y' 



..."the people in urban voter blocks are going to tell us how to 

 manage our landscapes, our water, our wildlife, our wilderness and 

 our cattle, and there isn't a heck of a lot we can do about it." 



HUEY JOHNSON : I would respectfully, Mr. Hanson, challenge your 

 position in several respects this morning, and I do it with some misgivings 

 because I, along with everyone else in this room, admire and respect your 

 way of life and what it means to this country. Nothing could be more 

 important to me than to know that my own children will have the 

 opportunity to relate to someone like you in their lifetime and to gain 

 first-hand understanding and appreciation of the values of your history 

 and way of life. I do feel, however, that the Sagebrush Rebellion issue is 

 far more serious than the Cattlemen's Association realizes. You spoke of a 

 new Mason-Dixon line, separating the east and west instead of the north 

 and south. I would argue that there may be a difference between the east 

 and west but the important reality for you is that the cattlemen are caught 

 in the middle, and unless you begin to practice some enlightened 

 self-interest, you are going to be in real trouble in the years ahead. 



Recently I was attending a large conference in the East, arguing some 

 of these issues, and a very intelligent, highly educated, powerful member 

 of that conference said to me, "I don't understand what you're taking 

 about. What is the BLM?" And I realized that none of the people in that 

 room had any real understanding of public land issues. I have had similar 

 experiences which have reminded me that too often we fail to understand 

 the political significance of urbanization of our country. So I want to 

 work my theme today around that reality. The fact is that there is a 

 concept called reapportionment, based on the principle of one person-one 

 vote, and that as a result the people in the urban voter blocks are going 

 to tell us how to manage our landscapes, our water, our wildlife, our 

 widerness, and our cattle, and there isn't a heck of a lot we can do about 

 it. 



But if we are intelligent enough to look at the alternatives and realize 

 that those people also have a shared ownership in this landscape, we can 

 use that concept to resolve the dilemma that both sides sense. 



