EXTRACT FROM ANNUAL ADDRESS OP H. A. JASTRO, PRESIDENT, 

 AT THE SIXTEENTH ANNUAL CONVENTION OF THE AMERICAN 

 NATIONAL LIVE STOCK ASSOCIATION, AT PHOENIX, ARIZONA, 

 JANUARY 14 AND 15, 1913. 



The establishment of the national forests, and the grazing thereon under 

 federal supervision, have met with general approval in this state as elsewhere, 

 and I do not believe that the permanently established stockmen of Arizona, 

 using these reserves, would be willing to return to the old system. Some similar 

 administration of the open ranges of Arizona would, I am confident, meet with 

 equal favor, and would add prosperity to the live-stock industry. Not only 

 would it mean stability to the range business, but it would be an incentive to 

 the users of the range to rest and reseed the ranges, which method would in 

 time result in an increased production of live stock. This has been demon- 

 strated beyond any contradiction by the very thorough experiments conducted 

 at the Experiment Station in Tucson regarding the regeneration of the range 

 grasses. Under a lease law, the country now used for nomadic grazing would 

 be converted into a prosperous breeding country instead of a half-waste. I will 

 not dwell longer on the merits and necessities of the lease law as applied to the 

 semi-arid open range, for this is one of the leading questions for discussion at 

 this meeting, and you will hear some very interesting talks regarding it. I 

 wish, however, to comment on the economic side of the lease-law proposition. 



The United States has today less live stock per capita than ever in its 

 history. Various reasons have been advanced for its shortage. Indeed, there 

 are many causes which, in a greater or less degree, have contributed to bring 

 it about. But of all the influences which have tended to lessen the production 

 of live stock in the West, I believe the most potent is the very unsatisfactory 

 range conditions arising out of indiscriminate grazing, and the scramble to 

 secure what is left of the already depleted ranges. There is no business in the 

 country so fraught with harassing and annoying difficulties as the handling of 

 cattle under a free-range regime. Therefore, stockmen quickly embraced the 

 opportunity to quit the business as soon as prices for stock warranted them in 

 doing so. In my judgment, this is the chief cause why the free-range states 

 of the West have so few cattle today. 



Congress is now trying, through the removal of the import duty, to cheapen 

 the cost of live stock and meat in this country. This may give some temporary 

 relief and of that I am quite doubtful; but I am certain it will not cure the 

 evil. The trouble is deeper-seated than the tariff, and is chargeable to the in- 

 difference of Congress to the needs of the West, and to its failure to pass ade- v " 

 quate laws protecting and conserving western ranges. 



This is not a new question. It has been agitated for many years. As 

 early as 1900, at the annual convention of this Association in Fort Worth, 

 Texas, a resolution was adopted urging Congress to classify and lease the semi- 

 arid public grazing lands of the West. In 1903, at the annual meeting in 

 Kansas City, this Association memoralized Congress to appoint a special Land 

 Commission to investigate western land conditions. Pursuant to that memorial, 

 the President of the United States appointed a Land Commission, which met in 

 Denver, with 105 representative stockmen of the West, in a three days' con- 



