GAME LAW ENFORCEMENT 215 



government, not in kind but in degree. To a much greater 

 extent than in the case of the federal government, the major 

 problem of the states is that of personnel. To obtain 

 trained wardens, able district attorneys, learned and indus- 

 trious judges to man the law-enforcement agencies is the 

 chief problem before the states. 



Political interference with the normal course of justice 

 appears more frequently than in the case of the federal gov- 

 ernment, due in large measure to less able and less honest 

 personnel. In other words, most of the defects in the state 

 game law, indeed law enforcement generally, can be traced, 

 not to the laws themselves, nor to the administrative system, 

 but to the men who are chosen to enforce them. 



State Enforcement Procedure: When one follows through 

 a case of game-law violation in a typical mid- western state 

 many of the problems become self-evident. Most of the 

 violations take place in the rural area, so it would be well 

 to locate the case there. 



John Day, aged 32, married, father of three children, 

 kills a deer during the closed season and is arrested in the 

 act by a state warden. Day has a bad record having been 

 arrested periodically in the past on charges of game-law 

 violation. He has the reputation in the neighborhood of 

 being a " good-for-nothing ". His chief occupation, if it 

 may be called such, is farming, but he also engages to some 

 extent in the manufacture of illicit liquor, is suspected of 

 petty thievery, and in general has succeeded in making him- 

 self an all-around nuisance. 



Day is taken before the local justice of the peace who is 

 perfectly familiar with his whole history. Under the law he 

 may fine the offender or, in the absence of ability to pay 

 the fine, commit him to the county jail for a sixty or ninety 

 day term. However, should he do that the county will not 



