A CURIOUS EXPERIENCE 319 



public preserves. These by their very exist- 

 ence afford a certain measure of the extent to 

 which democratic government can justify it- 

 self. If in a given community unchecked pop- 

 ular rule means unlimited waste and destruction 

 of the natural resources — soil, fertility, water- 

 power, forests, game, wild-life generally — which 

 by right belong as much to subsequent genera- 

 tions as to the present generation, then it is 

 sure proof that the present generatiqn is not 

 yet really fit for self-control, that it is not yet 

 really fit to exercise the high and responsible 

 privilege of a rule w^hich shall be both by the 

 people and for the people. The term "for the 

 people" must always include the people unborn 

 as well as the people now alive, or the demo- 

 cratic ideal is not realized. The only way to 

 secure the chance for hunting, for the enjoy- 

 ment of vigorous field-sports, to the average 

 man of small means, is to secure such enforced 

 game laws as will prevent anybody and every- 

 body from killing game to a point which means 

 its diminution and therefore ultimate extinction. 

 Only in this way will the average man be able 

 to secure for himself and his children the op- 

 portunity of occasionally spending his yearly 

 holiday in that school of hardihood and self- 

 rehance — the chase. New Brunswick, Maine, 



