DESTRUCTION OF GAME AND GAME BIRDS. 271 



And comrades, we of the trap line and trail, who are not blessed 

 with the dollar and the automobile, will soon find that our 

 pleasures in the open, like Mr. Bachelder's, are laid by for all time. 

 If the club man, through his leasing policies and the trespass law 

 that he has before the House of Representatives, becomes a law, 

 we can go away back and sit down. 



But, comrades, I consider that we are to blame to a large 

 extent for these "one man" game laws. Had we come out at the 

 right time and fought for our rights in the open instead of 

 slinking back in the dark, whining, I believe that the law, as 

 applied to the trap, would be different and I should not violate 

 the game laws after passed, no matter if they are not wholly to 

 my liking. 



The professional sportsman makes a great talk about the 

 amount of birds that the fox destroys. Now, the facts are, one 

 weasel or snake will destroy more rabbits or birds and birds' eggs 

 than a dozen foxes. The fox gets the greater part of his food 

 from the field mouse. This fact any close observer knows. 

 * * * 



Brother trappers, you are aware that the nations the United 

 States, Great Britain, Japan and Russia, have taken the fur seal 

 under their protection, and will protect the seal and sell their 

 skins. I wish to ask you, brother trapper, if your wife, daughter 

 or sweetheart wears furs made of the seal skin. No? Well, 

 your wife, daughter or sweetheart does wear furs made from the 

 fur-bearer that runs on the hillside back of your house. Then, why 

 do you stand for a bounty on these animals from which the furs 

 are made for your wife, daughter or sweetheart to wear, to hasten 

 the extinction of these fur-bearers, while the millionaire gives the 

 word to the government, and the fur-bearer of the millionaire is 

 protected at the expense of the people? Say, you wives, daughters 

 or sweethearts of the trapper, do you stand for this kind of a deal? 



A few words in regard to the protection of the game and game 

 birds : I think that every lover of outdoor life should be willing 

 to have a reasonable number to the bag limit of either game birds 

 or game animals, and lend a hand in protecting the game to the 

 amount of the bag limit. 



