CALIFORNIA FISH 
WAR PROFITEERS. 
New evidence of operations of selfish 
interests which profit in the present 
emergency at the expense of wild-life 
conservation comes in daily. One of 
special importance that has come to our 
notice is a petition sent Food Adminis- 
trator Hoover by two United States 
senators, and signed by many Montana 
men, urging the killing of all elk 
Yellowstone Park. 
in 
Fig. 75. ‘Trout, 159 in number, weighing 
28 pounds, confiscated by Deputy Gyger 
from two violators, on the south fork 
of San Jacinto Creek, April 14, 1918. 
The fish 
season. 
were taken with flies out ot 
IS THIS JUSTICE? 
Achille Paladini and W. S. Stewart, 
agent of the Glacier Fish Company of 
Pittsburg, were arrested recently on the 
charge of shipping 5600 pounds of striped 
bass out of the state. The men were 
eonvicted and fined $50 each by Justice 
of the Peace Jackson of Concord, Contra 
Costa County. We wonder what effect 
so small a fine will have on such a chronic 
offender as Paladini. Mr. Paladini cleared 
at least $600 on the striped bass trans- 
action. What difference would it make 
to him if he had to pay $50 from his 
profits in paying a fine? 
STATE PLUMAGE LAW EFFECTIVE. 
‘The new law prohibiting the sale of 
aigrettes, plumes and like feathers has 
effectively stopped the commercialization 
of the plumage of birds in California. 
The first case made under this law 
resulted in a fine of $15 for the sale of a 
bird of paradise. The defendant was 
A. Larson, Jr., wholesale millinery dealer 
of Los Angeles. The excuse that he had 
secured the feathers before the law took 
effect had no weight with the judge. 
| Notwithstanding 
AND GAME. 137 
UNITED STATES FOOD ADMINISTRA- 
TION MEMORANDUM ON THE USE 
OF GAME AS FOOD. 
The of providing for the 
country a maximum supply of game as 
food has been carefully considered by the 
Food Commission. It has reached the 
conclusion that this maximum supply can 
best be obtained by constantly increasing 
the breeding reserve of game under 
present and even more progressive laws 
directed toward that end. 
Up to a short time ago no fact is more 
clear than that the game of the country 
has been decreasing, some species even 
approaching the point of extinction. 
That the energies of the whole country 
have been directed toward increasing the 
stock of game is demonstrated by the 
fact that many state legislatures have 
decreased the amount of the game to be 
killed by individuals and shortened the 
seasons in which game could be killed. 
these efforts, the de- 
crease in game became so serious that a 
universal demand throughout the country 
persuaded Congress to pass a law placing 
the jurisdiction of migratory game birds 
under federal supervision. Canada passed 
through the same experience, as is proved 
by a treaty negotiated with the United 
States practically incorporating the terms 
of the migratory bird law passed by 
Congress. The result of better state 
laws and the migratory bird law has been 
a positive increase of waterfowl and a 
wide extension southward of the breeding 
of waterfowl. It is perfectly clear that 
this increased breeding reserve gives more 
individual citizens the opportunity to kill 
for food more game, which opportunities 
must necessarily increase each year pro- 
portionately to the increase of the breed- 
ing reserve. 
Any effort to weaken the present laws 
or in any way relax them in one locality 
would immediately lead to a demand for 
such relaxation of laws in all other local- 
ities, insuring a rapid breakdown of the 
whole legal structure of present game 
protection erected after efforts extending 
over numerous years. Once the perfected 
laws were relaxed to the point where 
game could be killed more freely, not- 
withstanding the fact that numerous 
gunners have gone to war, the game would 
be quickly destroyed by largely increased 
problem 
