A LETTER ON MIGRATORY BIRDS 



Oskaloosa, Iowa, December 3, 1910. 

 Hon. John W. Weeks, M. C. 

 Washington, D. C. 



Dear Weeks : I have been noticing your bill to protect 

 migratory birds, and feel very much interested in its suc- 

 cess. 



I had this matter up some years ago and got Mr. Wads- 

 worth, chairman of the committee on agriculture, to write 

 a communication to the attorney-general asking a legal 

 opinion as to the constitutionality of such measure ; and 

 then saw President Roosevelt, who talked to the attorney- 

 general and urged an immediate and careful examination 

 of the question. 



As you are aware, it is a somewhat difficult one, and 

 the attorney-general never reported on the subject. 



I first attempted to draw a bill along the lines of the 

 present Weeks bill, but Judge Welborn, in California, and 

 other judges on the Pacific Coast, held that a crime could 

 not be carved out of a violation of a departmental regula- 

 tion. When these decisions were made the government 

 could not appeal ; their only way to get the matter in the 

 Supreme Court would be to get some court to rule the 

 other way and have the defendant appeal. Since then 

 Congress has passed a law authorizing the government 

 to take an appeal, but I am not aware of any case having 

 been brought up under it, on the subject of departmental 

 regulation ; though I have not recently examined the de- 

 cisions with this matter in view. 



I concluded that a practical prohibition of shooting, 



