112 CALIFORNIA FISH AND GAME. 



eases and none of them particularly difficult. Others had given all 

 their attention to minor fishing- cases (although the only support for 

 the warden service was derived from the receipts from hunting licenses) 

 and a few had given attention to difficult cases, such as dynamiting 

 fish, or detecting iHegal shipments of fish or game. As a result the 

 number of arrests, in many cases, proved disappointing to the men 

 thenif-elves, because they found that quality rather than quantity of 

 work counted in making up the record. 



On the basis of the promotion examination every deputy in AVisconsin 

 who passes successfully may receive an increase of fifty cents per day, 

 which will amount to nearly $200 a year and he may ])e promoted from 

 $900, the lowest salary, as high as $1,400 a year. 



New York also has a system of promotion, but the increase in salary 

 is $100 a year. The examination is not open to the entire department, 

 but only to these men who have attained a certain grade in their 

 efficiency record during the year. 



The civil service conditions that have been mentioned are required 

 by law in six states — New York, New Jersey, Wisconsin, Illinois, and 

 recently in California and Massachusetts. They have been adopted as 

 the policy of the game commission in Delaware and are likely to be 

 introduced as the policy of the commission in Michigan and Kentucky. 

 When Delaware passed a hunting license law and received a fund suffi- 

 cient to pay regular salaries to wardens, the game commission insisted 

 that a written examination was first to be held for the position of chief 

 warden. As soon as the chief warden had been appointed he was 

 instructed to confer with the department of agriculture and prepare 

 an examination made up of written, oral and outdoor tests suitable for 

 deputies. When the appointment of the deputies had been made tlie 

 commission secured the services of two experienced game protectors 

 from another state to work for a few weeks with the new men so that 

 Delaware has had good service from the very first and has secured some 

 very surprising results. 



So much for the methods of selecting wardens. IMassachusetts, as 

 already stated, has gone a step farther and has provided that its officers, 

 including wardens, who have served for fifteen years, may retire on a 

 certain percentage of their salary. In other words, the state treats its 

 wardens as some large railroads and other business concerns treat their 

 employees. The time may come when other states will follow this 

 example, but at present Massachusetts is the only one that has taken 

 this decisive step. 



Turning for a moment from the warden to his superior, let us see how 

 conditions have changed in recent years. Not many years ago the state 

 warden, or commissioner, in one of the M^estern states Avas called in by 

 the governor, who was about to prepare his message to the legislature, 

 and was notified that unless he could find some way of making his 

 department self-supporting the governor would be obliged to recom- 

 mend the abolishment of fish and game warden work. The warden 

 submitted a plan for a hunting license system, which was adopted at 

 the next session of the legislature, and from that day to this the service 

 in that state has been self-supporting. The game department is now 

 self-supporting in about half of the forty-four states that have game 

 cpramissions — chiefly through the income from hunting licenses. 



