Jasper County Democrat, Volume 20, Number 81, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 9 January 1918 — DOGS OR SHEEP, WHICH? [ARTICLE]

DOGS OR SHEEP, WHICH?

There is a saying in this country, and it has grown into an adage, that the legislator who desires to commit political suicide has only to introduce and father a dog law, and the people will attend to the obsequies. Yet the one thing which the various states stand urgently in need of is just such legislative timber —men who are willing to forego political preferment if by so doing they can confer a great boon upon the country.’ We are told that by the time another clip is made wool will be worth two dollars per pound. This in a country than which there is no better in the world for sheep raising.

What must be the amazement of the peoples of other countries when thej- are told that the only reason Americans are not sheep raisers is because of the dog—that the average citizen prefers his dog to his sheep, and if lie must be without I either one the sheep must go. Statistics tell us that this country today is maintaining 25,000,000 : dog's—an 'average of one to every family in the land. Placing the cost of maintenance at a conservative figure, these brutes will consume as much as half their number of human beings, saying nothing of . their depredations. This is equivalent tb-r feeding twelve and one-half million people or more than it .will cost us to feed every soldier we will ever send to France. But the mere feeding of this horde of useless animals is by no means the big item. The great expense lies in the great menace which they constitute to the sheepraising industry. We . would not be so unjust to the canines as to allege, that all are addicted- to sheep killing, or even would be if there were sheep available to be killed.. But the uncertainty as to t'he guilty individuals brings the whole race under suspicion. However, this country is now paying dearly for its devotion to

the dog. It is conceded by all that his dogship is the one great deterrent to the sheep industry. In sections of country where the people have had the wisdom to prefer the sheep to the dog, prosperity has been a welcome guest. But these cocnonunities are rare, jand oyer a large part of the country the dog ranges at his own sweet will. So long as wool was cheap and easily procurable from other countries, the question as between the dog and the sheep was not so pressing, and the American householder could be left in possession off his expensive luxury. Now, however, when the fleecy staple is conspicuous for its scarcity, the decision should be put squarely up to our people: “The dog or the sheep —which?”