 27. How to make a new game law. The line of action. In the face of a calamity, the saving of life and property in the check of fire and flood depends upon good judgment and quick action at the critical moment. In emergencies the slow and academic method will not serve. It is the run, the jump, the shortcut, and the violent method that saves life. If a woman is drowning, the sensible man does not wait for an introduction to her, nor does he run to an acquaintance to borrow his boat, or stop to put on a collar and neck-tie. He seizes the first boat that he can find and breaks its lock and chain if necessary, or failing that he plunges in without one. When he reaches the imperiled party he doesn't say, Will you kindly let me save you. He seizes her by the hair and tries to keep her head above water without ceremony. That is today the condition and the treatment necessary regarding our remnant of wild life. We are compelled to act quickly, directly, and even violently at times, if we save anything worthwhile. There is no time to depend upon the academic education of the public by the seductive illustrated lecture on birds or the article about the habits of mammals. Those methods are well enough in their places, but we must not depend upon them in emergencies like the present, for they do not pass laws or arrest lawbreakers. Give the public all of that material that you can supply, and the more the better, but for heaven's sake do not depend upon the spread of bird-lore education to stop the work of the game-hogs. If you do, all the wildlife will be destroyed while the educational work is going on. Often you can educate a gunner, and make him a protectionist, but you can never do it by showing him pictures of birds. He needs strong reasoning and exhortation, not bird-lore. Today it is necessary to employ the most direct, forceful, and at times even rude methods. Where slaughtering cannot be stopped by moral suasion, it must be stopped with a hickory club. The thing to do is to get results, and get them quickly before it is too late. If the business section of a town is burning down, no one goes into the suburbs to lecture on architecture or exhibit pictures of fire apparatus. The rush is for water, fire engines, red-blooded men, and dynamite. When the birds all around you are being shot to death by poachers who fear not God nor regard man, and you need help to stop it on the instant, run to your neighbor's house and ring his bell. If he fails to hear the bell, pound on his door until you jar the whole house. When he comes down half-dressed, blinking and rubbing his eyes, shout at him, Come out! Your birds are all being shot to pieces. Are they? he will say. But what can I do about it? I can't help it. I'm no game warden. Put on your clothes, get your shotgun, and come out and drive off the killing gang. But what good will that do? They will come back again. Not if we do our duty. We must have them arrested, and appear against them in court. But, says the sleepy citizen, that won't do much good. The laws are not strict enough, and besides they are not well enforced, even as they are. Then let's make it our business to see that the present laws are enforced, and go to our members of the legislature, and have them pass some stronger laws. And this brings me to a very important subject, how to pass a new law. We venture to say that the average citizen little realises how possible it is to secure the passage of a law that is clearly necessary for the better protection of wildlife and forests. Because of this, and of the necessity for exact knowledge, I shall hear set down specific instructions on this subject. The Personal Equation One determined man can secure the passage of a good law, provided he is reasonably intelligent and sufficiently determined. The man who starts a movement must make up his mind to follow it up, direct its fortunes, stay with it when the storms of opposition beat upon it, and never give up until it is signed by the governor. He must be willing to sacrifice his personal convenience, many of his pleasures, and work when his friends are asleep or pleasuring. In working for the protection of wildlife, there is one mighty and unfailing source of consolation. It is this. Your cause always gains in strength, and the cause of the destroyers always loses strength. The Choice of a Cause Be broad-minded. Do not rush to the legislature with a demand for a law to permit the taking of bullheads with Junebugs in the creeks of your township, or to give your county a specially early open season on quail in order that your boy may try his new gun before he goes back to college. Don't propose any local legislation. For in progressive states, local game legislation is coming strongly into disfavor, just as it should. Legislate for your whole state, and nothing less. Do not bother your legislature with a trivial bill. Choose a cause that is worthwhile to grown men, and it shall be well with you. It takes no more time to pass a large bill than a small one, and big men prefer to be identified with big measures. Before you have a bill drawn, advise with men whose opinions are worth having. If the end you have in mind is a great and good one, go ahead, whether you secure support in advance or not. If the needs of the hour clearly demand the measure, go ahead, even though you start absolutely alone. A good measure never goes far without attracting company. Drafting a Bill As a rule, the members of the legislative body do not have time to draft bills on subjects that are new or strange to them. A short bill is easily prepared by your own representative, but a lengthy bill covering a serious reform is a different matter. Hire a lawyer to draft the bill for you. A really good lawyer will not charge much for drafting a bill that is to benefit the public, and grind no private acts, but if the bill is long and requires long study, even the good citizen must charge something. Your bill must fully recognize existing laws. It must be either prohibitory or permissive, which means that it can say what shall not be done, or else that which may be done according to law, all other acts being forbidden. Your lawyer must decide which form is best. For my part, I greatly prefer the prohibitive form, as being the stronger and more impressive of the two. I think it is the province of the law to forbid the destruction of wildlife and forests under penalties. Penalties. Every law should provide a penalty for its infringement. But the penalty should not be out of all proportion to the offense. It is just as unwise to impose a fine of one dollar for killing songbirds for food, as it is to provide a fine of three hundred dollars. A fine that is too small fails to impress the prisoner, and it begets contempt for the law in the courts. A fine that is altogether too high is apt to be set aside by the court as excessive. In my opinion, the best fines for wildlife slaughter would be as follows. Shooting, netting, or trapping songbirds or other non-game birds. Each bird five to twenty five dollars. Killing game birds out of season. Each bird ten to fifty dollars. Selling game contrary to law. Each offense one hundred to two hundred dollars. Dynamiting fish one hundred to two hundred dollars. Saining or netting game fishes. Fifty to two hundred dollars. Shooting birds with unfair weapons. Ten to a hundred dollars. Killing an egret, Carolina parakeet, or whooping crane. One hundred to two hundred dollars. Killing a mountain sheep or antelope anywhere in the US. Five hundred dollars. Killing an elk contrary to law. Fifty dollars. Killing a female deer or fawn without horns. Each offense fifty dollars. Trapping a grizzly bear for its skin. One hundred dollars. For killing a man by mistake, the fine should be five hundred dollars payable in five annual installments to the court for the family of the victim. Whenever fines are not paid, the convicted party should be sentenced to imprisonment at hard labour at the rate of one half day for each dollar of the fine imposed. And a sentence at hard labour should be the first option of the court. Many a rich and reckless poacher snaps his fingers at fines, but a sentence to hard labour would strike terror to the heart of the most brazen of them. To all such men, labour is the twin terror to death. The introduction of a bill. Much wisdom is called for in the selection of legislative champions for wildlife bills. It is possible to state here only the leading principles involved. Of course it is best to look for an introducer within the political party that is in the majority. A man who has many important bills on his hands is bound to give his best attention to his own pet measures, and it is best to choose a man who is not already overloaded. If a man has a host of enemies, pass him by. By all means, choose a man whose high character and good name will be a tower of strength to your cause, and if necessary, wait for him to make up his mind. Mr. Lawrence W. Trowbridge waited three long and anxious weeks in the hope that honourable George A. Blovelt would finally consent to champion the Blaine bill in the New York Assembly. At last Mr. Blovelt consented to take it up, and the time spent in waiting for his decision was a grand investment. He was the man of all men to pilot that bill through the assembly. Very often the quiet man of a legislative body is a good man to champion a new and drastic measure. The quiet man who makes up his mind to take hold of a hard bill to pass often astonishes the natives by his ability to get results. Representative John F. Lacey of Iowa made his name a household word all over the United States by the quiet, steady, tireless, and finally resistless energy with which for three long years in Congress he worked for the Lacey Bird Bill. For years his colleagues laughed at him and cheerfully voted down his bill, but he persisted. His cause steadily gained in strength, and his final triumph laid the axe at the root of a thousand crimes against wildlife throughout the length and breadth of this land. He rendered the people of America a service that entitles him to our everlasting gratitude and remembrance after the introduction of a bill. As soon as a bill is introduced it is referred to a committee to be examined and reported upon. If there is opposition, and to every bill that really does something worthwhile, there always is opposition. Then there is a hearing. The committee appoints a day when the friends and foes of the bill assemble and express their views. The week preceding a hearing is your busy week. You must plan your campaign down to the smallest details. Pick the men whom you wish to have speak for ten minutes each on the various parts of your bill, and divide the topics and the time between them. Call upon the friends of the bill in various portions of the state to attend and say something. Go up with a strong body of fine men. Have as many organizations represented as you possibly can. The organizations represent the great mass of people and the voters also. When you reach the hearing hand to your bill's champion, who will be floor manager for your side, a clear and concise list of your speakers. Carefully arranged and stating who's who. That being done you have only to fill your own ten minutes and afterward enjoy the occasion. The value of accuracy. It is unnecessary to say in working for a bill, always be sure of your facts. Never let your opponents catch you tripping in accuracy of statement. If you make one serious error, your enemies will turn it against you to the utmost. Better understate facts than overstate them. This shrewd old world quickly recognizes the careful, conservative man whose testimony is so true and so rock founded that no assaults can shake it. Legislators are quick to rely on the words and opinions of the man who can safely be trusted. If your enemies try to overwhelm you with extravagant statements that are unfair to your cause, the chances are that the men who judge between you will recognize them by their earmarks and discount them accordingly. Work with members. Sometimes a subject that is put before a legislative body is so new and the thing proposed is so drastic, it becomes necessary to take measures to place a great many facts before each member of the body. Under such circumstances the member naturally desires to be shown. The cleanest and finest campaigning for a reform measure is that in which both sides deal with facts rather than personal opportunities. With a good cause in hand it is a pleasure to prepare concise statements of facts and conditions from which a legislator may draw logical conclusions. Whenever a bill can be won through in that way, game protection work becomes a delight. In all important new measures affecting the rights and the property of the whole people of a state, the conscientious legislator wishes to know how the people feel about it. When you tell him that the wildlife belongs to the whole people of the state and this bill is in their interest, he needs to know for certain that your proposition is true. Sometimes there is only one way in which he can be fully convinced and that is by the people of his district. Then it becomes necessary to send out a general alarm and call upon the people to write to their representatives and express their views. Give them in printed matter the latest facts in the case. Forecast the future as you think it should be forecast. Then demand that the men and women who are interested do write to their senators and assemblymen and express their views in their own way. Let there be no machine letters sent out already for signature for such letters are a waste of effort and belong in the waste baskets to which they are quickly consigned. The members of legislative bodies hate them and rightly too. They want to hear from men who can think for themselves, give reasons of their own and express their desires in their own way. The press and the newspapers. It is impossible to overstate the influence of the newspapers and the periodical press in general in the protection of wildlife. But for their sympathy, their support and their independent assaults upon the army of destruction, our game species would nearly all of them have been annihilated long ago. Editors are sympathetic and responsive good citizens as keenly sensitive regarding their duties as any of the rest of us are and from the earliest times of protection they've been on the firing line helping to beat back the destroyers. It is indeed a rare sight to see an editor giving aid, comfort or advice to the enemy. I cannot recall more than a score of articles that I have seen or heard of during thirty years in this field that opposed the cause of wildlife protection. At this moment, for instance, I bear in particularly grateful remembrance the active campaign work of the following newspapers. The New York Times. The New York Tribune. The New York Herald. The New York Globe. The New York Mail and Express. The New York World. The New York Sun. The Springfield Massachusetts Republican. The Chicago Interotion. The San Francisco Call. The Rochester Union and Advertiser. The Victoria Colonist. The Brooklyn Standard Union. The New York Evening Post. The New York Press. The Buffalo News. The Minneapolis Journal. The Pittsburgh Index Appeal. The St. Louis Globe Democrat. The Philadelphia North American. The Utica Observer. The Washington Star. These magazines have done good service in the cause and some of them have spent many years on the firing line. Forest and Stream. The American Field. Field and Stream. Recreation Old and New. Rod and Gun in Canada. In the Open. Sports a Field. Western Field. Outdoor Life. Shields Magazine. Sportsman's Review. Outing. Colliers Weekly. The Independent. Country Life. Outdoor World. Bird Lore. In campaigning always appeal for the help of the newspapers. If there are no private access to grind, they help generously. The weekly journals are of value, but the monthlys are printed so long in advance of their dates of issue that they seldom move fast enough to keep abreast of the procession. Their mechanical limitations are many and serious. Every newspaper likes exclusive news, letters and articles. On that basis they will print about all the live matter you can furnish, but at the same time the important news of the campaign must be sent to the press broadcast in the form of printed slips all ready for the foreman. Many of these are never used, but the others are and it pays. The news in every slip must be vouched for by the sender or it will not be used. Often it will appear as a letter signed by the sender, which is all right. Not only the news is most effective when printed without a signature. Do not count on the associated press, because its peculiar demands render it almost impossible for it to be utilized in game protection work. How to Meet Opposition. There is no rule for the handling of opposition that is fair and open. For opposition that is unfair and underhanded there is one powerful weapon, publicity. The American people love fair play, and there is nothing so fatal to an unfair fighter as a searchlight turned full on him without fear and without mercy. If it is reliably and persistently reported that some citizen who ought to be on the right side has for some dark reason become active on the wrong side, print the reports in a large newspaper and ask him publicly if they are true. If the reports are false he can quickly come out in a letter and say so and end the matter. If they are true the public will soon know it and act accordingly. Eternal Vigilance. The progress of a bill must be watched by some competent person from day to day and finally from hour to hour. I know one bill that was saved from defeat only because its promoter dragged it, almost by force, out of the hands of a tardy clerk and accompanied it in person to the Senate, where it was passed in the last hour of a session. A bill should not be left to a long slumber in the drawer of a committee. Such delays nearly always are dangerous. Signing the Bill. The promoter of a great measure always seeks the sympathy of the chief executive early in the day, but he should not make the diplomatic error of trying to exact promises or pledges in advance. Good judges do not give away their decisions in advance. Because the chief executive remarks after a bill has been sent to him for signing that he cannot approve it, it is no reason to give up and despair. Many an executive approval has been snatched at the last moment, as a brand from the burning. Ask for a hearing before the bill is acted upon. At the hearing, and before it, and after, the people who wish the bill to become a law must express themselves, by letter, by telegram, and by appeal in person. If the governor becomes convinced that an overwhelming majority of his people desire him to sign the bill, he will sign it, even though personally he is opposed to it. The hallmark of a good governor is a spirit of obedience to the will of the great majority. Not until your bill has been signed by the governor, are you ready to go home with a quiet mind, take off your armor, and put your ear to the telephone while you hear someone say as your only reward, well done, good, and faithful servant. As to credit. Do not count upon receiving any credit for what you do in the cause of game protection outside the narrow circle of your own family and your nearest friends. This is a busy world, and the human mind flits like a restless bird from one subject to another. The men who win campaigns are forgotten by the general public in a few hours. There is nothing more fickle or more fleeting than the bubble called popular applause. Judging by the experiences of great men, I should say that it has no substance, whatever. The most valuable reward of the man who fights in a great cause and helps to win victories is the profound satisfaction that comes to every good citizen who bravely does his whole duty and leaves the world better than he found it, without the slightest thought of gallery applause. CHAPTER 28 NEW LAWS NEEDED A ROLL CALL OF THE STATES The principles of wildlife protection and encouragement are now so firmly established as to leave little room for argument regarding their value. When they are set forth before the people of any given state, the only question is of willingness to do the right thing, of duty or defiance of duty, of good citizenship, or the reign of selfishness. Men who do not wish to do their duty purposely befall great issues by noisy talk and tiresome academic discussions of trivial details, and such men are the curse and scourge of reform movements. There are very few persons who foolishly assert that there are too many game laws. It is entirely wrong for any person to make such a statement, for it tends to promote harmful error. The fact that our laws are too lenient or are not fully enforced is no excuse for denouncing their purposes. We have all along been too timid, too self-indulgent, and too much afraid of hurting the feelings of the game hogs. Give me the power to make the game laws of any state or province, and I will guarantee to save the non-migratory wildlife of that region. I will not only make adequate laws, but I will also provide means, men, and penalties by which they will be enforced. It is easy and simple for men who are not afraid. I have been at considerable pains to analyze the game laws of each state, ascertain their shortcomings, and give a list of the faults that need correction by new legislation. It has required no profound wisdom to do this, because the principles involved are so plain that any intelligent schoolboy fifteen years old can master them in one hour. I have performed this task, hopefully, in the belief that in many states the real issues have not been plainly put before the people. Hereafter no state shall destroy its wildlife through ignorance of the laws that would preserve it. Let no man say that it is too late to save the wildlife, for accepting the dead and gone species, that is not true. Let no man say that we cannot save the wildlife by law, for that is not true either. As long as laws are lax, even law-abiding people will take advantage of them. There are millions of men who think it is right to kill all the game that the law allows. There are thousands of women who think it is right to wear egrets, as long as the law permits their sale. And yet, if we are resolute and diligent, there is plenty of hope for the future. During the past three years, to go no farther back, we have seen the whole state of New York swept clean of the traffic in native wild game by the bane law, and of the traffic in wild birds plumage on women's hats through the dutcher law. Today, in this state, we find ninety-nine women out of every one hundred wearing flowers and laces, and plush and satin on their hats, instead of the heads, bodies and feathers of wild birds that were the regular thing until three years ago. The change has been a powerful commentary on the value of good laws for the protection of wildlife. The dutcher law has caused the plumage of wild birds almost wholly to disappear from the state of New York. We shall here point out the plain duty of each state, and then it will be up to them, individually, to decide whether they can stand the blood test or not. A state or a nation can be un-gently, unfair or mean, just the same as an individual. No state has the right to maintain shambles for the slaughter of migratory game or songbirds that belong in part to sister states. Every state holds its migratory bird life and trust for the benefit of the people of the nation at large. A state is just as responsible for its treatment of wildlife as any individual, and it is time to open books of account. It is robbery, as well as murder, for any southern state to slaughter the robins of the northern states, where no robins may be killed. No southern gentleman can permit such doings after the crime has been pointed out to him. In the north, the men who are caught shooting robins are instantly hailed to court and fined or imprisoned. If we of the north should kill for food the mockingbirds that visit us, the people of the south instantly would brand us as monsters, of greed and meanness, and they would be perfectly justified in doing so. Let us at least be gentle in agreeing upon a state of fact, as the lawyers say, whether we act sensibly and mercifully or not, just as long as there remains in this land of ours a fauna of gamebirds and the gunners of one half the states are allowed to dictate the laws for the slaughter of it, just so long will our present protection remain utterly absurd and criminally inadequate. Look at these absurdities. New York, New Jersey, and many other northern states rigidly prohibit the late winter and spring shooting of waterfowl and shorebirds, and limit the bag. North Carolina, South Carolina, Florida, and other southern states not only slaughter wildfowl and shorebirds all winter and spring without limit, but several of them kill certain non-gamebirds besides. All the northern states protect the robin for the good that it does, but in North Carolina, Tennessee, Mississippi, Louisiana, and some other southern states, thousands of robins are shot for food. Minnesota has stopped spring shooting, but her sister state on the south, Iowa, obstinately refuses to do so. The United States at large. There are two great measures that should be carried into effect by the governing body of the United States. One is the enactment of a law providing federal protection for all migratory birds, and Canada and Mexico should be induced to join with the United States in an international treaty to that effect. The other necessary measure is the passage of a joint resolution of Congress declaring every national forest and forest reserve also a game preserve and general sanctuary for wildlife, in which there shall be no hunting or killing of wild creatures of any kind save predatory animals. The tendency of the times and the universal slaughter of wildlife on this continent points straight as an arrow flies in that direction. Sooner or late we have got to come to it. If Congress does not take the initiatory steps, the people will. Such a consummation is necessary. It is justified by common sense and the inexorable logic of the situation. And when done, it will be right. The time was when the Friends of Wildlife did not dare speak of this subject in Washington's Save and Whispers. That was in the days when the Appalachian Park Bill could not be passed. And when there were angry mutterings and even curses leveled against Gifford Pinchot and the Forestry Bureau because so many national forests were being set aside. That was in the days when a few Western sheepmen thought that they owned the whole Rocky Mountains without having bought them. Today, the American people have grown accustomed to the idea of having the resources of the public domain saved and conserved for the benefit of the millions rather than lavished upon a favored few. Today, it is perfectly safe to talk about making every national forest a first class wildlife sanctuary. And it is up to the people to request Congress to take that action at once. The Weeks Bill, the Anthony Bill, and the McClain Bill, now before Congress to provide federal protection for migratory birds are practically identical. All three are good bills. And it matters not which one finally becomes a law. Whichever is put forward finally for passage should provide federal protection for all migratory birds that ever enter the United States, Alaska or Puerto Rico. Why favor the duck and leave the robin to its fate or vice versa? It will be just as easy to do this task by holes as by halves. The time to hesitate, to feel timid, or to be afraid if the other fellow has gone by. Today, the millions of honest and serious-minded Americans are ready to back the most thorough and most drastic policy because that has become the most necessary and the best policy. Furthermore, it is the only policy worthy of serious consideration. Some of our states have done rather well in wildlife protection. Considering the absurdity of our national policy as a whole, others have done it differently. And some have been and still are very remiss. Here is where we intend to hue to the line and without fear or favor set forth the standing of each state according to its merits or its lack of merits. In a life or death matter such as now confronts us regarding the wildlife of our country, it is time to speak plainly. In the following call of the states, the glaring deficiencies in state game laws will be set forth in detail in order that the sore spots may be exposed to the view of the doctors. Conditions will be represented as they exist at the end of the summer of 1912. And it is to be hoped that these faults soon may be corrected. A roll call of the states, Alabama. It is a satisfaction to be able to open this list with the name of a state that is entitled to a Medal of Honor for Game Protection. In this particular field of progress and enlightenment, the state of Alabama is the pioneer state of the South. New York now occupies a similar position in the North, but New York is an older state and stronger in her general love of nature. The attainment of advanced protection in any southern state is a very different matter from what it is in the North. Five years ago, Alabama set her house in order. The slaughter of song and insectivorous birds has been so far stopped as any southern state can stop it unaided by the federal government. And those birds are recognized and treated as the farmer's best friends. The absurd system of attempted protection through county laws has been abandoned. The sale of game has been stopped. And since that stoppage, quail has increased. The trapping and export of game have ceased. And wild turkeys and woodcock are now increasing. It is unlawful to kill or capture non-game birds. Bag limits have been imposed. But the bag limit laws are all too liberal and should be reduced. A hunter's license law is in force. And the Department of Game and Fish is self-supporting. Night hunting is prohibited. And female deer may not be killed. A comprehensive warden system has been provided. As yet, however, Alabama permits the shooting of waterfowl to March 15, which is too late, by one and one-half months. The use of automatic and pump guns and hunting should be suppressed. There should be a limit of two deer per year and killing should be restricted to deer with horns, not less than three inches long. The story of game protection in Alabama began in 1907. Prior to that time, the slaughter of wildlife was very great. It is known that enormous numbers of quail were annually killed by Negro farmhands, who hunted at least three days each week, regardless of work to be done. The slaughter of quail, wild ducks, woodcock, doves, robins, and snipe was described as nauseating. The changes that have been brought since 1907 is chiefly due to the efforts of one man. Alabama owes her standing today to the admirable qualities of John H. Wallace Jr., her game and fish commissioner, author of the state's policy and wildlife conservation. His broad-mindedness, his judgment, and his success make him a living object lesson of the power of one determined man in the conservation of wildlife. Commissioner Wallace is an ardent supporter of the weeks and Anthony bills for federal protection, and as a lawyer of the South, he believes there is no constitutional inhibition against federal legislation for the protection of birds of passage. Alaska, the sale of game must be absolutely prohibited forever. The slaughter of big game by Indians, minors, and prospectors should now be limited and strictly regulated by law on rational lines. The slaughter of walrus for ivory and hides, both in the Alaskan and Russian waters of Bering Sea should be totally prohibited for 10 years. The game warden's service should be quadrupled in number of wardens and in general effectiveness. The game warden's service should be supplied with two sea-going vessels independent for patrol work. The bag limit on hoofed game is 50% too large. To accomplish these ends, Congress should annually appropriate $50,000 for the protection of wildlife in Alaska. The present amount, $15,000, is very inadequate, and the great wildlife interests at stake amply justify the larger amount. It is now time for Alaska to make substantial advances in the protection of her wildlife. It is no longer right nor just for Indians, minors, and prospectors to be permitted by law to kill all the big game they please whenever they please. The indolent and often extortionate Indians of Alaska, who now demand big money for every service they perform, are not so valuable as citizens that they should be permitted to feed riotously upon moose and cow moose at that, until that species is exterminated. Minors and prospectors are valuable citizens, but that is no reason why they should forever be allowed to live upon wild game any more than that hungry prospectors in our Rocky Mountains should be allowed to kill cattle. Alaska and its resources do not belong to the very few people from the states who have gone there to make their fortunes and get out again as quickly as possible. The quicker the public mind north of Wrangle is disabused of that idea, the better. Its game belongs to the people of this nation of 90 odd millions, and it is a safe prediction that the 90 millions will not continue to be willing that the minors, prospectors, and Indians shall continue to live on moose meat and caribou tongues in order to save bacon and beef. Mr. Frank E. Kleinschmidt said to me that at Sandpoint, Alaska, he saw 82 caribou tongues brought in by an Indian and sold at 50 cents each, while, according to all accounts, most of the bodies of the slaughtered animals became a loss. Governor Clark has recommended in his annual report for 1911 that the protection now enjoyed by the giant brown bear, Ursus Middendorfae, on Cadillac Island be removed for the benefit of settlers and their stock. It goes without saying that no one proposes that predatory wild animals shall be permitted to retard the development of any wild country that is required by civilized men. All we ask in this matter is that, as in the case of the once-proposed slaughter of sea lions on the Pacific coast, the necessity of the proposed slaughter shall be fully and adequately proven before the killing begins. It is fair to insist that the sea lion episode shall not be repeated on Cadillac Island. The big game of Alaska cannot long endure against a limit of two moose, three mountain sheep, three caribou, and six deer per year per man. At that rate, the moose and sheep soon will disappear. The limit should be one moose, two sheep, two caribou, and four deer. Unless we are willing to dedicate the Alaskan big game to commercialism, no sportsman needs a larger bag than the revised schedule. And commercialists should not be allowed to kill big game anywhere at any time. Let us bear in mind the fact that Alaska is being thoroughly opened up to the man with a gun. Here is the latest evidence from the new circular of an outfitter. I will have plenty of good horses and good, competent, and courteous guides, also other camp attendants if desired. My intention is to establish permanently at that point as I believe it is the gateway to the finest and about the last of the great game countries of North America. The road is open, the pack train is ready, the guides are waiting, go on and slay the remnant. Arizona. The ban-tailed pigeons and all nine game birds should immediately be given protection and a salaried warden system should be established under a commissioner whose term is not less than four years. The use of automatic and pump guns in hunting should be prohibited. Spring shooting should be prohibited. Arizona has good reason to be proud of her up-to-date position in the ranks of the best game-protecting states. No other state or territory of her age ever has made so good a showing of protective laws. The enactment of laws to cover the points mentioned above would leave little to be desired in Arizona. That state has a bird fauna well worth protecting and game wardens are extremely necessary. Arkansas. The enforcement of game laws should be placed in charge of a salaried commissioner. Spring shooting of wildfowl should be stopped at once. A reasonable closed-season should be provided for waterfowl and swan should be protected throughout the year. A bag limit law should be enacted. A force of game wardens, salaried and unsalaried, should at once be created. The killing of female deer and the hounding of deer should be stopped. No buck deer should be shot unless horns three inches long are seen before firing. A hunter's license law is necessary and the fees should go to the support of the game-protection department. The local exemptions in favor of market hunters in Mississippi County should be repealed. It appears that in Arkansas, the laws for the protection and increase of wildlife are by no means up to the mark. At this moment, Arkansas is next to Florida, the rearmost of all our states in wildlife protection. Awake, Arkansas. Consider the peril that threatens your fauna. The sunk lands in your northeastern corner along the St. Francis River are the greatest wildfowl refuge anywhere in the Mississippi Valley between the Gulf Coast of Louisiana and the breeding grounds of Minnesota. A duty to the nation devolves upon you to protect the migratory waterfowl that visit your great bird refuge from the automatic and pump guns of the pot hunters who shoot for northern markets and kill all that they can kill. Protect those sunken lands. Confer a boon on all the people of the Mississippi Valley by making that region a bird refuge, in fact, as well as a name. Here to four, you have permitted hired market gunners from outside your borders to slaughter the wildfowl of your sunk lands, literally by millions, and ship them to northern markets with very little benefit to your people. It is time for that slaughter to cease. Don't maintain a duck or goose shambles in Mississippi County. Year after year, as North Carolina does, do unto other states as you would have other states do unto you. Do not be afraid to pass nine good laws in one act. Clear your record in the family of states and save your fauna before it is too late. It is not fair for you to permit the slaughter of the insectivorous birds that are like the blood of life to the farmer and fruit grower. California, the sale of all wild game should be forever prohibited. The use of automatic and pump shotguns and hunting should be prohibited. The killing of pigeons and dove as game and food should be stopped. The sage grouse and every other species of bird threatened with extinction should be given 10-year closed seasons. The mule deer, if any remain, and the Colombian black-tailed deer in the southern counties should be accorded a 10-year closed season. A large state game preserve should be created immediately on or near Mount Shasta and abundantly stocked with nucleus herds of antelope, black-tailed deer, bison, and elk. A suitable preserve in the southern part of the state should be set aside for the dwarf elk. As game laws are generally regarded, California has on her books a series that look rather good to the eye, but which are capable of considerable improvement. All along the line, the birds and quadrupeds of the Golden State are vanishing. Under that heading, a vigorous chapter could be written, but space forbids its development here. Just fancy laws that permit gunning and hunting with dogs from August until January, one half the entire year. Think of the nesting birds that are disturbed or killed by dogs and gunners after other birds. California's wild ducks and geese have been slaughtered to an extent almost beyond belief. This blended sage grouse and sharp-tailed grouse are greatly reduced in numbers. Of her hundreds of thousands of antelope, once the cheapest game in the market, scarcely a trace remains. Her mountain sheep and mule deer are almost extinct. Her grizzly bears are gone. The most terrible slaughter ever recorded for automatic guns occurred in Glen County, California on February 5th, 1906, when two men, whose story was published in Outdoor Life, 17, page 371, April 1906, killed 450 geese in one day and actually bagged 218 of them in one hour. Every person who has paid attention to game protection on the Pacific Coast well knows that during the past eight years or more, the work of game protection in California has been in a state of frequent turmoil. At times, the lack of harmony between the state fish and game commission and the sportsmen of the state have been damaging to the interests of wildlife and deplorable. In the case of Warden Welch in Santa Cruz County, pernicious politics came near robbing the state of a splendid warden, but the courts finally overthrew the over-throwers of Mr. Welch and reinstated him. The fish and game commissioners of any state should be broad-minded, nonpartisan, strictly honest and sincere. So long as they possess these qualities, they deserve and should have the earnest and aggressive support of all sportsmen and all lovers of wildlife. The remnant of wildlife is entitled to a square deal and harmony in the camp of its friends. Fortunately, California has an excellent force of salaried game wardens, 82 in all, and 577 volunteer wardens serving without salary. Colorado. The state of Colorado should instantly stop the sale of native wild game to be used as food. It should stop all late winter and spring shooting of native wild birds. It should give the sage grouse, penaded grouse, and all shore birds a 10-year closed season, remove the dove from the list of game birds, and give it a permanent closed season. It should remove the crane and the swan from the list of game birds. In 25 short years, we have seen in Colorado a waste of wildlife and the destruction of a living inheritance that has few parallels in history. Possibly the people of Colorado are satisfied with the residue, but some outsiders regard all Rocky Mountains shambles with a feeling of horror. A brief quarter century ago, Colorado was a zoological park of grand scenery and big game. The scenery remains, but of the great wild herds, only samples are left, and of some species, not even that. The last bison of Colorado were exterminated in a lost park by scoundrels calling themselves taxidermists in 1897. Of the 200,000 mule deer that inhabited Route County and other portions of Colorado, not enough now remain to make deer hunting interesting. A perpetual closed season was put on mountain sheep just in time to save a dozen small flocks as seedstock. Those flocks have been permitted to live, and they have bred until now there are perhaps 3,500 sheep in the state. Of elk, only a remnant is left, now protected for 15 years. Ban-tailed pigeon, often mistaken for the passenger pigeon, the rapid slaughter of this species has alarmed the ornithologists of California who now fear its extinction. The grizzly bear is so thoroughly gone that one is seen only by a rare accident, but black bears and pumas are sufficiently numerous to afford fair sport, provided the hunter has a fine outfit of dogs, horses, and guides. Of pronghorned antelope, several bands remain, but is reported that they are steadily diminishing. The herds and herders of domestic sheep are blamed for the decrease, and I have no doubt they deserve it. The sheep and their champions are the implacable enemies of all wild game, and before them, the game vanishes everywhere. The lawmakers of Colorado have tried hard to provide adequate statuettes for the protection of the wildlife of the state. In fact, I think that no state has put forth greater or more elaborate efforts in that direction. For example, in 1899, under the leadership of Judge D.C. Beaman of Denver, Colorado, initiated the More Game Movement by enacting a very elaborate law providing for the establishment of private game preserves and farms for the breeding of game under state license, and the tagging and sale of preserved bread game under state supervision. The history of game destruction in Colorado is a repetition of the old, old story. Plenty of laws, but 100 times too many hunters, killing the game both according to law and contrary to it, and doing it five times as fast as the game could breed. That combination can safely be warranted to wipe out the wildlife of any country in the world and accomplish it right swiftly. As a big game country, Colorado is distinctly out of the running. Her people are too lawless, and her frontiersmen are, in the main, far too selfish to look upon plenteous game without going after it. Some of these days, a new call of the wild will arise in Colorado, demanding an open season on mountain sheep. Those who demand it will say, what harm will it do to kill a few surplus bucks? It will improve the breed and make the herds increase faster. By all means, have an open season on the Colorado Big Horn in British Columbia Elk. It will do them good. The excitement of ram slaughter will be good for the females, will it not? Of course, they will breed faster after that, with all the big rams dead. Any surplus wildlife is a public nuisance and should promptly be shot to pieces. In Colorado, there is some desire that Estes Park should be acquired as a national park and maintained by the government, but the strong reasons for this have not yet appeared. As yet, we have not heard any reason why the state of Colorado should not herself take it and make of it a state park and game preserve. If done, it could be offered as a partial atonement for her wastefulness and throwing away her inheritance of grand game. Colorado has worked to do in the preservation of her remnant of bird life. In several respects, she's behind the times. The present is no time to hesitate or to ask the gunners what they wish to have done about new laws for the saving of the remnant of game. The dictates of common sense are plain and inexorable. Let the lawmakers do their whole duty by the remnant of wildlife, whether the game killers like it or not. The curse of domestic sheep upon game and cattle. Much has been said in print and out of print regarding the extent to which domestic sheep have destroyed the cattle ranges and incidentally many game ranges of the West. But the half have not been told. The American people as a whole do not realize that the domestic sheep has driven the domestic steer from the free grass of the Wild West with the same speed and thoroughness with which the buffalo hunters of the 70s and 80s swept away the bison. I've seen hundreds of thousands of acres of what once were beautiful and fertile cattle grazing lands in Montana that has been left by grazing sheep herds looking precisely as if the ground had been shaven with razors and then sandpapered. The sheep have driven out the cattle and the price of beef has gone up accordingly. Neither cattle, horses, nor wild game can find food on ground that has been grazed over by sheep. The following is the testimony of a reliable eyewitness, Mr. Dylan Wallace and the full text appears in his book Saddle and Camp in the Rockies page 169. Domestic sheep and sheep herders are the greatest enemies of the antelope as well as of other game animals and birds in the regions where herders take their flocks. The ranges over which domestic sheep pasture are denuded of forage and stripped of all growth and antelope will not remain upon a range where sheep have been. Thus the sheep sweeping clean all before them and leaving the ranges over which they pass unproductive for several succeeding seasons of pastureage for either wild or domestic animals together with the destructive shepherds are the worst enemies at present of Utah's wild game, particularly of antelope, sage hens, and grouse. In Iron County, which has already become an extensive sheep region, settlers tell us that before the advent of sheep, grass grew so luxuriously that a yearling calf lying in it could not be seen. Not only has the grass here been eaten but the roots trampled out and killed by the hooves of thousands upon thousands of sheep and now wide areas where, not long ago since grass was so plentiful, are as bare and desolate as sandpiles. End of Chapter 28, recording by Stephen Kinford, Sharon Township, Ohio. Chapter 29 of Our Venishing Wildlife. This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org, Our Venishing Wildlife, by William T. Hornaday. Chapter 29, New Laws Needed in the States, continued. Connecticut. The sale of all native wild game, regardless of its source, should be prohibited at all times. An act at once, a five year closed season law on the remnant of roughed grouse, quail, woodcock, snipe and all shorebirds. Even in the home of the newest and deadliest auto-loading shotgun, those guns and pump guns should be prohibited in hunting. The enormous bag limits of 35 rail and 50 each per day of plover, snipe and shorebirds is a crime. They should be replaced by a 10 year closed season law for all of those species. The terms of the game commissioners shouldn't be not less than four years. Like so many other states, Connecticut has recklessly wasted her wildlife inheritance. During the 15 years preceding the year 1898, the bird life of that state has decreased 75%. On March 6th, 1912, Senator George P. McLean of Connecticut stated at the hearing held by his committee on forest reservations and the protection of game this fact. We have more cover than there was 30 or 40 years ago, more brush probably, but there is not one partridge, roughed grouse, today where there were 20, 10 years ago. First of all, Connecticut needs a 10 year closed season law to save her remnant of shorebirds before it is completely annihilated. Then she needs a bane law and needs it badly. Under such a law and the tagging system that it provides, the state game wardens would have so strong a grip on the situation that the present unlawful sale of game would be completely stopped. Halfway measures in preventing the sale of game will not answer. Already, Connecticut had wasted thousands of dollars in fruitless efforts to restock her desolated woodlands and farms with quail and to introduce the Hungarian partridge. But even yet, she will not protect her own native species. Men of Connecticut, save the last remnant of your native game birds before they are all utterly exterminated within your borders. Don't ask the killers of game what they will agree to, but make the laws what you know they should be. If you want a game-less state, let the destruction go on as it now is going, with 16,000 licensed gunners in the field each year, and you will surely have it right soon. Delaware, stop the game. Stop all spring shooting at once. Stop killing shore birds for 10 years and protect swans indefinitely. Enact bag limit laws in very small figures. Stop the sale of all native wild game regardless of its use by enacting a bane law. Enact a resident license law and provide for a force of paid game wardens. Stop the use of machine shotguns in killing your birds. The state of Delaware is nearly 20 years behind the times. Can it be possible that her governor and her people are really satisfied with that position? We think not. I dare say they are afflicted with apathy and game hogs. The latter can easily back up general apathy to an extent that spells no game laws. In one act and at one bold stroke, Delaware can step out of her position at the rear of the procession of states and take a place in the front rank. Will she do it? We hope so, for her present status is unworthy of any right-minded red-blooded state this side of the Philippines. District of Columbia, the sale of all native wild game regardless of its source should be stopped immediately by the enactment of a complete bane law. If game shooting within the district is continued on the marshes of the Eastern branch and on the Potomac River, common decency demands the enactment of bag limit laws and long closed-season laws of the most modern pattern. Just why it is that gross abuses against wildlife have so long been tolerated in the territorial center of the American nation remains to be ascertained. But whatever the reason the situation is absurd and intolerable and Congress should terminate it immediately. As late as 1897, and I think for two or three more years thereafter, thousands of robins were sold every year in the public markets of Washington as food. As a spectacle for gods and men, behold today the sale of quail, roughed grouse, wild turkeys, another American game, halfway between the Capitol and the White House. Look at center market as a national fence for the sale of games stolen by market gunners from Maryland, Virginia, the Carolinas, and Pennsylvania. It is time for Congress to bring the District of Columbia sharply into line, for Washington must be made to toe the mark beside New York. The reputation of the national Capitol demands it, whether the gods of the cafes will consent or not. Florida shooting shorebirds and waterfowl in late winter and spring should be stopped. The sale of all native wild game should be prohibited. A state game commissioner, whose term of office should be not less than four years, and a force of salaried game wardens should be appointed. A general resident license should be required for hunting. The killing of does and fawns should be stopped, and no deer should be killed save bucks with horns at least three inches long. The bag limit of five deer per year should be two year of 20 quail and two turkeys per day, should be 10 quail and one turkey. The open season on all game birds should end on February 1st for domestic reasons. Protection should be accorded doves, and robins should be removed from the game list. In the destruction of wildlife, I think the backwards population of Florida is the most lawless and defiant that can be found anywhere in the United States. The plume hunters have practically exterminated the plume-bearing egrets, wholly annihilated the rosy ape spoon bill, the flamingo, and also the carolina parakeet. On July 18th 1905, one of them killed an autobahn association warden, Guy M. Bradley, whose business it was to enforce the state laws protecting the egret rookeries. The people really to blame for the shooting of Guy Bradley and the extermination of the egrets by lawless and dangerous men are the vain and merciless women who wear the white badges of cruelty as long as they can be purchased. They have much to answer for. Originally, Florida was alive with bird life, for number of species, abundance of individuals, and general dispersal throughout the whole state. I think no other state in America, except possibly California, ever possessed a bird fauna quite comparable with it. Once its bird life was one of the wonders of America, but the gunners began early to shoot and shoot and shoot. During the 15 years preceding 1898, the general bird life of Florida decreased in volume 77%. In 1900, it was at a very low point, and it has steadily continued to decrease. The rapidly growing settlement and cultivation of the state has, of course, had much to do with the disappearance of wildlife generally, and the draining and exploitation of the Everglades will about finish the birds of southern Florida. Brown Pelican's breeding place on Pelican Island in Indian River has been taken in hand by the national government as a bird refuge, and its marvelous spectacle of pelican life is now protected. Nine other islands on the coast of Florida have been taken as national bird refuges, and will render posterity good service. The great private game and bird preserve of Dr. Ray V. Pierce at Appalachicola, known as St. Vincent Island, containing 20 square miles of wonderful woods and waters is performing an important function for the state and the nation. Florida bag limit on quail is entirely too liberal. I know one man who never once exceeded the limit of 20 birds per day, but in the season of 1908-09 he killed 865 quail. Can the quail of any state long endure such grains as that? From a zoological point of view, Florida is in bad shape. A great many of her people who shoot are desperately lawless and uncontrollable, and the state is not financially able to support a force of war than sufficiently strong to enforce the laws, even as they are. It looks as if the slaughter would go on until nothing of bird life remains. At present I can see no hope whatever for saving even a good remnant of the wildlife of the state. The present status of wildlife protective laws in Florida was made the subject of an article in Forest and Stream of August 10th, 1912 by John H. Wallace Jr., Game Commissioner of the State of Alabama, in an article entitled, The Florida Situation. In view of his record, no one will question either the value or the honest sincerity of Mr. Wallace's opinions. The following paragraphs are from that article. The enactment of a model and modern game law for the state of Florida is absolutely imperative in order to save many of the most valuable species of birds in game of that state from certain depletion and threatened extinction. A question of the protection of the birds in game in Florida is not a local one, but is national in its scope. Birds know no state lines, and while practically all the states lying to the north of Florida protect migratory birds in waterfowl, yet these are recklessly slaughtered in that state, to such an extent as to be appalling to all sportsmen and bird lovers. So alarming has become the decrease of the birds and game of Florida, that unless a halt is called on the campaign of reckless annihilation that has been ceaselessly waged in that state, the sport and recreation enjoyed by primeval Nimrods will linger only in history and tradition. It is the sincerest hope of all lovers of wildlife of the American continent that a strong and invincible sentiment, relative to the imperative necessity of real conservation legislation, be crystallized in the minds of the members-elect of the Florida legislature, to the extent that the next legislature will spread upon the statute books of the state of Florida a model and modern law for the preservation and protection of the birds and game of that state, which when put into practical operation will elicit the thanks of all good citizens and likewise the gratitude of future generations. Georgia prohibit late winter and spring shooting and provide rational seasons for wild fowl reduce the limit on deer to two bucks a season with horns not less than three inches long protect the metal lark and stop forever the killing of doves and wood ducks prohibit the use of automatic and pump shotguns in hunting extend the term of the game commissioner to four years we are glad to report that Georgia has already begun to take up the white man's burden the protection of wildlife is now a gentleman's proposition and in it every real man with red blood in his veins has a duty to perform the state of Georgia has recently awakened and under the comprehensive law of 1911 has resolutely undertaken to do her whole duty in this matter Idaho the imperative duties of Idaho are as follows stop all hunting of mountain sheep mountain goat and elk give the sage grouse and sharp tail 10 year closed seasons at once to forestall their extermination stop the killing of doves as game stop the killing of female deer and of bucks with horns less than three inches long enact the model law to protect non-game birds prohibit the use of machine shotguns in hunting extend the state wardens term to four years like Montana Wyoming and Colorado the state of Idaho has wasted her stock of game and it is to be feared that several species are now about to disappear from that state i am told that the sage grouse is almost gone and i think that the antelope caribou and mountain sheep are in the same condition of scarcity if the people of Idaho wish to save their wild fauna they must be up and doing the time to temporize theorize be conservative and easygoing has gone by it is that fatal policy which causes men to slumber until it is too late to act and we will watch with keen interest to see whether the real men of Idaho are big enough to do their whole duty in time to benefit their state in 1910 dr. ts palmer credited Idaho with the possession of about 500 moose and 200 antelope there is one feature of the Idaho game law that may well stand unchanged the open season on ibex of which one per year may be killed may as well be continued one myth per year is not an extravagant bag for any intelligent hunter and it seems that the ibex will not down being officially recognized by Idaho its place in our fauna now seems assured Illinois enact a bane law and stop the sale of all native wild game regardless of source and regardless of the gay revelers of chicago in Illinois the bag limits on birds are nearly all at least 50 percent too high they should be as follows no squirrels doves or shorebirds six quail five woodcock ten coots ten rail ten ducks three geese and three brand with a total limit of ten waterfowl per day doves should be removed from the game list all tree squirrels and chipmunks should be perpetually protected as companions to man unfit for food the sale of egret should be stopped in chicago placed in the same class as boston new york new orleans and san francisco the use of all machine shotguns and hunting should be prohibited the chief plague spots for the grinding up of american game are chicago philadelphia boltamore new orleans and san francisco st louis cleared her record in 1909 new york thoroughly cleaned her a gene stable in 1911 and massachusetts won her bane law by a desperate battle in 1912 in 1913 pennsylvania probably will enact a bane law fancy a city in the center of the united states sending to norway for 1500 tarmogen to eat as chicago did in 1911 and that was only one order for 40 years the marshes prairies farms and streams of the whole upper mississippi valley have been combed year after year by the guns of the market shooters often the migratory game was located by telegraphic reports game birds were slain by the wagon load boat load barrel and car load for the chicago market and the fool farmers of the middle west solidly plowed their fields and fed their hogs and permitted the slaughter to go on today the sons of those farmers go to the museums and zoological parks of the cities to see specimens of penaded gross crane woodcock ducks and other species that the market shooters have wiped out and their fathers wax eloquent in telling of the flocks of pigeons that darken the sky and the big droves of prairie chickens that used to rise out of the cornfields the roar like a coming storm today chicago stands halfway reformed her markets are open to only one half of the game killable in hillanoy they're wide open to all legally killed game imported from other states from october 1st to february 1st through that hole in her game laws any game dealer can drive a moving van of course any game offered in chicago has been legally killed in some other state who can prove otherwise in addition to the imported game illegally killed in other states the starving population of chicago may also buy for cash and consume with their champagne in november and december all the illinois doves that can be combed out by market hunters after the awful iraqa theater fire in chicago in 1903 the game dealers reported a heavy falling off in the consumption of game the tragedy caused the temporary closing of the theaters and the falling off in after theater suppers may be said to have taken away the appetites of thousands of erstwhile consumers of game incidentally it showed who consumes purchased game the people of illinois should now enact a full-fledged bane law without changing a single word and bring chicago up to the level of new york st lewis and boston the present bag limits on illinois game birds are fatally high as they stand with 190 000 licensed gunners in the field each year what else do they mean than extermination the men of illinois have just two alternatives between which to choose drastic and immediate preservation or a gameless state which shall it be indiana indiana should hasten to stop spring shooting she should enact a law prohibiting the sale for millinery purposes of the plumage of all wild birds save ducks killed in their open season a bane law absolutely prohibiting the sale of all native wild game should be enacted at once the killing of squirrels should be prohibited because they are not white man's game roughed grouse and quill should have five-year closed seasons the use of pump and auto loading guns in hunting should be prohibited in indiana the whitetail deer is extinct this means very close hunting in a bad outlook for all other game larger than the sparrow on october 2nd 1912 11 heads of greater bird of paradise with plumes attached were offered for sale within 100 feet of the headquarters of the fourth national conservation congress the prices ranged from 35 dollars to 47 and 50 cents and while we looked two ladies came up one of whom pointed to a bird of paradise corpse and said there i want one of them and i am going to have it too iowa spring shooting should be stopped at once and forever the killing of all tree squirrels and chipmunks should cease all shore birds that visit iowa deserve a five-year closed season especially as the shooting of plover sandpiper marsh and beach birds rail duck geese and brand from september 1st to april 15th an outrage iowa should prohibit the use of the machine guns and it is to be hoped that she will awaken sufficiently to do so it is said that the indian word iowa means the drowsy or sleepy ones politically and educationally iowa is all right but in the protection of wildlife she is 10 years behind the times in almost everything save the prohibition of the sale of game iowa knows better than to pursue the course that she does she boasts about her corn and hogs but she is deaf to the appeals of the state surrounding her on the subject of spring shooting for years minnesota has set her a good example but nothing moves her to step up where she belongs in the phalanx of intelligent game-protecting states the foregoing may sound harsh but in view of what other states have endured from iowa's stubbornness regarding migratory game the time for silent treatment of her case has gone by she is today in the same class as north carolina south carolina and maryland at the tail end of the procession of states she cares everything for corn and hogs but little for wildlife kansas spring shooting should be stopped at once with apologies for not having done so long ago the continued shooting of prairie chickens when the species is near extermination is outrageous and should be prohibited for 10 years dove should be removed permanently from the game list partly as a measure of self-respect kansas should treat herself to a force of salaried game wardens rendering real service she should borrow the machine guns is unfit for use in a well-regulated state kansas has commonly witnessed the extermination of her bison elk deer antelope wild turkeys sage gross whooping grains and the beginning of the end of her penated gross without a pang what is wild game in comparison with fat hogs and 70 bushels to the acre draw a line around the hog and corn area of the united states and within it you will find more spring shooting more sale of game and more extermination of species than in any other area in the united states i refer to nebraska kansas iowa missouri illinois indiana ohio kentucky and tennessee in not one of these states except missouri is there any big game hunting and the majority of them spring shooting is lawful in the island of maritius it was swine that exterminated the dodo in the united states hogs and game extermination still go hand in hand since the days of the dodo however a new species of swine has been developed it is now widely known as the game hog and it has been officially recognized by both bench and bar kentucky nearly everything that a state should maintain in the line of wildlife protection kentucky lags it is easier to tell what she has than to recite what she should have kentucky permits spring shooting she has no bag limits and she has long open seasons on everything save introduced pheasants she protects from sale only quill gross and wild turkey killed within her own borders that means that her markets are practically wide open until recently the people of kentucky have been very indifferent to the value of her wildlife but with the new law enacted this year providing for a game commission and a game protection fund surely every member of the army of the defense will wish godspeed to her efforts in game conservation and stand ready to lend a helping hand whenever help can be utilized kentucky should at one grand coup stop spring shooting and all sale of wild game accord long closed seasons to all species that are verging on extinction protect doves establish moderate bag limits and stop the use of machine guns if she takes up these measures at the rate of only one at each legislative session and by the time her laws are perfect all her game will be gone louisiana on more counts than one louisiana is in the list of the great delinquents for behold the things that she needs to do protect deer for five years instantly take the robin red wing blackbird dove gross beak wood duck and go off the list of birds that may be killed this game stop all late winter and spring shooting stop the sale of all native game and possession and transportation of game sold or intended for sale in short enact a bane law reestablish a game warden system in legally permitting the slaughter of the robin red wing blackbird dove gross beak wood duck and go state of louisiana is very culpable for good reasons 40 states of the american union strictly prohibit the killing of song and insectivorous birds the duty of every state to protect those birds is not a debatable proposition i put this question to the people of louisiana mississippi north carolina tennessee and other states where the robin is treated as a game bird is it fair for you to kill and eat robins when that species is carefully protected by 40 other states of our country for grave economic reasons what would you say of the people of the north if they slaughtered your mockingbird to eat remember this proportion the robin in the north is as to the mockingbird in the south end of chapter 29 chapter 30 of our vanishing wildlife this is a libra vox recording all libra vox recordings are in the public domain for more information or to volunteer please visit libravox.org our vanishing wildlife by william t hornaday chapter 30 new laws needed in the states continued main there are reasons for the belief that main is conserving her large game better than any other state or province in north america one glance over her laws is sufficient to convince anyone that instead of studying the clamor of her shooting population main has actually been studying the needs of her game and providing for those needs if all other states were doing equally well the task of writing a book of admonition would have been unnecessary the proof of main's alertness is to be found in the number of her extra short or entirely closed seasons on game for example cow and calf moose are permanently protected only bull moose with at least two three inch prongs on its horns may be killed caribou have had a closed season since 1899 on gray and black squirrels doves and quail there is no open season the open season for deer varies from 10 weeks to four weeks and in parts of three counties there is no open season at all silencers are prohibited and firearms and forests may be prohibited by the governor during drought nearly all wildfowl shooting ends january first but in two places on december first people who have not learned the facts habitually think of main is a vast killing ground for deer and it is well for it to be known that the hunting grounds have been carefully designated according to the abundance or scarcity of game main has wisely chosen to regard her hunting grounds and her deer is a valuable asset and she manages them accordingly to be a guide in that state is to be a good citizen and a protector of game from illegal slaughter no non resident may hunt without a licensed guide the licenses for the thousands of deer killed in main each year and the expenses of the visiting sportsmen who hunt them annually bring into the state and leave there a huge sum of money variously estimated at from two million to three million dollars one can only guess at the amount from the number of non resident licenses issued but certainly the total cannot be less than one million dollars although mr l t carlton is no longer chairman of the commission of inland fisheries and game the splendid services that he rendered the state of main during his 13 years of service especially in the creation of a good code of game laws constitute an imperishable monument to his name and fame there's very little that main needs in the line of new legislation or better protection to her game with the enactment of a resident licensed law and a five-year closed season for woodcock plover snipe and sandpipers i think her laws for the protection of wildlife would be sufficiently perfect for all practical purposes the pine tree state is to be congratulated upon its wise and efficient handling of the wildlife situation maryland how has it come to pass that maryland lacks more good wildlife laws than any other state in the union except north carolina of the really fundamental protective laws embracing the list that to every self-respecting state seems indispensable maryland has almost none save certain bag limit laws otherwise the state is wide open it is indeed high time that she should abandon her present attitude of hostility to wildlife and become a good neighbor she should do what is fair and right about the protection of the migratory game and birdlife that annually passes twice through her territory at the last session of the maryland legislature the law preventing the use of powerboats in wild foul shooting was repealed that was a step 10 years backward and maryland should be ashamed of it list of things that maryland must do in order to clear her record is a long one here it is local regulations should be replaced by a uniform state law the seal of all native wild game should be stopped spring and late winter shooting of game should be stopped all non-game birds not already included under the statutes should be protected the expectation of all games should be prohibited unless accompanied by the man who shot it bearing his license and the laws should be statewide instead of depending upon a separate enactment for each county there should be a hunter's license law for all who hunt the use of machine shot guns in hunting should be stopped at once stop the use of powerboats in wild foul shooting massachusetts in 1912 the state of massachusetts moved up into the foremost rank of states where for one year new york had stood alone she passed a counterpart of the new york law absolutely prohibiting the sale of all wild american game in massachusetts but providing for the sale of game that has been reared in preserves and tagged by state officers this victory was achieved only after three months of hard fighting the coalition of sportsmen zoologists and friends of wildlife in general proved irresistible just as a similar union of forces accomplished the bane law in new york in 1911 the victory is highly instructive as great victories usually are it proves once more that whenever the american people can be roused from their normal apathy regarding wildlife any good conservation legislation can be enacted the prime necessities to success are good measures good management a reasonable campaign fund and tireless energy and persistence massachusetts is to be roundly congratulated on having so thoroughly cleaned up her sale of game situation incidentally five bills for the repeal of the massachusetts law against spring shooting were introduced and each one went down to the defeat that it deserved the repeal of a spring shooting law anywhere is a step backward 10 years massachusetts needs a bag limit law more in keeping with her small remnant of wildlife and that she will have her along very soon also her sportsman will raise the standard of ethics in shotgun shooting by barring out the automatic and pump shotguns so much beloved by the market shooters as matters stand at this date 1912 the old bay state needs the following new laws low bag limits on all game five-year closed season on all shorebirds snipe and woodcock expulsion of the automatic and pump shotguns in hunting michigan on the whole the game laws of michigan are in excellent shape and leave little to be desired in the line of betterment except to be simplified all the game protected by the laws of the state is debarred from sale squirrels punated gross doves and wild turkeys enjoy long closed seasons the bag limits on deer and game birds are reasonably low spring shooting still is possible on nine species of ducks and this should be stopped without delay only three or four suggestions are in order all spring shooting should be prohibited all shorebirds should have a five-year closed season the use of the machine shotguns in hunting should be stopped the laws should permit the sale under tag of all species of game that can be successfully reared in preserves on a commercial basis and two or three state game preserves for deer each at least four mile square should be established without delay minnesota this state should at once enacted bag limit law that will do some good instead of the statutory farce now on the books make it 15 birds per day of waterfowl all species combined and no grouse or quail that should be five-year closed seasons enacted for quail, grouse, plover, woodcock, snipe, and all other shorebirds a law should be enacted prohibiting the use of firearms by unnaturalized aliens and a $20 license for all naturalized aliens provision should be made for a large state game refuge in southern minnesota the state should prohibit the use of machine guns in hunting today direct and reliable advices show that the game situation in minnesota is far from encouraging several species are threatened with extinction at an early date in northern minnesota it is reported that much game is surreptitiously trapped and slaughtered the bob white is reported as threatened with total extinction at an early date but i think the prairie chicken will be the first bird species to go moose will soon be extinct everywhere in minnesota except in the game preserves apparently there's now about one duck in minnesota for every 10 ducks that there were only 10 years ago now what is minnesota going to do about all this is she willing through apathy to become a game-less state her people need to arouse themselves now and pass several strong laws her bag limit of 45 birds per day of quail, grouse, woodcock, and plover and 50 per day of the water birds is a joke and nothing more but it is no laughing matter it spells extermination mississippi the legalized slaughter of robins cedar birds grossbeaks and doves should cease immediately on the basis of economy of resources and a square deal to all the states flying northward of mississippi the shooting of all waterfowl should cease on january first a reasonable limit should be established on deer a hunting license law should be passed at once fixing the fee at one dollar and devoting the revenue to the pay of a core of non-political game wardens selected on a basis of ability and fitness the administration of the game law should be placed in charge of a salaried game commissioner it is seriously to the discredit of mississippi that her laws actually classify robins cedar birds grossbeaks and doves as game and make them killable as such from september first to march first i should think that if no economic consideration carried weight in mississippi state pride alone would be sufficient to promote a correction of the evil if we of the north were to slaughter mockingbirds for food when they come north to visit us the men of the south would call us greedy barbarians and they would be quite right missouri the missouri bag limits that permit the killing or possession of 50 birds per day are absurd and fatally liberal the utmost should be 25 and even that is too high doves should be taken off the list of game birds and protected throughout the year and so should all tree squirrels spring shooting of shore birds and waterfowl should be prohibited without delay a law against automatic and pumpkin should be enacted at the next legislative session as a public lesson on the raising of the standards of ethics and shooting the state of missouri is really strong in her position as a game protecting state she perpetually protects such vanishing species as the roughed gross prairie chicken woodcock and all her shore birds save snipe and plover she prohibits the sale of native game and the killing of female deer but she wisely permits the sale of preserved bread elk and deer under the tags of the state game commission for nearly all the wild game that is accessible her markets are tightly closed we heartily congratulate missouri on her advanced position on the sale of game and we hope that the people of iowa will even yet profit by her good example montana like colorado in mayoming montana is wasting a valuable heritage of wild game while she struggles to maintain the theory that she still is in the list of states that furnish big game hunting it is the fact that 10 years ago most sportsmen began to regard montana as a has been for big game and began to seek better hunting grounds elsewhere british columbia alberta and alaska have done much for the game of montana by drawing sportsmen away from it mr. henry avaire the state game warden is optimistic regarding even the big game and believes that it is holding its own this is partially true of white-tailed deer where it was up to the time of the great slaughter it is said that in 1911 11 000 deer were killed in montana all in the western part of the state 70 percent of which were white tails the deep snow is an extreme cold of a long and unusually severe winter drove the hungry deer down out of the mountains into the settlements where the ranchmen joyously slaughtered them the destruction around callous ball was described by henry p stanford as sickening mr. avaire estimates the pronghorned antelope in montana at 3000 head of which about 600 are under the quasi protection of four ranches the antelope need three or four small ranges such as the snow creek antelope range where the bad lands are too rough for ranchmen but quite right for antelopes and other big game all the gross and tamagin of montana need a five-year close season the splendid sage grouse is now extinct in many parts of its previous range 58 000 licensed gunners are too many for them the few mountain sheep and mountain goats that survive should have a five-year close season at once the killing of female hoofed animals should be prohibited by law montana has not yet adopted the model law for the protection of non-game birds only seven states have failed in that respect the use of automatic and pump shot guns and silencers should immediately be prohibited montana's bag limits are not wholly bad but the grizzly bear has almost been exterminated save in the yellowstone park some of these days if things go on as they are now going the people of montana will be rudely awakened to the fact that they have 50 000 licensed hunters but no longer any killable game and then we will hear enthusiastic talk about restocking nebraska no other state has bestowed close seasons upon as many extinct species of game as nebraska behold how she has resolutely locked the doors of her empty cage after all these species have flown elk antelope wild turkey passenger pigeon whooping crane sage gross tarmogen and curlew in a short time the penated gross can be added to the list of has beens there a little to say regarding the future of the game of nebraska for its future is now history provision should be made for one or more state game preserves spring shooting of shore birds and waterfowl should be prohibited a larger and more effective warden service should be provided doves should be removed from the game list nevada the sage gross should be given a 10-year closed season for recuperation all non-game birds should have perpetual protection the cranes now verging on extinction and the pigeons and doves should at once be taken out of the list of game birds and forever protected all the shore birds need five years of closed protection a state game warden whose term of office is not less than four years should be provided for a core of salaried game protectors should be chosen for active and aggressive game protection nevada's bag limits are among the best of any state the only serious flaw being 10 sage gross per day which should be zero nevada still has a few antelope and we beg her to protect them all from being hunted or killed it is my belief that if the antelope is really saved anywhere in the united states outside of national parks and preserves it will be in the wild and remote regions of nevada where it is to be hoped that lumpy jaw has not yet taken hold of the herds new hampshire speaking generally the new hampshire laws regulating the killing and shipment of game are defective for the reason that on birds and in fact all games save deer there appear to be no bag limits on the quantity that may be killed in a day or a season the following bag limits are greatly needed forthwith gray squirrel none per day or per year duck except wood duck 10 per day or 30 per season roughed gross four per day 12 per season hare and rabbit four per day or 12 per season five-year closed season should immediately be enacted for the following species quail woodcock jacksnap and all species of shore or beach birds the sale of all native wild game should be prohibited in game breeding and preserves and the sale of such game under state supervision should be provided for the use of automatic and pump guns in hunting should be barred through state pride if for no other reason new jersey new jersey enjoys the distinction of being the second state to break the stranglehold of the gun makers of hartford and illion and cast out the odious automatic and pump guns it was a pitched battle that of 1912 inaugurated by earnest napier president of the state game and fish commission and his fellow commissioners the longer the contest continued the more did the press and the people of new jersey awakened to the seriousness of the situation finally the gun suppression bill passed the two houses of the legislature with a total of only 14 votes against it and after a full hearing had been granted the attorneys of the gun makers was promptly signed by governor woodrow wilson governor wilson could not be convinced that the act was unconstitutional or confiscatory or class legislation this contest aroused the whole state to the imperative necessity of providing more thorough protection to the remnant of new jersey game and it was chiefly responsible for the enactment of four other excellent new protective laws new jersey has always been sincere in her desire to protect her wildlife and always has gone as far as the killers of game would permit her to go but the people have made one great mistake common to nearly every state for meeting the game killers to dictate the game laws always and everywhere this is a grievous mistake and fatal to the game for example in 1866 new jersey enacted a five year closed season law on the prairie fowl penaded gross but it was too late to save it now that species is as dead to new jersey as is the mastodon the moral is will the people apply this lesson to the roughed gross quail and the shore birds generally before they too are too far gone to be brought back if it is done it must be done against the will of the gunners for they prefer to shoot and shoot they will if they can dictate the laws until the last game bird is dead in 1912 new jersey is spending thirty thousand dollars and trying to restock her birdless covers with foreign game birds in quail in brief here are the imperative duties of new jersey provide eight year closed seasons for quail roughed gross woodcock snipe all shore birds and the wood duck prohibit the sale of all native wild game but promote the sale of preserved bread game prevent the repeal of the automatic gun law which surely will be attempted each year prohibit all bird shooting after january 10th each year until fall prohibit the killing of squirrels as game new mexico all things considered the game laws of new mexico are surprisingly up to date and the state is to be congratulated on its advanced position for example there are long closed seasons on antelope elk now extinct mountain sheep bob white quail penaded gross wild pigeon and tarmogen an admirable list truly it is clear that new mexico is wide awake to the dangers of the wildlife situation on two counts her laws are not quite perfect there is no law prohibiting spring shooting and there is no model law protecting the non-game birds the sale of game will not trouble new mexico because the present laws prevent the sale of all protected game except plover curloon snipe all of them species by no means common in the arid regions of the southwest a law prohibiting spring shooting of shore birds and waterfowl should be passed at the next session of the legislature the enactment of the model law should be accomplished without delay to put new mexico abreast of the neighboring states of colorado oklahoma and texas the term of the state warden should be extended to four years new york in the year of grace 1912 i think we may justly regard new york as the banner state of all america in the protection of game and wildlife in general this proud position has been achieved partly through the influence of a great conservation governor john a dicks and the state conservation commission proposed and created by his efforts in these days of game destruction when our country from gnome to key west is reeking of the blood of slaughtered wild creatures it is a privilege and a pleasure to be a citizen of a state which has thoroughly cleaned house and done well nigh the utmost that any state can do to clear her bad record and give all her wild creatures a fair chance to survive the people of the empire state literally can point with pride to the list of things accomplished in the discharge of good citizenship toward the remnant of wildlife and toward the future generations of new yorkers that we have today have borne our share of the burden of bringing about the conditions of 1912 will be a source of satisfaction especially when the sword and shield hang useless upon the walls of old age new york began to protect her deer in 1705 and her heath hens in 1708 in 1912 she stopped the killing of female deer and of bucks having horns less than three inches in length spring shooting was stopped in 1903 a comprehensive law protecting non game birds was enacted in 1862 new york's first law against the sale of certain game during close seasons was enacted in 1837 in 1911 new york enacted with only one adverse vote a law prohibiting the sale of all native wild game throughout the state no matter where killed and providing liberally for the encouragement of game breeding and the sale of preserved bread game in 1912 the new codification of the state game laws went into effect through the initiative of governor dex and conservation commissioners vinn cannon moor and fleming assisted as special counsel by marshal mclean george a lawyer and john b bernham this code contains many important new provisions one of the most valuable of which is a clause giving the conservation commission power at its discretion to shorten or to close any open season on any species of game in any locality wherein that species seems to be threatened with extermination this very valuable principle should be enacted into law in every state in 1910 weym dutcher and t gilbert piercen of the national association of autobahn societies won after a struggle lasting five years the passage of the shea plumage bill prohibiting the sale of egrets or other plumage of wild birds belonging to the same families of as the birds of new york chapter 256 this law should be duplicated in every state two things remain to be done in the state of new york all the shore birds quail and gray squirrels of the state should be given five-year closed seasons by the action of the state conservation commission for the good name of the state and the ethical standing of its sportsmen as an example to other states the last remaining duty toward our wildlife the odious automatic and pump shotguns should be barred from use in hunting unless their capacity is reduced to two shots without reloading end of chapter 30