"Objects to a Tax"

[phantom power]

I was rummaging around the other day in my office and came across this old letter to the editor of the journal Western Field and Stream (one of the precursors to the modern Field and Stream) from October 1897:

Objects to a Tax

Editor Western Field and Stream:

I notice a strong tendency in this land of the free to restrict the freedom of “the hunter,” and get the working class entirely shut out from the freedom of the woods, fields and hills given us by our Creator. Pay $25 or twenty-five cents to hunt in any State in the “Free United States?” I shall hunt in any State I choose and pay no tax. My father died in Libby Prison to free some of our countrymen. The farmers will charge for the privilege of hunting on their land, and the poor folks will poach on the game preserves as they do in other countries. My Janesville, Wis., paper says: “No poor man can pay $30 for the privilege of shooting deer in this State, and they buy nothing here, and camp out, so we make nothing off them. But the rich who can pay the tax will spend $30,000 in the State.” During the open season I will hunt deer in Wisconsin and pay no tax. I am poor, and will take my eating stuff along. If arrested I will serve my time. After released I shall devote my life to exterminating the game of any hog State that restricts the freedom of the poor. Now this is the way I feel about it. And the same sentiment will be raised in others, and the flood will come. I believe no man should be stopped from hunting where he chooses during the open season. The deed for every farm should read: “After Sept 1st, each year, this land is thrown open for hunting until season closes. Actual damage to owners’ property to be paid by hunter at once. No game preserves or passes allowed to private parties or companies.”

Horace A. Milton
Pennock, Minn.

Now we might make fun of Milton, say he’s a precursor to the anti-environmental right-wing gun nuts of today, etc. But it’s a more complicated source that that. First, the establishment of hunting laws was very much about keeping poor people from hunting game for food. The elites like Theodore Roosevelt pushing these laws were quite open about that. As Louis Warren and other historians have shown, early hunting laws were about exclusion and punishment, saving game for elite whites to hunt in a proper sporting manner while ensuring that poor whites, blacks, Hispanos in New Mexico, and Native Americans could not have access to that game. Law enforcement backed up this proposition. Given the widespread poverty of the Gilded Age, these laws literally took food out of people’s mouths.

But if hunting laws were about exclusion, they were also necessary to save the wildlife of the United States. Given the number of deer in the U.S. today, it’s hard to believe they were being driven close to extinction in many parts of the nation by the 1890s, but it is true. Without these laws coming at the time they did, many large mammal species would probably be extinct today, including deer, elk, black bear, and bison. So it’s complicated.

It’s also really interesting to me that Milton chose to accept hunting seasons while rejecting hunting licenses. I don’t have too much insight on this, but he did yield to state authority on certain types of hunting regulations while completely rejecting it on others. And he very much placed his beliefs in the same context of a lot of Americans at the time on both sides of the conservation debate, which was fearing the U.S. would become like Europe with large private hunting reserves that locked most of the nation’s citizens out of the country’s natural resources. For hunters, this was outrageous because three centuries of American settlement had been predicated on open exploitation of nature and for conservationists, a democratic state-operated hunting system at least preserved the possibility of many citizens hunting, as opposed to the aristocratic system that prevailed in Europe and that many Gilded Age capitalists were trying to emulate with their purchase of large tracts of land.

http://www.lawyersgunsmoneyblog.com/2014/12/objects-tax

[happyslug]

1. $30 for a hunting license in 1897? Gold was $20 an ounce at that time.

Thus just based on the price of gold today $1206 per ounce, that comes to over $1800 for a license fee.

http://goldprice.org/

That would be unreasonable, and that may be the reason the writer in objecting, i.e. NOT to the restrictions on Hunting to preserve game, but the HIGH price for a hunting license.

Another way to look at it is compare $30 to annual income for the time period, $30 is almost one MONTH's total salary for most people (and over one year salary for a School Teacher):

Occupation....................................Income

Average of all Industries...................$ 438/year

State and Local Government Workers..$ 590/year

Public School Teacher......................$ 328/year

Building Trades................................37 ¢/hour
Working week: 48.3 h.

Medical/Health Services Worker.........$ 256/year

http://usa.usembassy.de/etexts/his/e_prices1.htm

Notice the writer says he would hunt "During the open season I will hunt deer in Wisconsin and pay no tax". Thus he is open to reasonable restrictions but the fees being suggested would be way out of the ability of most people to pay.

In 1920 Wisconsin finally imposed a "Deer Tag" of 10 cents. In 1932 it is raised to $1.00. In 1951 it is $2.50.

http://chippewa.com/dunnconnect/sports/local/a-chronology-of-wisconsin-deer-hunting-since/article_54034a7c-489e-5519-b3ec-2f2c0467ab84.html

Just a comment that reasonable restrictions tend to be supported, but unreasonable restrictions tend to be opposed. $30 hunting license in 1897 was UNREASONABLE, today is it more then reasonable do to inflation.

Now Milton does mention Twenty five cents in his letter, That is more reasonable. It comes to 1.2% of the average annual income of an worker at that time period. I suspect the $30 was a FINE, but the fee was to be 25 Cents. Most states where adopting license fees at that time period and some people can get the fee and the fine confused (which I suspect MAY be the problem) thus his concerns may NOT be the fee but the fines.

Side note: In many states in 1897 what we today call "Trespassing" was NOT a crime. You could be held liable for any damage you did when on someone's else land, but it was NOT a crime to enter someone's else's land (Except for his home and the yard around that home, if you entered that area, you were doing Common Law Criminal Trespass, but if you avoided those areas, such trespassing was NOT Criminal).

In many ways the last sentence of the writer of 1897 is in support of such laws, but he was willing to force people to pay for any damages right then and there, as opposed to the land owner being forces to sue in court.

Pennsylvania started the movement to make "No Trespassing" signs legal around 1895 (Exact year escapes me, but it was in the 1890s), i.e. make it criminal to enter an area with such signs. These laws were passed to keep Mother Jones out of Coal mining areas. To be effective such laws had to be "General" not just restricted to coal mines and steel mills, so the modern crime of Trespassing, when you go on land with "No Trespassing" laws was invented. Yes, "No Trespassing" signs where passed as an anti-union law.

After Pennsylvania passed its "No Trespassing" law, Mother Jones figured out a way around it. Pennsylvania (and most other states) consider any stream of water a public highway unless it starts on your property. Mother Jones took this rule and in the middle of winter walked up a small stream that went through a Coal Company mine portal area and made a speech to join the United Mine Workers. She was in her 60s, it was the middle of winter, but she dare NOT get out of the water. As long as she was standing in the water, she was on a public road, but once she stepped on land, she was Trespassing under the then new "No Trespassing" laws.

Please note while I am using the term "No Trespassing" law, I am using that term in a generic sense, for most of the laws use terms like "Defiant Trespass", "Criminal Trespass" or similar language as opposed to "No Trespassing".

[madokie]

3. as a kid growing up poor in northeast Ok

I seen my first white tail deer at the zoo, not out in the woods. I spent a lot of time with a 22 in my hands hunting for rabbits in the winter and squirrels in the summer but never seen a deer in any of those many hunting trips. When we bagged a rabbit or a squirrel it went on the table as food the next meal too. In the winter my brother and I would get up before daylight and go run our rabbit traps, boxed traps mind you that had a screen on one end and a door that came falling down at the entrance to see if we had meat for breakfast. By the time I was in the first grade I could skin a squirrel or a rabbit with the best of the skinners. Now I go hunt mushrooms and the deer about run me over there is so many of them, wild hogs too. Even a few bears around here now where when I was a kid no way was a bear in any of our woods. Hunting seasons has helped to return the wild game to our lands as sure as I'm typing right now.
I remember in the late 50s when ok had their first deer hunting season in years. It was a lottery if you drew a lucky number you had 2 days to kill a deer in. One of my older brothers was one of the lucky ones but had to go 75 miles away to even be in woods where there was even a chance of a deer sharing the woods with him. I remember him telling the story about how he and his buddy, you were allowed to take someone with you, left out about midnight and drove down the Camp Gruber where they were allowed to hunt and got there about 4 or so in the morning and scouted around and each found a spot they thought they had a chance in a deer coming by and before he knew it a buck deer grunted and woke him up from a sound sleep and trotted off to live another day. Life was a lot different back then than it is today thats for sure. I wouldn't trade the memories for all the money in the world today either.

All I've ever tried to do my whole life is live life and hope I had the mind to remember it when today got here. In that I succeeded.

[happyslug]

4. White Tail Deer, a problem in Pennsylvania since the 1950s.

White Tail Deer is an animal of Second growth timber. It does NOT do well in old growth timber or scrub lands. Mule Deer do better in Scrub Lands (thus Mule Deer is the deer of the West, while White Tail is the Deer of the East).

I bring this up for Pennsylvania was clear cutted by 1900. By the 1930s Second growth timber was coming into those clear cutted areas, by the 1970s those Second Growth was getting to tall for white tail. Thus a lot of "Good Deer Hunting Areas" of the 1930s-1960s were no longer able to support Deer come the 1970s. This was complicated by the Massive abandonment of the various marginal farms in Rural Pennsylvania during the Great Depression. Pennsylvania farms, do to the Mountains, tended to be very small compared to Farms in the Mid West and Great Plains. Many were just large enough to feed the family living on the farm (and the owner worked some place else to pay the taxes). Thus many of these farms were abandoned in the 1930s. I remember going through rural Pennsylvania in the late 1960s and seeing various old homes, not lived in decades slowing falling apart (Most are gone now).

The effect to the Clear Cutting and abandonment of those clear cutted areas (most ended up owned by the State of Pennsylvania AFTER the clear cut) and the abandonment of those small marginal farms in the 1930s lead to a massive growth of Second Growth Timber throughout Pennsylvania. This lead to a boom in White Tail Deer Numbers.

Come the 1970s as those Second Growth Timber slowly matured, the trees became to big and white tail deer moved to the Suburbs, which in many ways resembled Second Growth TImber areas. Suburbanites complained of deer eating their plants around their home at the same time deer hunters were complaining of not seeing any deer in areas they had hunted in for decades. This tread has continued since the 1970s, trees in the Rural Areas are getting even taller (Timbering has returned, but is is selective no clear cuts except where it is desired).

Side Note: The Pennsylvania Game Commission is the Second largest owner of lands in Pennsylvania, behind the Pennsylvania Forest Department but ahead of the State Park System and the Federal Forest system. The Game Commission has done several small clear cuts (Five to 10 acres) on lands its own for such clear cuts is good for Pheasant, Bob whites, Grouse and other game birds (but NOT turkey, turkey likes mature forests). Thus some Clear Cuts are done in Pennsylvania but no where near what was done in 1900.

Thus White Tail was rare around 1900 in Pennsylvania, for Pennsylvania had been clear cutted and the resulting scrub land was unfit for White Tail (Through great for Pheasant and Bob Whites). Starting in the 1930s those Forest started to move into Second Growth timber. Small and thin, low enough for a browser like the White Tail to eat the leaves and twigs. As a result White Tail numbers BOOMED in the 1930 to 1960 period. By the 1970s the trees had mature so that the leaves and twigs were now out of reach of White Tail, so the White Tails moved to the Suburbs. Turkey boomed starting in the 1970s.

Side note: A massive change in how turkeys where handled by the Game Commission helped. Prior to the 1970s the Pennsylvania Game Commission would actually stock Turkeys for hunters to hunt. It was found these farm raised turkeys spread disease to actual wild turkeys, reducing the numbers of both. Do to this the Game Commission STOPPED stocking turkeys but captured wild turkeys and moved them to various places in Pennsylvania. As a result of this, turkeys which were rare in the 1970s, are now all over the place in Pennsylvania and other states for this switch was nation wide. The CIty of Pittsburgh has several wooded hillsides that are no longer Second Growth (not yet mature growth but headed in that direction). I have walked on those hillsides and found wild turkeys, I almost had a shot of some wild turkeys overlooking downtown Pittsburgh, they were that close but in tall timber area).

Reading the reports from Wisconsin and your comments, it is clear that Deer was rare in Wisconsin and Oklahoma long after they were already common in Pennsylvania. That is probably do to both areas being "flatter" then the mountains of Pennsylvania and thus missed the clean cuts of the late 1800s followed by Second Growth in those areas starting in the 1930s. Wisconsin and Oklahoma were hit by the abandonment of marginal farms in the 1930s, that was a nation wide event caused by the Great Depression (The Dust Bowl helped in Oklahoma, but the Dust Bowl had no direct effect on the farms of Pennsylvania).

Now, in my youth I remember seeing a lot of deer, more deer then I do now (But I do see a lot of Deer today). Since the 1970s I have seen increased number of Black Bears (Another Mature Forest Animal for it can climb trees). The changes in the animals and birds I have seen appear to be the result of changes in the nature of the Forests in my area. Pennsylvania woodlands are entering the Mature stage of growth and thus support black bears and Turkeys more the White Tail Deer. If Climate Change continue as many expect, the Appalachian Mountains will cease to be 100% forest cover and turn to being grass lands on the top of those Mountains ("Bald" Mountains as that term was used prior to the clear cutting of the Forests of the Appalachian Mountains). That would permit an increase in the Elk Herd in Pennsylvania (Elk is a Grazer as opposed to the Browser like White Tail Deer).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grazing

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Browsing_(herbivory)

Elk are basically Grazers, but can Browse:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elk

White tail are Browser that can also Graze:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/White-tailed_deer#Diet

Mule Deer eat the same plants as White Tail in areas where the two Species overlap, but in areas with just Mule Deer, the food tends to be more Browse then Grass:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mule_deer

Since WWII, it has been notice the number of Pheasants have dropped off drastically in Pennsylvania and the rest of the US. The Pheasant was introduced to the US around 1900 for hunting. It did well in Clear Cut Lands, but as those lands turned to second growth and mature forests the Pheasant populations had dropped:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Common_pheasant

My father remember hunting Bob Whites in the 1930s, but come the 1970s to 1990s he commented on how few he saw as compared to the days of his youth. It is a bird of the margins of the forest, thrived in the days of Second Growth Forests, but dies out with the change to mature forests:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Northern_bobwhite

Just a comment that what animals we see in the wild is often determined by the nature of the Forest and grass lands we preserve for them. Some thrive with change, other die out. The Passenger Pigeon is the classic example of both. Passenger Pigeons liked living in mature forest NEXT to open fields. Thus as American cut down its Woodlands in the 1800s passenger pigeon population boomed for people would open up new fields right next to mature forests, idea passenger pigeon environment. The problem is the next step were those mature forest, and once those were gone passenger pigeons population dropped like a rock. Given how their bred, hunting them seem to have had only a marginal effect on their population, the big effect was the clear cutting of eastern woodlands.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Passenger_pigeon

I mention the passenger Pigeon for its population growth in the mid 1800s to its extinction after 1900 show the effect of environmental harm of short term changes in any ecology. In many ways the changes since 1960s is an effect of the change in treatment of woodlands since 1900, we are slowly returning to how it was around 1800, but complete return may not be possible given the damage done to satisfy short term greed.

[GliderGuider]

2. America's version of the English "Enclosure Laws" nt

[Odin2005]

5. I thought the same thing, GG!