178 
be passed which should rob the fishermen of the right to 
follow his calling within legitimate means. If our work 
means anything it means that we are engaged in an 
undertaking which, if properly conducted, will result in 
a direct benefit to the fishermen and incidentally in great 
benefit to the people at Jarge in the maintenance of a 
cheap and wholesome food. With this understanding of 
the conditions, fishermen should be willing to submit to 
such just and necessary laws as may be required to pre- 
vent destruction of young fish which are of no special 
value for their purposes, and the destruction of which 
means the ultimate decadence and extinction of their 
means of livelihood. So faras uniformity in laws can be 
secured regulating the fishing in the different States, 
they should be made uniform, but experience seems to 
indicate that the fault hes not in the number or effective- 
ness of statutes, but in the inadequacy of the means which 
have been used to enforce them. 
Most of these laws are inherently defective because of 
the attempt to build up a warden system by counties, 
allowing the compensation of wardens to be fixed by the 
boards of supervisors, who, as a rule, will grant no com- 
pensation, or one which is grossly inadequate, which 
results in making the warden system of no effect. New 
York has without doubt the best warden law of any 
State in the Union, because the pay of her wardens is 
sure and fixed. 
The ideal law would be one giving authority to the 
Board of Commissioners of each State to appoint a 
chief warden with such deputies as he might require for 
a proper enforcement of the laws, whose compensation 
should be sufficient to secure the services of good men 
who should be paid by the State. The State might be 
districted, but in that event each warden could exercise 
the functions of his office in some district other than the 
one in which he resides, thereby removing from local 
influence in the administration of his duty. 
