The Marshall republican., 1910-06-10
TOLERT0N WILL
PROTECT GAME
LATE COURT RULINGS ARE NOT
ACCEPTED BY THE MISSOURI
GAME COMMISSIONER.
New Game and Fish Law Is Opposed
But Successfully Operated by Toll
erton and His Deputies-Wii
Continue to Prosecute.

IoohSu upou WIN idNOl Wy Tic pSophc
who have for a life time hunted and
fished without let or hindrance. This
is especially true of men who live in
regions where game and fish abound
and where they can spend q few
hours any day with gun, rod or seine
and procure animal food enough for
their families without drawing on the
reserve stock of bacon or paying tri.
butte to the beef trust.
Missouri having always been q par.
adise for hunters and fishermen, game
and fish laws have had hard sailing
in our legislative halls and harder
experience in the fields and forests
and along the streams when In con-
tact with men who feel that they
have a natural right to all the game
they can kill and all the fish they
can catch. Yet Missouri today has
enc of the best of the many game and
fish laws enacted by state legisla.
lures in late years. This could not
re said OF the law enacted by a
Democratic legislature in 1907, how
~fNI, " tnN oJiiult luGH BlNcu llt
state by Democratic solons can only
be described as a monstrosity. 1t
was n of the crudest of all so
called game and fish laws and was a
Joke In the courts and among sports.
men as long as it was OF the books.
Tie present statute was enacted in
900, originating in the House, where
all OF it's best features were created
and where 1t was protected from
damaging amendments approved by
the Senate. 1t provides for a State
Game and Fish Commissioner, who
may appoint n or deputy COM
missioners in each Congressional dis
trict, clothed with authority to make
arrests and to destroy nets, seines
and other apparatus used illegally in
taking fish, and to confiscate fish and
game unlawfully taken or shipped.
Inu the deputies are feared by those
who would not fear molestation by los
cal peace officers and they have been
able To make game and fish laws eff.
fective.
But the revenue necessary to oper-
ate the law must come from hunters
licenses and the penalties paid by
violators of the law. No man can
hunt protected game without q IL
n on any premises not his own,
or leased or tenanted by him, and
non-residents must pay a liberal IL
n fee to hunt anywhere In the
state. The point In the law, there.
fore, which car be attacked most dan
gerously is the license provision. If
that can be broken down and land
owners and lesses may privilege hunt
ing on their premises without license
the revenue will be impaired and the
operation of the law made ineffective.
Late rulings by circuit judges-notab.
ly by Judges Evans and Woodside In
southern districts-threaten trouble
In the collection Of license fees. Their
Interpretation of the law seems to be
that no license Is necessary to hunt
game not protected under the game
law, or to hunt any kind of game in
the neighborhood of ones home dur
ing "the open season'-the period
when the destruction of such game is
not prohibited; and that a person
who Is the owner, lessee or tenant
tor the minor child of such owner
lessee or tenant) a hunt without
license on lands under his control OIL
on adjacent lands with permission
Section 81 of the law restricts hunting
without license to lands used ex
cl~usively for agricultural purposes"
Mr.. Jesse A. Tolerton, State Game
and Fish Commissioner, has put al
altogether different construction OF
the law, under the best legal advice
and will not accept as conclusive the
doctrine laid down by the judges re
ferred to. In a recent letter to Johr
B. Scott of Rolla, Mr.. Tolerton said
referring to a ruling of Judge Wood
side: 81 haze no hesitancy in saying
that (if he is correctly quoted) sucl
Is not the law and was not 30 in
tended by the trainers Of the bill no,
the legislature that passed 1t. 1t II
my intention to go right down tn
line prosecuting any and all case
where there are fragrant violations o
the game laws as l understand them
Soon or late / expect to see this cues
ton of who should be construed
hunter passed upon by the highe
courts, and l have no fear Of the re
suits when we get a decision. o
course It may take some time t
reach the higher courts with some O
these cases, but 1t is not my inter
ton to stop the work on such cor
struction of the law as Judge Woot
side has announced"
Mr.. Tolerton has so far made tn
Game and Fish Department Of tn
State Government potent in the PRE-
lection and propagation OF game an
fish and has done much to brea
down a lingering prejudice againi