116 American Fisheries Society 



for the Protection of Virtue," and what could be finer 

 than the "Kai Shin She, or The Guild of Hereditary 

 Virtue?" 



What relation there could be between these high-sound- 

 ing names and the People's Fish and Game Protective 

 Association, will be apparent when I tell you that the 

 founders of this society, claiming to be carried on in the 

 interest of the conservation and the protection of the 

 fishes of the State of California, were either marketmen, 

 market-hunters, or commission-men engaged in the sale 

 of wild game, or in some way identified with this business 

 which means extermination to the wild life of the State 

 of California. I am informed by President Newbert, of 

 the California Fish and Game Commission, that it has 

 been his painful duty to arrest some of them a number of 

 times and that all are regarded with suspicion by those 

 who are deeply interested in the non-sale of game. 



This society proceeded at once to accumulate a large 

 membership and to raise a large sum of money among 

 those particularly interested in it in San Francisco — 

 hotel men, restaurant keepers, etc. They became so 

 brazen in view of their successes, that they decided to 

 entirely rewrite the game laws of California and arrange 

 them to suit themselves, notwithstanding the fact that 

 everyone knew that their work meant the extermination 

 of many of the wild animals of California. They invoked 

 the referendum which had for its object the placing of 

 wild ducks on sale in the markets, and to this they se- 

 cured, it is said, 33,000 signers, an amazing body blow 

 to the conceit of the conservationists of California, as it 

 was not supposed that 33,000 persons so absolutely ignor- 

 ant could be found in the state which prides itself upon 

 its culture and higher education. Encouraged by their 

 success in this direction these game bandits proceeded 

 to invoke the initiative, demanding that all wild game in 

 California be placed on sale in the markets. By this time 

 the people of California were thoroughly awakened to 

 the danger and in various ways, principally by publicity, 

 they succeeded in July, 1914, in making the market-men 



