Show field stream by vemon vernon W shields before I 1 make any statements in defense of my article of march ath which mr montgomery refers to in his letter to the editor I 1 wish to make it clear to the readers of this column and especially to mr montgomery that it is not my pur pose to unjustly criticize or anter fere f ere with the just rights of anyone not even the utah cattle and horse growers association I 1 positively do not choose to distort facts for propaganda purposes that nap hap pens to be the one thing I 1 am a all too frequently in these arguments between the cattlemen and the sportsmen both sides have been guilty of distorting facts propaganda of this kind gets every one concerned exactly nowhere I 1 know as anyone else that the cat tiemen of this state are not in bus mess iness for their health and it is not for me to interfere with their bus mess iness of making a living however I 1 am as much interested in seeing to it that the sportsmen of this state are entitled to their rights as mr montgomery is in fighting for his association I 1 know of no sportsmen who are condemning the rights of the cattlemen for trying to make an independent living for themselves and family mr montgomery accuses me of using ill informed statements in my summary of the recent cattle m men e n s convention in salt lake city it so happens that these ill in formed statements were taken from the report of the big game division of the utah horse and cat tie growers association this re port was taken from their files of the annual convention held feb auary and and was mail ed to me over the signature of mr J E L carey ath ave salt lake city utah since this report was mailed to me right after the convention I 1 took it to mean that it was adopted by the convention no mention is made in this report that it was rejected if the state merits ments in this report are not true i and were rejected by the assoria tion why then is this mr M carey arey allowed to go into the files and make copies of this report ally I 1 will accept mr mongol erys ery s word that these resolutions ware wore not passed but why then does he allow this mr carey to mail outa report that has already been if mr montgomery will have mr carey send me a let ter to the effect that the state meats anthis in this report were not pas sed or adopted by the cattlemen catt lemens s convention then I 1 will gladly ap up and retract the statements I 1 made in my article of march ath it is my opinion that someone in tie t ie cattle battlement catt lement ments s association is a little bit reckless too to allow a report of this kin kind d to go through 9 h the mails malls after it was thrown out of the convention mr montgomery states that 18 million dollars p m wealth is created each year from the livestock of this i state alone let me give you some ne figures on how much wealth this hunting and fishing business ere cre ates recent national harveys and estimates from authentic sources indicate that the sportsmen sports mea are saying paying out their money at the rate of four billion dollars per year for fishing and hunting expenses the annual outlay of hunting and fishing sportsmen in the united states is twice the value of all the hogs on farms in the united states as reported by the bureau of agrical tural economics sportsmen s busi ness is about eight times tim es the value of all sheep in the country I 1 don t have any figures on the cattle in austry but this comparison will give you some idea of the wealth the sportsmen contribute it Is es I 1 timatea that 00 worth ot of hunting and fishing licenses were sold in utah in 1947 this was just I 1 for licenses alone what about the a mount that is spent for guns am gas and oil car repairs food outdoor clothing and a hund red and one other things this fishing and hunting business Is big business and I 1 am of the opinion that it comes very close to the cat tie industry in size and wealth contributed the resolution number twelve which mr montgomery mentioned as being passed by his association is a darn good resolution I 1 never said a word about it being radical on resolution number ten I 1 can appreciate mr montgomery s point of view but I 1 suppose the fish and game department would be planting elk where they would become a nuisance to the private and land owner one thing I 1 failed to comment on in a my ar article icle ot of march ath was hat the stockmen opposed any further acquisition of land by the fed eral government and the creation of additional national parks monuments or forests and they re affirmed the policy of placing pub lie lic lands in to private ownership wherever possible naturally as a sportsman I 1 am opposed to any resolution that that is against more forests and national monuments I 1 am opposed to that but I 1 wouldn t expect mr montgomery to see my point of view in this free country of ours mr montgomery is entitled to his opinion and aad I 1 am entitled to mine whether mr montgomery belles me or not I 1 am personally very glad that he wrote this letter to the editor such discussions help to bring the facts before the public the more we understand each other s problems the better we will get et along davo isemena |