hadn't seen the place
which he was describing or
didn't know the simple scientific
or historical facts which he vas
relating
This was good idea, because
most of them hadn't or didn't.
and the few readers who had
or did could Cut glass and mark
themselves A, because they
knew the lesson already.
THIS is about the astonishing
- state of Arizona, which il
new territory to me and, from
the look of the map. appears to
be firmly in the grasp Of Harold
l.. Ickes or otherwise retired
from private ownership and the
tax rolls 10 the extent of at least
half of the total area.
Three Hopi and Navajo In
dian reservations in the north
eastern part Of the state alone
appear TO cover more ground
than all Connecticut.
And there is an almost I'M
broken strip ranging in width
from about so to 100 miles, ex-
tending from the Utah line 10
Mexico, all given over TO ma
tional forests and parks and
Lebensfaum fer those native
tribes who were Hitlerized out
Of their ancient heritage by the
rather recent forebears Of our
currently righteous race
THE COW business, however,
seems rather puny, and the
story Is that the city dudes from
the West and East and the big
centers in between have crowded
the kline off the range in an eco
nomic squeeze that was meant
for no such thing.
The native ranchers began
taking in few vacation board
ers, mostly in Winter. and dis
covered that by providing a lit
tie rude luxury. such as showers
and other plumbing in rough-
hewn. glamorized ranch-hotels.
and selling cattle by the slab.
medium rare. in campfire set
tings. they could earn enough 10
retire from the cattle trade,
Meantime. quite lot of city
people, always pinlng to get
away from it all, took down
some of their money and bought.
at high and careless prices, large
areas of grazing land on which
they went in for ranching in a
! half-serious way.
Well. as some Of the regular
rancherS proSpered in the board
! ing house trade others found
themselves competing with OK
/ travagant amateurs who didnt
have to show a profit and even
with some who preferred TO run
up a loss for income tax pur-
poses.
THE result has been that the
l. shore-enough rancher can't
make it pay and is waiting for
the dudes to get sick of their
fad and abandon their lands.
wells and buildings at sacrifice
prices TO people who can raise
cattle at a profit on a fair in
veStment.
Furthermore. lot of the cow
hands have been hired off the
regular range to act as guides.