Hermanner Volksblatt. [volume] (Hermann, Mo.) 1875-1928, 1910-07-01
TOLERTON WILL
PROTECT GAME
LATE COURT RULINGS ARE NOT
ACCEPTED BY THE MISSOURI
GAME COMMISSIONERS.
New Game and Fish Law Is Opposed
But Successfully Operated by Toll
erton and His Deputies-WiIl
Continue to Prosecute.

Game and fish laws are never
looked upon with favor by the people
who have for a life time hunted and
tished without let or h~indrance. This
Is especially true of men who live in
regions where game and fish abound
and where they can spend a 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 a 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
one of the best Of the many game and
fish laws enacted by state legisla.
lures in late years. This could not
be said of the law enacted by a
Democratic legislature in 1907, how.
ever, for the statute then given the
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 on the books.
The present statute was enacted in
1909, originating in the House, where
all Of its best features were created
and where it was protected from
damaging amendments approved by
the Senate. 1t provides for a State
Game and Fish Commissioner, who
may appoint one or more deputy com
mlssioners 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.
mus the deputies are feared by those
who would not fear molestation by To-
cal peace officers and they have been
able to make game and fish laws eff.
fective.
But the e 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 a IL
ems on any premises not his own,
or leased or tenanted by him. and
non-residents must pay a liberal Ii,
cense fee to hunt anywhere in the
state. The point in the law, there.
fore, which al 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 Observation-Disclosures 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 n~eighborhood 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
l IA, thar r,fnA, phtIl Af g,,nI, u,p ~
lessee or tenant) can hunt without &
license on lands under his control OF
on adjacent lands with permission
Section 81 of the law restricts hunting
without license TO lands used ex
clusively for agricultural purposes"
Mr.. Jesse A. Tolcyton, State Game
and Fish Commiss.o ner, has put al
altogether different construction OF
the law, under the best legal advice
and will not accept as conclusive tht
doctrine laid down by the judges re
ferred to. In a recent letter to Johr
b. Scott of Rolla, Mr.. Tolerton said
referring to Il ruling OF Judge Wood
side: 81 haxe no hesitancy in saying
tudb VI nc 10 S|OitCSliS uuOtSGJ ouSi
is not the law and was not so in
tended by the trainers of the bill no
the Legislature that passed it. 1t ii
my intention to go right down tn,
line prosecuting any ald all case
where there are fragrant violations o
the game laws as / understand them
Soon or late | expect to see this cues
ton of who should be construed ;
hunter passed upon by the higher
courts, and / have no fear of the re
suits when we get u decision. o.
course it may cake some time t
reach tic LGhor ec,;gta Win, some O
these eases, Int it Ia not my inten
tion to stop The wa.i. Oh such con
~structien of the law as JuG3o Woes
side has announced"
Mr.. Tolerton has so far made Til
Game and fish @SpaIt-Ae:.; &C Iii
!, State GaSe; .ctclt h the pre-
tccticn aid propagation Of saIe AM
! G3h ana IA toaa i.ach % brea,
town { lingering pre-. dice agains
such laws as ngst ~ orced t
Dropsrt iae eXtinttitn u a-iua.c
XII = > 4. - M III = An# LMa