DUTY AND POWER OF THE CITIZEN 191 



in Alaska, is to all good citizens a source of irrita- 

 tion, a public nuisance and a danger that requires 

 abatement. That abatement should be peaceable 

 if possible, but forcible if necessary. If education 

 and appeal can not work the necessary reform, then 

 the stern execution of the law is the next recourse. 

 It is high time that sneering at game laws and game 

 wardens should be regarded as intolerable, and 

 sternly suppressed; for contempt for law usually 

 breeds serious trouble for some one. 



When left wholly to himself, savage man does 

 not inflict useless wholesale slaughter upon the wild 

 beasts and birds; but in the ranks of civilized men 

 there are degenerates who love slaughter and pro- 

 mote it with joy and exultation. If it happens to be 

 quite useless, no matter! At all events, it makes a 

 thrilling story. 



Henceforth, our hope for arresting the efforts of 

 the slaughterers must rest upon the hitherto silent 

 majority of men, and women also, who abhor 

 slaughter, and do not kill. They outnumber the 

 army of destruction at least 9 to 1. Their poten- 

 tial influence is beyond the reach of calculation. 

 They can do for wild life well nigh whatever they 

 choose. The time has come when they must be 

 called upon to take up their share of the white 

 man's burden, and bear it to the goal. No man who 

 cares a pin's price for the heritage of his children 

 can remain indifferent to the cause of wild-life 

 preservation or forest conservation. Each man of 



