LET'S HANG TOGETHER! 



A POLICY THAT THE WEST SHOULD UNITE ON 



BY GEORGE H. MAXWELL. 



"If we don't hang together we will all hang separately," These 

 wise words of advice which have come down to us from the good old 

 revolutionary days, may well be taken as a guide by the people of the 

 West in the solution of some of their western problems. 



For many years the development of the west has been retarded 

 because there was absolutely no policy or legal system adapted to the 

 utilization or administration or disposition of the vast area of public 

 lands in the arid region. The immensity of this great domain may 

 be conceived when we take into consideration that the area of public 

 land not taxable comprises 76 per cent of the whole surface area of 

 Arizona, 57 per cent of California, 64 per cent of Colorado, 89 per cent 

 of Idaho, 78 per cent of Montana, 95 per cent of Nevada, 69 per cent 

 of New Mexico, 81 per cent of Utah and 85 per cent of Wyoming. 



Among the people of the West there have been two hostile fac- 

 tions, representing apparently, the opposing sides of an "irrepressible 

 conflict, " as to the policy which should prevail in the disposition of 

 these lands. 



One faction has contended that the lands should be donated to 

 the states outright, the federal government surrendering all interest 

 in them, and leaving the states to work out their own salvation. 



The other faction has contended that this policy would be de- 

 structive of the best interests of the states themselves, resulting in the 

 lands passing into private ownership in immense tracts, creating land 

 monopolies as detrimental to development as the old Mexican grant 

 system, and that in short it would retard the reclamation and settle- 

 ment of the arid west for generations, if not forever. 



The sentiment of the east has been opposed to state cession. The 

 people of the east have regarded these lands as the heritage of the 

 whole people, and have considered, and why not, that the government 

 had no more right to in effect donate these lands to the stock growers 

 of the west than it would have to donate the live-stock of the west to 

 the people of the east. 



In some of the grazing states a public sentiment has been created 

 in favor of state cession, but the sentiment of the west as a whole is 

 not favorable to it, but is voiced by the editorial policy of such leading 



