JOURNAL OF FORESTRY 



Vol. XVIII DECEMBER, 1920 No. 8 



The Society is not responsible, as a body, for the facts and opinions advanced 

 in the papers published by it. 



A NATIONAL GAME POLICY ^ "^Ew vo*^k 

 By Smith Riley '^^tiUkiri 



There is a distinct awakening or new movement, which starting well 

 before the war developed rapidly through its period, and has unlimited 

 possibilities for the future. ' In this I mean the control of business in 

 the public interest. An example here would be the working of the 

 Interstate Commerce Commission. A better example would be the 

 labor laws limiting the hours of work and fixing sanitation require- 

 ments. All with the greatest results in building human qualities. 



In the establishment of the juvenile and social welfare courts there 

 is the well-established purpose not to condemn or punish crime growing 

 out of bad conditions but to find and remove the cause by creating sur- 

 roundings unfavorable to its culture. 



The main result here, though the purpose may be otherwise, is the 

 building of human qualities stabilizing and therefore beneficial to 

 industry. 



The recent draft law taught us a great deal about the importance of 

 proper living conditions. It brought a partial inventory of the human 

 resources of the country; and it was found that about 30 per cent of 

 the young men of the country between the ages of 31 and 21, when 

 they should have been at their best, were unfit for strenuous military 

 service. Of these the major part were unfit because of social condi- 

 tions. I do not mean by this to say that they were products of the 

 slums, and while there is no exact data on the subject, observations by 

 a member of an exemption board leads him to the belief that if this 

 30 per cent of unfit had been brought up in the proper surroundings, 



^ Delivered before tlie Washington Section of the Society of .Kmerican For- 

 esters, October 19, 1920. 



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