Your petitioners and others intending to enter upon and carry on the round-up arranged for by law, sent trusted and honest employees to attend to the same, and these men were threatened with violence by the thieves and were compelled to leave the county to avoid death or other violence to their persons. During the last two months the number of stock thieves in that vicinity has been greatly augmented by the arrival of other men of the same character from other parts of the country, and there now exists in that country an organized plan of driving the stockmen out, so that their property may become common property for the thieves; cattle are being wantonly and openly slaughtered in that section by thieves, some of the slaughtering being done for no other purpose whatsoever than to gratify malicious motives, and other slaughtering is being done to enable the thieves to market the beef and obtain money therefor. The ranches and homes of owners in that vicinity have many of them been plundered and the personal effects and furniture there stolen or destroyed, and the occupants of the ranches have been driven from the country by fear. Even women and children at these ranches have received these threats of violence, and have been compelled to seek places of safety. Letters in the United States mails have been opened by these thieves, and there exists a general and well-founded belief that letters and information cannot be safely confided to the United States mails in that vicinity, and in several instances persons have been warned against sending letters to their friends upon the outside (of the mailsack), and have been notified not to go to the postoffice either for the purpose of mailing letters or for the purpose of receiving mail therefrom. No effort of any kind whatever on behalf of the civil authorities in that vicinity is being made to suppress this stealing, or any of the acts of violence and intimidation, and in many instances the civil authorities are, by reason of natural inclination or intimidation, working with the thieves and under their influence. The sheriff of Johnson county openly declares his enmity towards the owners of live stock. With his knowledge, and without any opposition whatever from him, the county is patrolled by large numbers of armed thieves who are permitted to go about heavily armed and prepared at any moment to execute their threat against those who are not in accord with them.