repealed.” Warden Hayward of Rutland County says: “The majority of the farmers in this county are in favor of repealing the doe law…. A great many does and young deer (almost fawns) were killed in this county during the hunting season of 1909.” R.W. Wheeler, of Rutland County says: “Have the doe law repealed! We don’t need it!” H.J. Parcher of Washington County finds that the does did more damage to the crops than the bucks, and he thinks the doe law is “a just one.” R.L. Frost, of Windham County, judicially concludes that “the law allowing does to be killed should remain in force one or two seasons more.” C.S Parker, of Orleans County, says his county is not overstocked with deer, and he favors a special act for his county, to protect females.
A summary of the testimony of the wardens is easily made. When deer are too plentiful, and the over-tame does become a public nuisance too great to be endured, the number should be reduced by regular shooting in the open season; but,
As soon as the proper balance of deer life has been restored, protect the does once more.
The pursuit of this policy is safe and sane, provided it can be wrought out without the influence of selfishness, and reckless disregard for the rights of the next generation. On the whole, its handling is like playing with fire, and I think there are very, very few states on this earth wherein it would be wise or safe to try it. As a wise friend once remarked to me, “Give some men a hinch, and they’ll always try to take a hell.” In Vermont, however, the situation is kept so well in hand we may be sure that at the right moment the law providing for the decrease of the number of does will be repealed.
HIPPOPOTAMI AND ANTELOPES.–Last year a bill was introduced in the lower House of Congress proposing to provide funds for the introduction into certain southern states of various animals from Africa, especially hippopotami and African antelopes. The former were proposed partly for the purpose of ridding navigation of the water hyacinths that now are choking many of the streams of Louisiana and Mississippi. The antelopes were to be acclimatized as a food supply for the people at large.
This measure well illustrates the prevailing disposition of the American people to-day,–to ignore and destroy their own valuable natural stock of wild birds and mammals, and when they have completed their war of extermination, reach out to foreign countries for foreign species. Instead of preserving the deer of the South, the South reaches out for the utterly impossible antelopes of Africa, and the preposterous hippopotamus. The North joyously exterminates her quail and ruffed grouse, and goes to Europe for the Hungarian partridge. That partridge is a failure here, and I am _heartily glad of it_, on the ground that the exterminators of our native species do not deserve success in their efforts to displace our finest native species with others from abroad.
The hippo-antelope proposition is a climax of absurdity, in proposing the replacing of valuable native game with impossible foreign species.
* * * * *
CHAPTER XXV
LAW AND SENTIMENT AS FACTORS IN PRESERVATION
There is grave danger that through ignorance of the true character of about 80 per cent of the men and boys who shoot wild creatures, a great wrong will be done the latter. Let us not make a fatal mistake.
After more than thirty years of observation among all kinds of sportsmen, hunters and gunners, I am convinced that it is utterly futile and deadly dangerous to rely on humane, high-class sentiment to diminish the slaughter of wild things by game-hogs and pot-hunters.
In some respects, the term “game-hog” is a rude, rough word; but it is needed in the English language, and it has come to stay. It is a disagreeable term, but it was brought into use to apply to a class of very disagreeable persons.
A “game-hog” is a hunter of game who knows no such thing as sentiment or conscience in the killing of game, so long as he keeps within the limit of the law. Regardless of the scarcity of game, or of its hard struggle for existence, he will kill right up to the bag limit every day that he goes out, provided it is possible to do so. He uses the “law” as a salve for the spot where his conscience should be. He will shoot with any machine gun, or gun of big calibre, in every way that the law allows, and he knows no such thing as giving the game a square deal. He brags of his big bags of game, and he loves to be photographed with a wagon-load of dead birds as a background. He believes in automatic and pump guns, spring shooting, longer open seasons and “more game.” He is quite content to shoot half tame ducks in a club preserve as they fly between coop and pond, whenever he secures an opportunity. He will gladly sell his game whenever he can do so without being found out, and sometimes when he is.
Often a true sportsman drifts without realizing it into some one way of the confirmed game-hog; but the moment he is made to realize his position, he changes his course and his standing. The game-hog is impervious to argument. You can shame a horse away from his oats more easily than you can shame him from doing “what the Law allows.”
There are hundreds of thousands of gentlemen and gentlewomen who never once have come in touch with real cloven-footed game-hogs, who do not understand the species at all, and do not recognize its ear-marks. Thousands of such persons will tell you: “In my opinion, the best way to save the wild life is to _educate the people_!” I have heard that, many, many times.
For right-hearted people, a little law is quite sufficient; and the best people need none at all! But the game-hogs are different. For them, the strict letter of the law, backed up by a strong-arm squad, is the only controlling influence that they recognize. To them it is necessary to say: “You shall!” and “You shall not!”
Only yesterday the latest game-hog case was related to me by a game-protector from Kansas. Into a certain county of southern Kansas, from which the prairie-chicken had been totally gone for a dozen years or more, a pair of those birds entered, settled down and nested. Their coming was to many habitants a joyous event. “Now,” said the People, “we will care for these birds, and they will multiply, and presently the county will be restocked.”
But Ahab came! Two men from another county, calling themselves sportsmen but not entitled to that name, heard of those birds, and resolved to “get them.” They waited until the young were just leaving the nest: and they went down and camped near by. On the first day they killed the two parent birds and half the flock of young birds, and the next day they got all the rest.
But there is a sequel to this story. One of those men was a dealer in guns and ammunition; and when his customers heard what he had done, “they simply put him out of business, by refusing to trade with him any more.” He is now washing dirty dishes in a restaurant; but at heart he is a game-hog, just the same.
Near Bridgeport, Connecticut, a gentleman of my acquaintance owns a fine estate which is adorned with a trout stream and a superfine trout pond. Once he invited a business man of Bridgeport to be his guest, and fish for trout in his pond. On that guest, during a visit of three days all the finest forms of hospitality were bestowed.
Two weeks later, my friend’s game-warden caught that guest, early on a Sunday morning, _poaching_ on the trout-pond, and spoiled his carefully arranged get-away.
In his book “Saddle and Camp in the Rockies,” Mr. Dillon Wallace tells a story of a man from New York who in the mountains of Colorado deliberately corrupted his guides with money or other influences, shot mountain sheep _in midsummer_, and “got away with it.”
In northern Minnesota, George E. Wood has been having a hand-to-hand fight with the worst community of game-hogs and alien-born poachers of which I have heard. There appears to be no game law that they do not systematically violate. The killers seem determined to annihilate the last head of game, in spite of fines and imprisonments. The foreigners are absolutely uncontrollable. The latest feature of the war is the discovery of a tannery in the woods, where the hides of illegally-slaughtered deer and moose are dressed. Apparently the only kind of a law that will save the game of northern Minnesota is one that will totally disarm the entire population.
In Pennsylvania, there exists an association which was formed for the express purpose of fighting the State Game Commission, preventing the enactment of a hunter’s license law and repealing the law against the killing of female deer and hornless fawns. The continued existence of that organization on that basis would be a standing disgrace to the fair name of Pennsylvania. I think, however, that that organization was founded on secret selfish purposes, and that ere long the general body of members will awaken to a realizing sense of their position, and range themselves in support of the excellent policies of the commission.
A POT-HUNTER is a man or boy who kills game as a business, for the money that can be derived from its sale, or other use. Such men have the same feelings as butchers. From their point of view, they can see no reason why all the game in the world should not be killed and marketed. Like the feather-dealers, they wish to get out of the wild life all the money there is in it; that is all. Left to themselves, with open markets they would soon exterminate the land fauna of the habitable portions of the globe.
No one can “educate” such people. For the gunners, game-hogs and pot-hunters, there is no check, save specific laws that sternly and amply safeguard the rights of the wild creatures that can not make laws for themselves.
Nor can anyone educate the heartless woman of fashion who is determined to wear aigrettes as long as her money can buy them. The best women of the world have _already been educated_ on the bird-millinery subject, and they are already against the use of the gaudy badges of slaughter and extermination. But in the great cities of the world there are thousands of women who are at heart as cruel as Salome herself, and whose vicious tastes can be curbed only by the strong hand of the law. “Sentiment” for wild birds is not in them.
Because of the vicious and heartless elements among men and women, we say, Give us _far-reaching, iron-bound_ LAWS for the protection of wild life, _and plenty of courageous men to enforce them_.
* * * * *
CHAPTER XXVI
THE ARMY OF THE DEFENSE
It now seems that the friends of wild life who themselves are not on the firing-line should be afforded some definite information regarding the Army of the Defense, and its strength and weakness. It is an interesting subject, but the limitations of space will not permit an extended treatment.
Over the world at large, I think the active Destroyers outnumber the active Defenders of wild life at least in the ratio of 500 to 1; and the money available to the Destroyers is to the funds of the Defenders as 500 is to 1. The _average_ big-game sportsman cheerfully expends from $500 to $1,000 on a hunting trip, but resents the suggestion that he should subscribe from $50 to $100 for wild life preservation. If he puts down $10, he thinks he has done a Big Thing. Worse than this, I am forced to believe that at least 75 per cent of the big-game sportsmen of the world never have contributed one dollar in money, or one hour of effort, to that cause. But there are exceptions; and I can name at least fifty sportsmen who have subscribed $100 each to campaign funds, and some who have given as high as $1,000.
Once I sat down beside a financially rich slaughterer of game, and asked him to subscribe a sum of real money in behalf of a very important campaign. I needed funds very much; and I explained, exhorted and besought. I pointed out his duty–_to give back something_ in return for all the game slaughter that he had _enjoyed_. For ten long minutes he stood fire without flinching, and without once opening his lips to speak. He made no answer no argument, no defense and finally he never gave up one cent.
Wherever the English language is spoken, from Tasmania to Scotland, and from Porto Rico to the Philippines, the spirit of wild life protection exists. Elsewhere there is much more to be said on this point. To all cosmopolitan sportsmen, the British “Blue Book” on game protection, the annual reports of the two great protective societies of London, and the annual “Progress” report of the U.S. Department of Agriculture are reassuring and comforting. It is good to know that Uganda maintains a Department of Game Protection (A.L. Butler, Superintendent), that so good a man as Maj. J. Stevenson-Hamilton is in control of protection in the Transvaal, and that even the native State of Kashmir officially recognizes the need to protect the Remnant.
There are of course many parts of the world in which game laws and limits to slaughter are quite unknown: all of which is entirely wrong, and in need of quick correction. No state or nation can be accounted wholly civilized that fails to recognize the necessity to protect wild life. I am tempted to make a list of the states and nations that were at latest advices destitute of game laws and game protectors, but I fear to do injustice through lack of the latest information. However, the time has come to search out delinquents, and hold up to each one a mirror that will reflect its shortcomings.
Naturally, we are most interested in our own contingent of the Army of the Defense.
THE UNITED STATES GOVERNMENT.–To-day the feeling in Congress, toward the conservation of wild life and forests is admirable. Both houses are fully awake to the necessity of saving while there is yet something to be saved. The people of the United States may be assured that the national government is active and sympathetic in the prosecution of such conservation measures as it might justly be expected to promote. For example, during the past five years we have seen Congress take favorable action on the following important causes, nearly every one of which cost money:
The saving of the American bison, in four National ranges.
The creation of fifty-eight bird refuges.
The creation of five great game preserves.
The saving of the elk in Jackson Hole.
The protection of the fur seal.
The protection of the wild life of Alaska.
There are many active friends of wild life who confidently expect to see this fine list gloriously rounded out by the passage in 1913 of an ideal bill for the federal protection of all migratory birds. To name the friends of wild life in Congress would require the printing of a list of at least two hundred names, and a history of the rise and progress of wild life conservation by the national government would fill a volume. Such a volume would be highly desirable.
When the story of the national government’s part in wild-life protection is finally written, it will be found that while he was president, THEODORE ROOSEVELT made a record in that field that is indeed enough to make a reign illustrious. He aided every wild-life cause that lay within the bounds of possibility, and he gave the vanishing birds and mammals the benefit of every doubt. He helped to establish three national bison herds, four national game preserves, fifty-three federal bird refuges, and to enact the Alaska game laws of 1902 and 1907.
It was in 1904 that the national government elected to accept its share of the white man’s burden and enter actively into the practical business of wild life protection. This special work, originally undertaken and down to the present vigorously carried on by Dr. Theodore S. Palmer, has considerably changed the working policy of the Biological Survey of the Department of Agriculture, and greatly influenced game protection throughout the states. The game protection work of that bureau is alone worth to the people of this country at least twenty times more per annum than the entire annual cost of the Bureau. Next to the splendid services of Dr. Palmer, all over the United States, one great value of the Bureau is found in the fact-and-figure ammunition that it prepares and distributes for general use in assaults on the citadels of Ignorance and Greed. The publications of the Bureau are of great practical value to the people of the United States.
[Illustration: NOTABLE PROTECTORS OF WILD LIFE (1) MADISON GRANT
Secretary and Chairman Executive Committee, New York Zoological Society
HENRY FAIRFIELD OSBORN
President, New York Zoological Society
JOHN F. LACEY
Ex-Member of Congress; Author of the “Lacey Bird Law”
WILLIAM DUTCHER
Founder and President, National Association of Audubon Societies]
Dr. Palmer is a man of incalculable value to the cause of protection. No call for advice is too small to receive his immediate attention, no fight is too hot and no danger-point too remote to keep him from the fray. Wherever the Army of Destruction is making a particularly dangerous fight to repeal good laws and turn back the wheels of progress, there will he be found. As the warfare grows more intense, Congress may find it necessary to enlarge the fighting force of the Biological Survey.
The work that has been done by the Bureau in determining the economic value or lack of value of our most important species of insectivorous birds, has been worth millions to the agricultural interests of the United States. Through it we know where we stand. The reasons why we need to strive for protection can be expressed in figures and percentages; and it seems to me that they leave the American people no option but to _protect_!
STATE GAME COMMISSIONS.–Each of our states, and each province of Canada, maintains either a State Game Commission of several persons, one Commissioner, or a State Game Warden. All such officers are officially charged with the duty of looking after the general welfare of the game and other wild life of their respective states. Theoretically one of the chief duties of a State Game Commission is to initiate new legislative bills that are necessary, and advocate their translation into law. The official standing of most game commissioners is such that they can successfully do this. In 1909 Governor Hughes of New York went so far as to let it be known that he would sign no new game bill that did not meet the approval of State Game Commissioner James S. Whipple. As a general working principle, and quite aside from Mr. Whipple, that was wrong; because even a State game commissioner is not necessarily infallible, or always on the right side of every wild-life question.
As a rule, state commissioners and state wardens are keenly alive to the needs of their states in new game protective legislation, and a large percentage of the best existing laws are due to their initiative. Often, however, their usefulness is limited by the trammels of public office, and there are times when such officers can not be too aggressive without the risk of arousing hostile influences, and handicapping their own departmental work. For this reason, it is often advisable that bills which propose great and drastic reforms, and which are likely to become storm-centers, should originate outside the Commissioner’s office, and be pushed by men who are perfectly free to abide the fortunes of open warfare. It should be distinctly understood, however, that lobbying in behalf of wild-life measures is _an important part of the legitimate duty of every state game commissioner_, and is a most honorable calling.
[Illustration: NOTABLE PROTECTORS OF WILD LIFE (II) EDWARD HOWE FORBUSH
Massachusetts State Ornithologist
T. GILBERT PEARSON
Secretary, National Association of Audubon Societies
JOHN B. BURNHAM
President, American Game Protective and Propagation Association
ERNEST NAPIER
President, Fish and Game Commission of New Jersey]
Of the many strong and aggressive state game commissions that I would like to mention in detail, space permits the naming of only a very few, by way of illustration.
NEW YORK.–Thanks to the great conservation Governor of this state, John A. Dix, the year 1911 saw our forest, fish and game business established on an ideal business basis. Realizing the folly of requiring a single man to manage those three great interests, and render to each the attention that it deserves and requires, by a well-studied legislative act a State Conservation Commission was created, consisting of three commissioners, one for each of the three great natural departments. These are salaried officers, who devote their entire time to their work, and are properly equipped with assistants. The state force of game wardens now consists of 125 picked men, each on a salary of $900 per year, and through a rigid system of daily reports (inaugurated by John B. Burnham) the activities and results of each warden promptly become known in detail at headquarters.
Fortunately, New York contains a very large number of true sportsmen, who are ever ready to come forward in support of every great measure for wild-life protection. The spirit of real protection runs throughout the state, and in time I predict that it will result in a great recovery of the native game of the commonwealth. That will be after we have stopped all shooting of upland game birds and shore birds for about eight years. Even the pinnated grouse could be successfully introduced over one-third of the state, if the people would have it so. It was our great body of conscientious sportsmen who made possible the Bayne-Blauvelt law, and the new codification of the game laws of the state.
TENNESSEE.–Clearly, Honorable Mention belongs to the unsalaried State Commissioner of Tennessee, Col. J.H. Acklen, “than whom,” says Dr. Palmer, “there is no more active and enthusiastic game protectionist in this country. Whatever has been accomplished in that state is due to his activity and public spirit. Col. Acklen, who is now president of the National Association of Game Commissioners, is a prominent lawyer, and enjoys the distinction of being the only commissioner in the country who not only serves without pay, but also defrays a large part of the expenses of game protection out of his own pocket.”
Surely the Commonwealth of Tennessee will not long permit this unsupported condition of such a game commissioner to endure. That state has a wild fauna worth preserving for her sons and grandsons, and it is inconceivable that the funds vitally necessary to this public service can not be found.
ALABAMA.–I cite the case of Alabama because, in view of its position in a group of states that until recently have cared little about game protection, it may be regarded as an unusual case. Commissioner John H. Wallace, Jr., has evolved order out of chaos,–and something approaching a reign of law out of the absence of law. To-day the State of Alabama stands as an example of what can be accomplished by and through one clear-headed, determined man who is right, and knows that he is right.
NEW JERSEY.–Alabama reminds one of New Jersey, and of State Game Commissioner Ernest Napier. I have seen him on the firing-line, and I know that his strong devotion to the interests of the wild life of his state, his determination to protect it at all costs, and his resistless confidence in asking for what is right, have made him a power for good. The state legislature believes in him, and enacts the laws that he says are right and necessary. He serves without salary, and gives to the state time, labor and money. It is a pleasure to work with such a man. In 1912 Commissioner Napier won a pitched battle with the makers of automatic and pump guns, both shotguns and rifles, and debarred all those weapons from use _in hunting_ in New Jersey unless satisfactorily reduced to two shots.
MASSACHUSETTS.–The state of Massachusetts is fortunate in the possession of a very fine corps of ornithologists, nature lovers, sportsmen and leading citizens who on all questions affecting wild life occupy high ground and are not afraid to maintain it. It would be a pleasure to write an entire chapter on this subject. The record of the Massachusetts Army of the Defense is both an example and an inspiration to the people of other states. Not only is the cause of protection championed by the State Game Commission but it also receives constant and powerful support from the State Board of Agriculture, which maintains on its staff Mr. E.H. Forbush as State Ornithologist. The bird-protection publications of the Board are of great economic value, and they are also an everlasting credit to the state. The very latest is a truly great wild-life-protection volume of 607 pages, by Mr. Forbush, entitled “_Game Birds, Wild-Fowl and Shore Birds_.” It is a publication most damaging to the cause of the Army of Destruction, and I heartily wish a million copies might be printed and placed in the hands of lawmakers and protectors.
The fight last winter and spring for a no-sale-of-game law was the Gettysburg for Massachusetts. The voice of the People was heard in no uncertain tones, and the Destroyers were routed all along the line. The leaders in that struggle on the protection side were E.H. Forbush, William P. Wharton, Dr. George W. Field, Edward N. Goding, Lyman E. Hurd, Ralph Holman, Rev. Wm. R. Lord and Salem D. Charles. With such leaders and such supporters, any wild-life cause can be won, anywhere!
PENNSYLVANIA.–The case of Pennsylvania is rather peculiar. As yet there is no large and resistless organized body of real sportsmen to rally to the support of the State Game Commission in great causes, as is the case in New York. As a result, with a paltry fund of only $20,000 for annual maintenance, and much opposition from hunters and farmers, the situation is far from satisfactory. Fortunately Dr. Joseph Kalbfus, Secretary of the Commission and chief executive officer, is a man of indomitable courage and determination. But for this state of mind he would ere this have given up the fight for the hunter’s license law (of one dollar per year), which has been bitterly opposed by a very aggressive and noisy group of gunners who do not seem to know that they are grievously misled.
Fortunately, Commissioner John M. Phillips, of Pittsburgh is the ardent supporter of Dr. Kalbfus and a vigorous fighter for justice to wild life. He devotes to the cause a great amount of time and effort, and in addition to serving without salary he pays all his campaign expenses out of his own pocket. His only recompense for all this is the sincere admiration of his friends, and the consciousness of having done his full duty toward the wild life and the people of his native state.
THE STATE AUDUBON SOCIETIES.–It is impossible to estimate the full value of the influence and work of the State Audubon Societies of the United States. Thus far these societies exist in thirty-nine states. From the beginning, their efforts have tended especially toward the preservation of the non-game birds, and it is well that the song and other insectivorous birds have thus been specially championed. Unfortunately, however, if that policy is pursued exclusively, it leaves 154 very important species of game birds practically at the mercy of the Army of Destruction! It would seem that the time has come when all Audubon Societies should take up, as a part of their work, active co-operation in helping to save the game birds from extermination.
* * * * *
THE NATIONAL ORGANIZATIONS OF NEW YORK CITY
On January 1, 1895, the United States of America contained, so far as I am aware, not one organization of national scope which was devoting any large amount of its resources and activities to the protection of wild life. At that time the former activities of the A.O.U. Committee on Bird Protection had lapsed. To-day the city of New York contains six national organizations, and it is now a great center of nation-wide activities in behalf of preservation. Furthermore, these activities are steadily growing, and securing practical results.
THE NEW YORK ZOOLOGICAL SOCIETY.–In 1895 there was born into the world a scientific organization having for its second declared object “the preservation of our native animals.” It was the first scientific society or corporation ever formed, so far as I am aware, having a specifically declared object of that kind. It owes its existence and its presence in the field of wild-life conservation to the initiative and persistence of Mr. Madison Grant and Prof. Henry Fairfield Osborn. For sixteen years these two officers have worked together virtually as one man. It is not strange to find a sportsman like Mr. Grant promoting the wild-life cause, but it is a fact well worthy of note that of all the zoologists of the world, Professor Osborn is the only one of real renown who has actively and vigorously engaged in this cause, and taken a place in the front rank of the Defenders.
Mr. Grant’s influence on the protection cause has been strong and far-reaching,–far more so than the majority of his own friends are aware. He has promoted important protectionist causes from Alaska to Louisiana and Newfoundland, and helped to win many important victories.
THE BOONE AND CROCKETT CLUB.–This organization of big game sportsmen was founded in 1885, and is the oldest of its kind in the United States. Its members always have supported the cause of protection, by law and by the making of game preserves. In all this work Mr. George Bird Grinnell, for twenty-five years editor of _Forest and Stream_, has been an important factor. As stated elsewhere, the club’s written and unwritten code of ethics in big-game hunting is very strict. In course of time a Committee on Game Protection was formed, and it actively entered that field.
[Illustration: NOTABLE PROTECTORS OF WILD LIFE (III) JOSEPH KALBFUS
Chief Game Protector and Secretary, Pennsylvania Board of Game Commissioners
JOHN M. PHILLIPS
Member, Pennsylvania Board of Game Commissioners
EDWARD A. McILHENNY
Founder of Wild-Fowl Preserves in Louisiana
CHARLES WILLIS WARD
Founder of Wild-Fowl preserves in Louisiana]
THE NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF AUDUBON SOCIETIES.–This organization was founded by William Dutcher, in 1902, and in 1906 it was endowed to the extent of $322,000 by the bequest of Albert Wilcox. Subsequent endowments, together with the annual contributions of members and friends, now give the Association an annual income of $60,000. It maintains eight widely-separated field agents and lecturers and forty special game wardens of bird refuges. It maintains Secretary T. Gilbert Pearson and a number of other good men constantly on the firing-line; and these forces have achieved many valuable results. After years of stress and struggle, it now seems almost certain that this organization will save the two white egrets,–producers of “the white badge of cruelty,”–to the bird fauna of the United States, as in a similar manner it has saved the gulls, terns and other sea birds of our lakes and coast line.
This splendid organization is one of the monuments to William Dutcher. More than two years ago he was stricken with paralysis, and now sits in an invalid’s chair at his home in Plainfield, New Jersey. His mind is clear and his interest in wild-life protection is keen, but he is unable to speak or to write. While he was active, he was one of the most resourceful and fearless champions of the cause of the vanishing birds. To him the farmers of America owe ten times more than they ever will know, and a thousand times more than they ever will repay, either to him or to his cause.
THE CAMP-FIRE CLUB OF AMERICA.–Although founded in 1897, this organization did not, as an organization, actively enter the field of protection until 1909. Since that time its work has covered a wide field, and enlisted the activities of many of its members. In order to provide a permanent fund for its work, each year the club members pay special annual dues that are devoted solely to the wild-life cause. The Committee on Game Protective Legislation and Preserves is a strong, hard-working body, and it has rendered good service in the lines of activity named in its title.
THE AMERICAN GAME PROTECTIVE AND PROPAGATION ASSOCIATION.–This is the youngest protective organization of national scope, having been organized in 1911. Its activities are directed by John B. Burnham, for five years Chief Game Protector of the State of New York, and a man thoroughly conversant with the business of protection. The organization is financed chiefly by means of a large annual fund contributed by several of the largest companies engaged in manufacturing firearms and ammunition, whose directors feel that the time has come when it is both wise and necessary to take practical measures to preserve the remnant of American game. Already the activities of this organization cover a wide range, and it has been particularly active in enlisting support for the Weeks bill for the federal protection of migratory birds.
THE WILD LIFE PROTECTIVE ASSOCIATION came into existence in 1910, rather suddenly, for the purpose of promoting the cause of the Bayne no-sale-of-game bill, and other measures. It raised the fund that met the chief expenses of that campaign. Since that time it has taken an important part in three other hotly contested campaigns in other states, two of which were successful.
At the present moment, and throughout the future, these New York organizations need _large sums of money_ with which to meet the legitimate expenses of active campaigns for great measures. They need _some_ money from outside the state of New York! _Too much of the burden of national campaigning has been and is being left to be borne by the people of New York City_. This policy is growing monotonous. There is every reason why Chicago, St. Louis, Cincinnati, Pittsburgh, Cleveland, Philadelphia, Baltimore and Boston should each year turn $100,000 into the hands of these well-equipped and well managed national organizations whose officers know _how to get results_, all over our country.
Such organizations as these do not exist in other cities; and this is very unfortunate. New Orleans should be a center of protectionist activity for the South, San Francisco for the Pacific slope, and Chicago for the Middle West. Will they not become so?
TWO INDEPENDENT WORKERS.–At the western edge of the delta of the Mississippi there have arisen two men who loom up into prominence at an outpost of the Army of Defense which they themselves have established. For what they already have done in the creation of wild-fowl preserves in Louisiana, Edward A. McIlhenny and Charles Willis Ward deserve the thanks of the American People-at-large. An account of their splendid activities, and the practical results already secured, will be found in Chapter XXXVIII, on “Private Game Preserves,” and in the story of Marsh Island. Already the home of these gentlemen, Avery Island, Louisiana, has become an important center of activity in wild-life protection.
* * * * *
CHAPTER XXVII
HOW TO MAKE A NEW GAME LAW
THE LINE OF ACTION.–In the face of a calamity, the saving of life and property and 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 short cut 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 necktie. 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 to-day 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 worth while.
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 all 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 wild life will be destroyed while the educational work is going on.
Often you can educate a gunner, and make him a protectionist; but you never can do it by showing him pictures of birds. He needs strong reasoning and exhortation, not bird-lore. To-day 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 shot-gun 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 realizes how possible it is to secure the passage of a law that is clearly necessary for the better protection of wild life and forests. Because of this, and of the necessity for exact knowledge, I shall here 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 wild life 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 bull-heads with June-bugs 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 worth while 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 a 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 axe; 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 wild life 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 song-birds for food as it is to provide for a fine of three hundred dollars. A fine that is too small fails to impress the prisoner, and it begets contempt for the law and 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 wild life slaughter would be as follows:
Shooting, netting or trapping song-birds, and other non-game birds, each bird $5 to $25 Killing game birds out of season, each bird 10 to 50 Selling game contrary to law, each offense 100 to 200 Dynamiting fish 100 to 200 Seining or netting game fishes 50 to 200 Shooting birds with unfair weapons 10 to 100 Killing an egret, Carolina parakeet or whooping crane 100 to 200 Killing a mountain sheep or antelope anywhere in the U.S. 500 Killing an elk contrary to law 50 Killing a female deer, or fawn without horns, each offense 50 Trapping a grizzly bear for its skin 100
For killing a man “by mistake,” the fine should be $500, payable in five annual instalments, to the court, for the family of the victim.
Whenever fines are not paid, the convicted party should be sentenced to imprisonment at hard labor at the rate of one-half day for each dollar of the fine imposed; and a sentence at hard labor should be the _first option of the court_! Many a rich and reckless poacher snaps his fingers at fines; but a sentence to hard labor would strike terror to the heart of the most brazen of them. To all such men, “labor” is the twin terror to “death.”
THE INTRODUCTION OF A BILL.–Much wisdom is called for in the selection of legislative champions for wild-life 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 Hon. George A. Blauvelt would finally consent to champion the Bayne bill in the New York Assembly. At last Mr. Blauvelt 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 wild life, 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 worth while 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 ear-marks, 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 with personal importunities. 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 wild life 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 assemblyman, and express _their_ views, in _their own way!_ Let there be no “machine letters” sent out, all ready 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 overestimate the influence of the newspapers and the periodical press in general, in the protection of wild life. 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 have 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 can not 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 wild life protection.[K] At this moment, for instance, I bear in particularly grateful remembrance the active campaign work of the following newspapers:
[Footnote K: Just one hour after the above paragraph was written, a long telegram from San Francisco advised me that the _Examiner_ of that city had begun an active and aggressive campaign for the sale of all kinds of game.]
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 (Mass.) Republican
The Chicago Inter-Ocean
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 Afield
Western Field
Outdoor Life
Shield’s Magazine
Sportsman’s Review
Outing
Collier’s Weekly
The Independent
Country Life
Outdoor World
Bird Lore
In campaigning, always appeal for the help of the newspapers. If there are no private axes to grind, they help generously. The weekly journals are of value, but the monthlies 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 that 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, 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 under-handed, 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 a 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 in 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 hall mark 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 some one 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 XXVIII
NEW LAWS NEEDED: A ROLL-CALL OF THE STATES
The principles of wild-life 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 a defiance of duty; of good citizenship or the reign of selfishness. Men who do not wish to do their duty purposely befog 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 a 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_ wild life 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 wild life through ignorance of the laws that would preserve it.
Let no man say that “it is too late to save the wild life”; for excepting the dead-and-gone species, that is not true. Let no man say that “we can not save the wild life 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 aigrettes 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 Bayne law, and of the traffic in wild birds’ plumage on women’s hats through the Dutcher law. To-day, 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 wild life. 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 ungentlemanly, unfair or mean, just the same as an individual. No state has a right to maintain shambles for the slaughter of migratory game or song birds that belong in part to sister states. _Every state holds its migratory bird life in trust, for the benefit of the people of the nation at large_. A state is just as responsible for its treatment of wild life 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 haled 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 so doing.
Let us at least be honest in “agreeing upon a state of fact,” as the lawyers say, whether we act sensibly and mercifully or not. Just so long as there remains in this land of ours a fauna of game birds, 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 shore birds, and limit the bag; North Carolina, South Carolina, Florida, and other southern states not only slaughter wild fowl and shore birds all winter and spring, without limit, but several of them kill certain non-game birds 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 wild life_, 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 wild life on this continent,–point straight as an arrow flies in that direction. Soon 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 wild life did not dare speak of this subject in Washington save in 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 sheep-men thought that they owned the whole Rocky Mountains without having bought them. To-day, 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. To-day it is perfectly safe to talk about making every national forest a first class wild-life 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 McLean 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 Porto 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 wholes as by halves. The time to hesitate, to feel timid, or to be afraid of the other fellow has gone by. To-day 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 wild-life protection,–considering the absurdity of our national policy as a whole; others have done indifferently, and some have been and still are very remiss. Here is where we intend to hew 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 wild life 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 farmers’ 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 have 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 in 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 wild life was very great. It is known that enormous numbers of quail were annually killed by negro farm hands, 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 change that has been wrought since 1907 is chiefly due to the efforts of one man. Alabama owes her standing to-day to the admirable qualities of John H. Wallace, Jr., her Game and Fish Commissioner, author of the State’s policy in wild-life 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 wild life.
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, miners 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 ten years.
The game-warden service should be quadrupled in number of wardens, and in general effectiveness.
The game-warden service should be supplied with two sea-going vessels, independent for patrol work.
The bag limit on hoofed game is 50 per cent too large.
To accomplish these ends, Congress should annually appropriate $50,000 for the protection of wild life in Alaska. The present amount, $15,000, is very inadequate, and the great wild-life interests at stake amply justify the larger amount.
It is now time for Alaska to make substantial advances in the protection of her wild life. It is no longer right nor just for Indians, miners 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. Miners 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 Wrangel is disabused of that idea, the better. Its game belongs to the people of this nation of ninety-odd millions, and it is a safe prediction that the ninety millions will not continue to be willing that the miners, 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 Sand Point, Alaska, he saw eighty-two caribou tongues brought in by an Indian, and sold at fifty 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 middendorffi_) on Kadiak 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 man. 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 Kadiak Island.
The big game of Alaska can not 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 throughly “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 band-tailed pigeons and all non-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 close season should be provided for water fowl, and swans 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 wild life are by no means up to the mark. At this moment, Arkansas is next to Florida, the rearmost of all our states in wild-life 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 wild-fowl 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 pothunters 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 in name.
Heretofore, you have permitted hired market gunners from outside your borders to slaughter the wild-fowl 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 and 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, in hunting, should be prohibited.
The killing of pigeons and doves as “game” and “food” should be stopped.
The sage grouse and every other species of bird threatened with extinction should be given ten year close seasons.
The mule deer (if any remain) and the Columbian black-tailed deer in the southern counties should be accorded a ten-year close 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. The splendid sage grouse and the 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 Glenn County, Cal., on Feb. 5, 1906, when two men (whose story was published in _Outdoor Life_, xvii, p. 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 has been damaging to the interests of wild life, 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 overthrowers of Mr. Welch, and reinstated him.
The fish and game commissioners of any state should be broad-minded, non-partisan, 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 wild life. The remnant of wild life 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, pinnated grouse and all shore birds a ten year close season, remove the dove from the list of game birds, and give it a permanent close season.
It should remove the crane and the swan from the list of game birds.
In twenty-five short years we have seen in Colorado a waste of wild life and the destruction of a living inheritance that has few parallels in history. Possibly the people of Colorado are satisfied with the residuum; but some outsiders regard all Rocky Mountain 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 Lost Park by scoundrels calling themselves “taxidermists,” in 1897. Of the 200,000 mule deer that inhabited Routt County and other portions of Colorado, not enough now remain to make deer hunting interesting. A perpetual close season was put on mountain sheep just in time to save a dozen small flocks as seed stock. 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 fifteen years.
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 prong-horned antelope, several bands remain, but it 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 statutes for the protection of the wild life 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 preserve-bred game under state supervision.
[Illustration: BAND-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 history of game destruction in Colorado is a repetition of the old, old story,–plenty of laws, but a hundred 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 wild life 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 and the 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” wild life 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 in throwing away her inheritance of grand game.
Colorado has work to do in the preservation of her remnant of bird life. In several respects she is 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 wild life, 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 hath 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 70’s and 80’s swept away the bison. I have 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 eye witness, Mr. Dillon 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 pasturage 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 tramped out and killed by the hoofs of thousands upon thousands of sheep, and now wide areas, where not long since grass was so plentiful, are as bare and desolate as sand-piles.
* * * * *
CHAPTER XXIX
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. Enact at once a five-year close season law on the remnant of ruffed grouse, quail, woodcock, snipe, and all shore birds.
Even in the home of the newest and deadliest “autoloading” 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 shore birds is a crime! They should be replaced by a ten-year close season law for all of those species.
The terms of the game commissioners should be not less than four years.
Like so many other states, Connecticut has recklessly wasted her wild-life inheritance. During the fifteen years preceding the year 1898, the bird life of that state had decreased 75 per cent. On March 6, 1912, Senator Geo. 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 thirty or forty years ago, more brush probably, but there is not one partridge [ruffed grouse] today where there were twenty ten years ago!”
First of all, Connecticut needs a ten-year close season law to save her remnant of shore birds before it is completely annihilated. Then she needs a Bayne 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. Half-way measures in preventing the sale of game will not answer. Already Connecticut has 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 remnants 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 gameless 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 all spring shooting, at once; stop killing shore birds for ten 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 Bayne law.
Enact a resident license law, and provide for a force of paid game wardens.
Stop the use of machine shot-guns in killing your birds.
The state of Delaware is nearly twenty 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 Bayne 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 close-season laws of the most modern pattern.
Just why it is that gross abuses against wild life 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 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 to-day the sale of quail, ruffed grouse, wild turkeys and other American game, half way between the Capitol and the White House! Look at Center Market as a national “fence” for the sale of game 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 capital demands it, whether the gods of the cafes will consent or not.
FLORIDA:
Shooting shore birds 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 deer; of twenty quail, and two turkeys per day should be ten quail and one turkey.
The open season on all game birds should end on February 1, for domestic reasons.
Protection should be accorded doves, and robins should be removed from the game list.
In the destruction of wild life, I think the backwoods 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 roseate spoonbill, the flamingo, and also the Carolina parrakeet. On July 8, 1905, one of them killed an Audubon 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 fifteen years preceding 1898, the general bird life of Florida decreased in volume 77 per cent. 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 wild life generally, and the draining and exploitation of the Everglades will about finish the birds of southern Florida.
The brown pelicans’ 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 Apalachicola, known as St. Vincent Island, containing twenty square miles of wonderful woods and waters, is performing an important function for the state and the nation.
The Florida bag limit on quail is entirely too liberal. I know one man who never once exceeded the limit of twenty birds per day, but in the season of 1908-9 he killed _865 quail_! Can the quail of any state long endure such drains 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 wardens 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 wild life of the state.
The present status of wild-life protective laws in Florida was made the subject of an article in _Forest and Stream_ of August 10, 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 and game of that State from certain depletion and threatened extinction. The question of the protection of the birds and 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 and 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 wild life 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 end 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 meadow lark and stop forever the killing of doves and wood-ducks.
Prohibit the use of automatic and pump shot-guns 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 wild life 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 ten-year close 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 shot-guns in hunting.
Extend the State Warden’s 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 easy-going has gone by. It is that fatal policy that 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. T.S. Palmer credited Idaho with the possession of about five hundred moose and two hundred 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 Bayne 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 per cent too high. They should be as follows: No squirrels, doves or shore birds; six quail, five woodcock, ten coots, ten rail, ten ducks, three geese and three brant, 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 aigrettes should be stopped, and Chicago placed in the same class as Boston, New York, New Orleans and San Francisco.
The use of all machine shotguns in hunting should be prohibited.
The chief plague-spots for the grinding up of American game are Chicago, Philadelphia, Baltimore, New Orleans and San Francisco. St. Louis cleared her record in 1909. New York thoroughly cleaned her Augean stable in 1911, and Massachusetts won her Bayne law by a desperate battle in 1912. In 1913, Pennsylvania probably will enact a Bayne law.
Fancy a city in the center of the United States sending to Norway for 1,500 ptarmigan, to eat, as Chicago did in 1911; and that was only one order.
For forty 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 stolidly plowed their fields and fed their hogs, and permitted the slaughter to go on. To-day the sons of those farmers go to the museums and zoological parks of the cities to see specimens of pinnated grouse, 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 “darkened the sky,” and the big droves of prairie chickens that used to rise out of the corn-fields “with a roar like a coming storm.”
To-day, Chicago stands half-way reformed. Her markets are open to only one-half the game killable in Illinois, but they are wide open to all “_legally_ killed game imported from other states, from Oct. 1 to Feb. 1.” 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 the market-gunners.
After the awful Iroquois Theatre 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 Bayne law, without changing a single word, and bring Chicago up to the level of New York, St. Louis 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 Bayne 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 men’s game.
Ruffed grouse and quail should have five year close seasons.
The use of pump and autoloading guns in hunting should be prohibited.
In Indiana the white-tailed deer is extinct. This means very close hunting, and a bad outlook for all other game larger than the sparrow. On October 2, 1912, eleven heads of greater bird of paradise, with plumes attached, were offered for sale within one hundred feet of the headquarters of the Fourth National Conservation Congress. The prices ranged from $35 to $47.50; and while we looked, two ladies came up, one of whom pointed to a bird-of-paradise corpse and said: “There! I want one o’ them, an’ I’m a-goin’ to _have_ it, too!”
IOWA:
Spring shooting should be stopped, at once and forever.
The killing of all tree squirrels and chipmunks should cease.