The Farmington times. (Farmington, St. Francois County, Mo.) 1905-1926, 1916-06-09
WOLF SCALPS

san ana misleading statement IN ref
erence to State affairs to prejudice
the minds of the ignorant and un.
thinking. In a local news article
about the number and destructiveness
of wolves in Butler county, the Pop
lar Bluff Republican could not restrain
itself from referring to the wolf
scalp bounty law-that is, that the
State offers to pay a certain sum to
any one who kills a wolf and exhibits
its scalp as proof of his proves; and
then to remark that "when vouchers
were sent to the State Auditor, what
did he do but sit down and write a
letter here Ito Poplar Bluff to the
effect that there was no money in the
State Treasury to pay what the State
had agreed to pay" with the super
fiuous commentary that "that is the
kind of State officials which want to
be returned to Office this fall"
1t would be too much to expect a
partisan organ like the Republican,
instead of making a sneering false
implication against the State Auditor,
as well as other State officials to have
said that he was in no way response
bic for the fact that there was no
available money in the State Treas
ury to pay for wolf scalps. If the
last General Assembly by some over
sight failed to appropriate money to
pay for wolf scalps-which would not
have been any great sin of omission
on its part, as Missouri is not q wolf
infested wildernness-how is the
State Auditor or any other official re-
sponsible for that omission? Would
the Republican have had the State Au-
ditor violate the Constitution and his
oath of Office by taking money out
Of some other fund to pay Butler
county sportsmen, or farmers who
might kill wolf to protect their stock.
for the wolf scalps they have taken
That there is money enough in the
State Treasury to pay any and all
just obligations is we'll known to all
intelligent people who have been in
terested sufficiently to inform them
selves, but it is divided into sep
arate funds and SO tied up by con-
stitutional limitations that it cannot
be used for any other purpose, how
ever much of surplus there may be
in any one fund. That, however, is
a fact which all Republican papers
endeavcr to hide from their
readers, and try to make it appear by
implication or otherwise that the
State officials are dishonest. incom-
petent, extravagantly prohigate and
have some how wasted or embezzled
The States monies, When it is a fact
susceptible of clear demonstration
hat honesty, efficiency and economy
nave marked every department of tie
State.
But Wolf scalpers! What mighty
wrong the State has parpetrated in
not providing a fund to pay for their
patriotic services in scalping these
Wild, prowling canine foragers Of
heep cotes, barn yards and hog pens! |
Are the people Of Butler county, or
If any other county in the State for
hat matter, where an occasional
mail pack Of wolves may make It's
so helpless that they can
lot protect themselves against these
of their fiocks without
State assistance, or are they such
.rafters' that unless the State pays
hem for every wolf they kill they'll
ust let them breed and plumber their
took folds at will? Why, early in
he spring, some of our local SPORTS
1en with their hounds went to Mis-
issippi county, where some wolves
'ere reported to have been driven
p on to the highlands by the over
ow, to chase and kill them Just for
ne fun of the thing.
That hoary old wolf-scalp bounty
IVY was all well enough when the
tate was sparsely settled and infest-
with wolves and all sorts of var
iints, to encourage their destruction ,
nd extinction, but in this day of
lickly populated communities, cx- /
nsive cleared and cultivated lands.
thrifty and successful farmers. of
lterprise and progress, it is a fossil s
ed relic. The community into whose
idst a small pack of wolves may 6
appear can be depended
ION to hunt them down to protect 4
cir flocks without asking a bounty n
the State, and they will get a good
al Of sport and fun out of the game. I
II the Butler county sportsmen,
10 arc waiting on the limitations Of f