162 WILD LIFE CONSERVATION 



We know that the deadliness of firearms and the 

 number of firearms are constantly being increased. 



We know that the thirst for the blood of wild 

 creatures now amounts to an insatiable rage; a 

 "craze" in fact, as well as in name. There are a 

 thousand rich men in America, young and old, each 

 of whom would willingly go to the gates of hades 

 itself in order to find his chosen game. 



Finally, we know that of the millions of men who 

 form the army of destruction, not more than 5 per 

 cent of them care one iota about our duty to pos- 

 terity or the claims of our children and grand- 

 children. In the saving of game for posterity, by 

 their own volition and unrestrained by law, the 

 great majority of men and boys who shoot, includ- 

 ing all in America and in Europe, have no more 

 mercy or sense of honor toward wild life than so 

 many gray wolves of the prairies. 



In the United States there are about 5,000,000 

 gunners, game-hogs and sportsmen. In that entire 

 multitude I venture to say that there are not over 

 2,000 men or boys who by reason of their own high 

 principles could be trusted in any country to hunt 

 wild game wholly unrestrained by the hand of the 

 law. I mention this fact, not merely as a complaint 

 against the men I accuse, but because it is a fact, 

 and it now is a factor of tremendous importance to 

 all those who desire to preserve wild life as a duty 

 to posterity. In order to plan our campaign of 

 offense against the army of destruction, it is a mili- 



