30 WILD LIFE CONSERVATION 



announced that he would insist upon the enforce- 

 ment of his opinion throughout the state. 



The only serious effect of the attorney-general's 

 opinion was that its publication in a great many 

 newspapers, with the startling head-line "Federal 

 Bird Law Declared Unconstitutional'' gave many 

 timid persons a momentary scare, and an impres- 

 sion that the law really may be unconstitutional. 



The champions of the bird law lost not a moment 

 in challenging the soundness of the opinion, and in 

 pointing out that a street-car conductor or a barber 

 can as easily nullify a federal law by pronuncia- 

 mento as can any state attorney-general. Their 

 claim that the attorney-general's opinion was 

 purely academic, so far as the enforcement of the 

 federal law is concerned, was quickly substantiated 

 by a statement from an assistant attorney-general 

 for the United States, Mr. Kroetel, who informed 

 the people of New York that the migratory bird 

 law is in full force in that state, and its enforcement 

 by the national government will assuredly continue. 

 Although scores of newspapers between Chicago 

 and Boston have commented editorially on this 

 comedy of much ado about nothing, only one has 

 supported the position assumed by our attorney- 

 general, while all the others have severely con- 

 demned it. The law is in full force in New York 

 state, and it will be enforced down to the utmost 

 detail, until it is either repealed by Congress, or set 

 aside by the United States Supreme Court, 



