172 WILD LIFE CONSERVATION 



The first duty of the wild-life protectionist is to 

 inform himself adequately regarding the leading 

 issues of the day in the protection field. Knowl- 

 edge is power, and a protagonist of wild life badly 

 informed is like a knightly champion wearing only 

 half a suit of armor. Good sources of information 

 are your state game commission, the United States 

 Biological Survey of the Department of Agricul- 

 ture, the magazines for sportsmen, two books 

 by Mr. E. H. Forbush of Boston, and another 

 book entitled "Our Vanishing Wild Life." Any 

 man or woman, anywhere in the United States, who 

 is willing to lend a hand but is at loss to know what 

 to do, need only declare that willingness in order to 

 be advised what cause to espouse. 



The accomplishment of a great reform nearly 

 always means the enactment of new laws in the face 

 of strong opposition. Every great reform always 

 treads on a great many toes; and the owners of 

 many of those toes will not only cry out, but many 

 of them will fight. A bill to stop the sale of game 

 always arouses the opposition of the market- 

 gunners, the game-dealers and the hotel and restau- 

 rant interests. The game-dealers are natural 

 fighters, and in fighting for their selling privileges 

 they hire lawyers in abundance and spend money 

 liberally. As business men, they know how to 

 appeal to the business men in any legislature, and 

 their opposition is a very serious matter. The way 

 to counteract it is to overwhelm it, in the legislature 



