ADDRESSES OP MAJOR LACEY 105 



francs the French government is restoring the forests on 

 the mountain slopes. The people of the United States 

 have wakened up to the necessity of preserving at least a 

 portion of our woods, to the end that the balance of our 

 land may be successfully tilled. 



I have never been a "State's rights man," but I have 

 nevertheless always had the highest regard for the rights 

 of the states. In the drafting of this bill I have endeav- 

 ored to so prepare its limits as to always have due re- 

 gard for the wishes as well as the rights of the state, that 

 no steps like those now proposed should be taken by the 

 government as to its own property under the constitu- 

 tional rights reserved to it without first asking for the 

 consent of that state through its governor. It is not 

 necessary, but I think it prudent to ask such consent. 



Now, Mr. Chairman, as to the necessity of a law of this 

 kind. Our ancestors were all killers. Prehistoric man 

 with his club and his stone weapons no doubt extermin- 

 ated the mammoth. If these cruel forefathers of ours 

 had owned breech-loaders the progenitors of the horse, 

 the cow, the sheep, and the ox would have disappeared 

 from the earth long before domestication. The boy of 

 today is as bloody-minded as his naked forefather, and 

 begins to slay the birds and beasts as soon as he can hold 

 a stone in his chubby hands. 



From the days of the troglodyte the unequal contest 

 has raged. Stone, bronze, iron, hawking, and gunpowder 

 were added to man's power to destroy. But now, with 

 the breech-loader and later improved weapons, man has 

 become omnidestructive. He goes 500 miles for a day's 

 shooting or half way around the world for a brief hunt- 

 ing and fishing trip. 



The immensity of man's power to slay imposes great 

 responsibilities. 



We are threatened with the probable extinction of many 



