Show r beld stream by vemon vernon W shields makes ahia isles u to T shields heber utah march 19 1948 editor tooele thoele county chronicle tooele thoele utah dear sir on march 5 of this year your rl nw carried an article over the signature of vernon W shields entitled bield ind stream inas much as this article mentioned my name and purports to give a sum mary of the action taken at the recent state cattle convention on game and public lands I 1 feel call rd r d upon to give you the facts in the matter is distin distinguished gushed from the ill informed statements so reck reek I 1 lessly e s sly used by the author of that art cle in this article mr shields attempts to summarize the resola t ons passed at our cattle conven tion like so many articles of this kind the author is either ignorant of the facts or chooses to distort them for propaganda purposes mr shields said e passed a resolution sav ng rig that big game ame manage ment be improved that a resola I 1 tion called for more severe pen allies for tress passing extension of the hunting season permits to kill two deer instead of one and asked for more damage pay ments from the fish and game de apartment part ment no such resolutions were passed at our cattle convention the facts are at our convention a private land owner prepared a long reso lution on fish and game land man argement matters and handed it to our committee the reso resolutions lutio ns committee refused to recommend that resolution whereupon the author of the same brought it up on the floor of the convention and asked to have it adopted by the convention as a whole after the resolution was read and a motion made to adopt the same the resolution lost by a vote of I 1 should sav 25 to 1 and the resolution was killed that is the resolution mr shields quotes from and which he says was adopted at our conven tion only two resolutions were ad opted at our convention on big game matters number 10 stated we recommend that before addi dional big game herds are planted in the state that the matter be rec commended om orn mended by the big game control board that parti particular culat resolution had reference to elk since the newspapers have been carrying ar tides to the effect that the fish and game department Is planting g additional herds of elk about the state and it was felt feltey by the live stock people that since elk have to be wintered almost entirely on the private lands and since they are so destructive to the range it self that we should not increase the big game herds until we leam learn better ways of handling the 8 or 9 herds of elk that we now have the other resolution was num ber her 12 which provided that the op ening of the elk season on the manti forest be not earlier than october 15 so as to not interfere with the gathering of cattle from the ranges I 1 cannot see that either of these resolutions are very radi cal on the public land question we opposed wholesale acquisition of great tracts of private land by the government for any purposes our reasons being that the government already owns three fourths of all the lands of this state and govern ment lands are non taxable there fore it is a burden upon the other 25 percent of the lands ot of this state to carry our tax burden which will be increased if we con dinue to buy up private land and take the same off the tax rolls thereby injuring our schools and other tax units of the state the author then winds up his article by saying what a wonderful country this would be if the cattle association controlled everything ery thing and then he takes a dig or two at me personally as dent of the cattle association and as a member of the big game con arol board I 1 regret that anyone feels that way toward our assoria tion and toward me personally let me assure you the cattle assoria tion does not desire to control ev ery grything thing it merely desires to have a voice in regulating its own at af fairs the livestock mans entire capital and savings are invested in his business he i is not in business ten days each year for the sport or thrill of it it is his livelihood and he Is doing more to maintain the big game herds of this state than any other group of citizens in facts without his tolerance and cooperation in that regard our big game herds in this state would not amount to much the cattle asso elation is composed of farmers and livestock people who have helped pioneer and develop this state they are producers who have had the nerve and tenacity to match their wits and hard labor against the elements and to try to make an independent living for them selves and their families all wealth in this country comes from the earth the laboring man the professional man and all other groups of people are dependent up on the men who produce the new wealth from the land eighteen million dollars of that wealth Is created each year from the live stock of this state alone which wealth ia pyramided eight times in its financial cycle every livestock man in this state who sells three or four beef steers each year provides a per year job for some other man in the united states so that the average livestock man is creating enough new wealth to keep a half dozen other heads of families work ing and living in this wonderful country that mr shields thinks we would ruin so badly As for myself it Is true I 1 have been on the big game control board for a great many years and during that time I 1 have received the big salary of nothing for my services when I 1 was put on that board we had about 50 head of deer in the state and arid the state legislature created the board to handle a problem that was then attracting public attention I 1 was put on that board to represent a g group of tax payers of the tate state who were feeding these deer a part of every year and who were then being damaged and under my long tenure in office on that board by advocating destruction of our big game advocating ado cating better management killing two deer in stead of one authorizing game limits and ana killing does that game herd has increased to ap proximately 1 head of deer and our elk and antelope herds have increased proportionately therefore from my record on the board I 1 have felt that it should be the livestock people who have a bawl coming about the effectiveness of my services rather than the sportsmen respectfully submitted L C president utah cattle 4 horse growers association I 1 D due ue to lack of space mr shield s answer will be printed next week |