White Pine news. [volume] (East Ely, Nev.) 1920-1923, 1923-08-26
MI:. MErCALF"S SAD PLIGHT


MIS-. ME.CCALF'S SAD PLIGHT
The White Pine News feels sorry
for the plight of Vernon Metcalf, sec
rotary of the Nevada Livestock AS
ISOLATION, into which he has argued
himself in trying to defend govern
ment l%ife-ioh trapping. Mr.. Metcalf
is hired and paid a salary for his
labors as secretary, which duties in
clude those of editor of the Nevada
Stockgrower But he has gone be-
yond those duties by trying to boil
ster up a cause of the most question
able character which no livestock
man in this part of the state %favors,
but vigorously opposes because it is
uneconomic, unsound and a plain
graft. Mr.. Metcalf is not hired to
carry on propaganda for government
trapping. but for his duties pertain
ing to his employment. Going IL
of his way to help life-iobbers to
strengthen and retain their hold on
the public treasury is not what he
is paid for, and any stockmar in east
ern Nevada will tell you SO, giving
you the reason in the same words
that the White Pine News mas given
them so many times that it has
frightened Mr.. Metcalf into saying
that he is ready to quit the job over
it.
If Mr.. Metcalf were sincere ha
would not run afeld and splitter as
he does in trying to answer what the
News said on the subject, In his
backing and filing he claims the News
is offering destructive not construc-
tive criticism and pretends that this
paper has not offered a better plan.
but simply is tryins to teal down.
Now. this is not candid Of Mr.. Mot
calf. He knows as we'll as he knows
lie is working in behalf of the life
iobbers that the White Pine News
consistently has demanded the bounty
plan of destroying coyotes. II has
set forth 50 any times that only a
half-hakcd person could fail TO no.
tice. that in Utah under a
bounty on coyotes of 81 better re-
suits have been obtained than in Ne
vada. where through the government
trappers and life-job supervisors the
cost to the taxpayers for each coyote
is $40 to $12, That is the plan. 1t
is tho constructive one, The Other is
fraudulent. crooked and II plain graft
on the people whG pay these costs in
either event. ut
Mr.. Metcalf then side-steps into Il
straw man arena of his " creation
by saying some unintelligible things
in opposition to dry farmers ans
homesteaders under the bounty sys-
tenn eking out a living by trapping
Nobody said anything about these
surely worthy citizens. but if they
happen to have the intelligence to
trap predatory animals and add to
their meager incomes by collecting a
bounty, what objection has Mr.. Met
calf to that? Does he wish to have
them denied the right so long as by
their efforts they are contributing to
the general coed?
This paper neyer said that coyotes
were a resource, as he claims. They
are guilty" as he calls it, though
their fur is a source Of income that
should go to the trapper instead of
into the public %threasury, the same
as wool shorn from sheep that are
fed on government ranges, the hides
from cattle likewise grazed, the hides
that comes from beneath the grounG.
and everything that in this Western
country under a policy that has OBJ
'ained for seventy-five year has
been granted to the man with the in
dustry to discover, to take ard TO
turn It into money. There is the
same reason for requiring the wealth
from the Ruth mine to be turned
into the public treasury, it having
heen discovered by ~prospnctor5 who
sought it. that there is to turn in
the proceeds taken from furs taken
from the backs of predatory animals
captured on government lanG and de-
stroying property at will.
Were . worthwhile bounty paid
in Nevada. the same for pups as for
old coyotes, they would be destroyed
summer as well as winter, and the
numbers taken would be so great
that the measly reports published
monthly by the Nevada Inspector for
the so-called biological survey would
be kent in hiding to keep the public
from knowing how pitiable Is the
showing made in return for tie un
blushing graft that is now carried or |
in a Boosting way under a %pretense |
that accomplishes only one purpose.
which is to fool only those people |
who knew no better and unfortu-I