Big-Game Refuges 



to go where he can find game to hunt. The establish- 

 ment of such refuges is for the benefit of the whole 

 public not for any class and is therefore a thor- 

 oughly democratic proposition. 



There is no question as to the right of Congress to 

 enact laws governing the killing of game on the 

 public domain, or within a forest reserve where 

 this domain lies within the boundaries of a Territory. 

 Moreover, it has been determined by the courts and 

 otherwise that within a State the Federal Government 

 has, on a forest reserve, all the rights of an individual 

 proprietor, "supplemented with the power to make 

 and enforce its own laws for the assertion of those 

 rights, and for the disposal and full and complete 

 management, control and protection of its lands." 



In January, 1902, the Hon. John F. Lacey, of Iowa, 

 a member of this Club, whose efforts in behalf of 

 game protection are generally recognized, and whose 

 name is attached to the well-known Lacey Law, re- 

 ceived from Attorney-General Knox an opinion indi- 

 cating that there is reasonable ground for the view 

 that the Government may legislate for the protection 

 of game on the forest reserves, whether these forest 

 reserves lie within the Territories or within the States. 

 From this opinion the following paragraphs are 

 taken : 



"While Congress certainly may by law prohibit and punish 

 the entry upon or use of any part of these forest reserves 

 for the purpose of the killing, capture or pursuit of game, 

 this would not be sufficient. There are many persons now 

 on those reserves by authority of law, and people are ex- 

 pressly authorized to go there, and it would be necessary 

 to go further and to prohibit the killing, capture or pursuit 



449 



V 



