402 Fortieth Annual Meeting 



suppliant to Uncle Sam for his largess in the way of game 

 fishes, and still, in some instances, they turn to their 

 neighbors and refuse tliem equal privileges with themselves. 

 Every state that discriminates against the non-resident 

 should be refused any favors or assistance at the hands of 

 the government. 



I am not versed in constitutional law, and they tell me 

 some promulgated ideas of what the United States might 

 do in relation to the conservation, preservation, etc., of 

 game fishes would l)e unconstitutional, but assuredly a way 

 can be found for the government to righteously administer 

 in the premises. 



Is a national rod tax out of the question and would not 

 this give the government the right to control and hence 

 bring about universal conditions of good, and laws backed 

 by an efficient policing for which the lawbreaker would have 

 some respect? 



State laws, with very few exceptions, are, as I have said 

 before, selfish and tend toward a breaking up of any proper 

 appreciation of their righteousness and are often inoperative 

 because of no proper respect for them or from a lack of 

 funds to support the necessary officers calculated to compel 

 such respect. 



Would it not also be possible to still further the advance- 

 ment of all those conditions for which the intelligent angler 

 stands, to bring about a coalition of all or at least many of 

 the organizations now devoted to this end. In such an or- 

 ganization would surely lie immense strength. 



The National Association of Scientific Angling Clubs, of 

 which I have the honor to be president, and which now em- 

 braces about twenty affiliated clubs and aggregates an in- 

 dividual membership of about twelve hundred, hopes to 

 bring about, through its common interest in the sport of 

 tournament casting, a very closely knit organization stand- 

 ing for the same general principles of sportsmanship and for 

 those higher ideals and conditions for which all true anglers 

 stand. 



