124 



PROBLEMS IN WILD LIFE CONSERVATION 



The one exception mentioned above was the black bass 

 protection work which was started in 1930. Following 

 along the lines of the Lacy act, 28 Congress in 1930 passed 

 the Black Bass Act which prohibited the shipment in inter- 

 state commerce of black bass taken or possessed in violation 

 of state statutes. 29 A small division was set up within the 

 bureau with a staff of half a dozen to enforce this statute. 



Commissioner Bowers was removed in 1913 at the in- 

 stance of the Secretary of Commerce, Mr. Redfield. His 

 successor, Dr. Hugh M. Smith, who had long been deputy 

 commissioner (1903-13) was appointed from a list of can- 

 didates recommended by a committee representing the Amer- 

 ican Society of Naturalists and the American Zoological 

 Society. He had entered the service in 1886 at the age of 

 twenty-one and had risen through the various grades to 

 the top. 80 



After nine years as Commissioner, Dr. Smith's resigna- 

 tion was requested in 1921 for reasons that are obscure. 

 Henry O'Malley, Dr. Smith's successor, had also been long 

 in the Bureau's service. From 1916 to 1918 Mr. O'Malley 

 had been chief of the division of fish culture and from 1918 

 to 1921 he had been in charge of all phases of the bureau's 

 work on the Pacific coast and in Alaska. 



The last change in leadership in the bureau occurred after 

 the new democratic administration took office in 1933. Mr. 

 Frank T. Bell, formerly secretary to Senator Dill of Wash- 

 ington, was named to succeed Mr. O'Malley. This political 

 appointment after a period of twenty-five years of scientific 

 leadership was justified by the Democratic leaders on the 

 grounds that Commissioner Bowers had been appointed in 

 1898 purely upon political grounds. 



28 See p. 86. * 46 Stat. L. 845. 



30 Macmahon, Arthur, " Bureau Chiefs in the National Administration," 

 American Political Revieiv, vol. 28, p. 780 (1926). Case discussed in 

 detail. 



