proper conditions or else it would be ruinous to them to continue in the business. The thing I have most at heart as regards this subject is to do whatever will be of permanent benefit to just exactly the people for whom this correspondent of mine spoke――the small ranchmen who have to plow and pitch hay themselves. All I want to do is to find out what will be to their real benefit, for that is certain to be to the benefit of the country as a whole. It may be that we can secure their interests best by permitting all homesteaders in the dry country to inclose, individually or a certain number of them together, big tracts of range for summer use, the tracts being proportioned to the number of neighboring homesteaders who wish to run their cattle upon it. It may be that parts of the range will only be valuable for companies that can lease it and put large herds on it; for the way properly to develop a region is to put it to those uses to which it is best adapted. The amount to be paid for the leasing privilege is to me a matter of comparative indifference. The Government does not wish to make money out of the range, but simply to provide for the necessary supervision that will prevent its being eaten out or exhausted; that is, that will secure it undamaged as an asset for the next generation, for the children of the present home makers. Of course we must also provide enough to pay the proper share of the county taxes. I am not wedded to any one plan, and I am willing to combine several plans if necessary. But the present system is wrong, and I hope to see, in all the States of the Great Plains and the Rockies, the men like my correspondent of the Laramie County Cattle and Horse Growers’ Association, the small ranchmen “who plow and pitch hay themselves,” seriously take up this matter and make their representatives in Congress understand that there must be some solution, and that this solution shall be one which will secure the greatest permanent well-being to the actual settlers, the actual home makers. I promise with all the strength I have to cooperate toward this end. [Illustration] Transcriber’s Notes: ――Text in italics is enclosed by underscores (_italics_). ――Punctuation and spelling inaccuracies were silently corrected. ――Archaic and variable spelling has been preserved. ――Variations in hyphenation and compound words have been preserved.