42 WILD LIFE CONSERVATION 



of the organized sportsmen on the western state 

 legislator is too great for the best interests of the 

 wild life. What shall be done? 



A great step remains to be taken. Ten years 

 ago, when the national forest idea was fighting for 

 its life in Congress, even the President did not dare 

 to mention above a whisper the logical conclusion 

 of the western big-game situation, which is this : 



In the near future, Congressional legislation 

 must be enacted which will make of every national 

 forest a national game-preserve, in which no hunt- 

 ing for sport is permitted. 



Whenever such a demand is formally launched, 

 a roar of disapproval and protest will arise from 

 the men of the West who now hunt in the national 

 forests, and are bent on maintaining their killing 

 privileges. As was the case with the Bayne bill 

 against the sale of game, the cry will be raised: 

 "Too drastic! Too sweeping! Revolutionary! It 

 means prohibition of hunting," etc. But we have 

 heard all this many times before. The thing to do, 

 all over the world, is to save the wild life even 

 though slaughtering privileges are cut off in the 

 doing of it. 



Regarding their game, the western mountain 

 states have well-nigh sinned away their days of 

 grace. Let them alone a little longer, and they will 

 be as barren of all game as the Colorado desert. 

 In legal parlance, they have slept on their rights, 



