TENURE AND USE OF ARID GRAZING LANDS. 45 



The right of the Government to charge a reasonable fee for the use 

 of Government land must also be maintained. 



It is of the utmost importance that controlling officials who might 

 be charged with supervision of the Government grazing lands should 

 have the power to say how many animals may be put upon a given 

 area of land, for upon this power rests the whole plan of building up 

 the ranges. 



It is recognized that today many of the ranges which are individually 

 operated are much larger than the ultimately desirable size. It is 

 not desirable that they should be broken up into smaller holdings at 

 once and parcelled out among a number of men who have neither 

 the capital nor the knowledge necessary for their use. Such a pro- 

 cedure would be disastrous in many ways. But the fact that a better 

 use adjustment of these large areas is desirable and possible must be 

 admitted, and a procedure should be inaugurated that will lead 

 gradually and without injustice to any one toward the final proper 

 adjustment in size. 



The only existing " right" which should be curtailed is that of the 

 unregulated use of the public domain. 



METHODS PROPOSED. 



The following general policies for meeting the problem of range 

 control have been proposed at one time or another, and most of them 

 are now or have been in use in this or other countries [12]: 



1. Sale of lands, with or without restrictions as to the area that 



may be purchased or the person to whom the privilege is open. 



2. Gradual enlargement of the size of the area that may be home- 



steaded. 



3. Introduction of a federal leasing system. 



4. Consolidation of private and federal holdings by exchanges. 



5. Transfer of the federal lands that lie within their several bound- 



aries, to the separate States, for administration. 



6. Establishment of a permit system, similar to that in use in the 



National Forests, for the control of the federal grazing lands. 



Sale of the lands. — Little need be said of the policy of selling the 

 lands, except possibly to clear up a few misconceptions. As all 

 who have read, the history of our land policy know, this was the 

 method of disposal of public lands in use until the original home- 

 stead law was passed, and it is still possible to "commute" a 160- 

 acre homestead by purchase. The present general popular prejudice 

 against this method arose as the result of land speculation abuses 

 during the first half of the last century, and the change of policy was 

 due to a warranted change in public opinion as to who should profit 

 by the distribution of the public lands. 



Though it is not now possible to buy Government land in large 

 acreages, there are still on the statute books laws which make it 

 possible to purchase certain kinds of land in specified small areas. 



