I 74 DuTCHER, Report of Committer on Bird Protection. Ljan. 



this regard, leaving the song birds of her forests, the game birds 

 of her fields and mountains, and the fish of her sparkling streams 

 at the mercy of the market hunter and the ruthless destroyer, the 

 patrons of cold storage warehouses, the trapper and the dynamiter, 

 all of whom may soon be expected to wipe out what little wild life 

 yet remains in the State, after the previous years of unbridled and 

 defiant slaughter. 



'* Why does Missouri occupy this unenviable position ? For a 

 year or more the Secretary of this Society, assisted by the two 

 other members of its Executive Committee, has been laboriously 

 at work drafting and creating a bill which has been pronounced 

 nearly perfect by the judicial and expert authorities of other pro- 

 tected States, by the U. S. Department of Agriculture, and by 

 various Agricultural and Horticultural Societies of Missouri. The 

 bill was submitted to the Joint Committee upon bird and game 

 legislation in the Senate and House at Jefferson City and, with a 

 few unimportant changes, adopted as their own. The two com- 

 mittees were not only satisfied with the bill, but were in a measure 

 enthusiastic over it. No doubts were expressed about its passage ; 

 but, in the meantime, delegations from the game dealers and 

 patrons of cold storage warehouses visited Jefferson City to 

 oppose the bill. Immediately after their departure enthusiasm 

 for the bill waned in the Senate, and when it was reported a furi- 

 ous onslaught was made upon it by a senator who led the opposi- 

 tion to a similar bill two years ago. The bill was loaded down 

 with injurious amendments, and sent back to the committee, where 

 it slept forever afterwards, despite the efforts of the Audubon 

 Society to have it reported ; the bill died with the session without 

 the Senate getting an opportunity for a final vote. 



" In the House the bill was never reported, but remained in the 

 hands of the committee. It is unnecessary for us to make any 

 statement as to why the bill was not pushed in the Senate for he 

 who reads can understand. 



" Gov. Dockery's request in a special message to the General 

 Assembly for effective game and bird legislation, the pleadings of 

 thousands of Missourians and the Press throughout the State to 

 enact better protective laws, were treated with the utmost con- 

 tempt and disregard by the joint committee on bird and game 

 legislation." 



