148 WILD LIFE PROTECTION FUND 



But on this point, take the case of the Adirondack guides, 

 and the 1916 legislature of New York, as vicious examples. 



For reasons of their own, but none of them good, the 

 guides of the Adirondacks demand the privilege of killing 

 female deer. They do this despite the fact that at least 

 95 per cent of all the people of the state who know the deer 

 situation are strongly opposed to that reprehensible prac- 

 tice. In the spring of 1916, despite the vigorous opposition 

 of nearly all the game-protecting bodies of New York State, 

 a doe-killing bill was slipped through both houses of the 

 legislature, in the last foggy hours of the session, and was 

 sent to Governor Whitman. In a ringing message, Gov- 

 ernor Whitman saved the good name of the state by vetoing 

 the bill. That bill was passed by bad ethics, of course ; and 

 in the enlightened year of 1916, its success was shameful 

 and disgusting. However, a good governor is better than 

 a great politician. 



The remissness of American sportsmen in the framing 

 and promoting of adequate codes of ethics to govern the 

 taking of wild game on a basis of gentlemanly sport, is 

 really remarkable. A few laws for the prolongation of the 

 supply of killable game date far back ; but so far as we are 

 aware, the first serious attempt at the formulation of a code 

 of ethics for the purpose of giving the game a square deal 

 irrespective of laws, was that made by the writer in 1908. 

 The result was first published on April 17, as "A Sports- 

 man's Platform." In 1909 it was formally adopted by the 

 Camp-Fire Club of America as its official "code of ethics/' 

 and later on was adopted or indorsed by various other or- 

 ganizations of sportsmen, including the famous Shikar Club 

 of London. In 1913, the Camp-Fire Club, in seeking a 

 motto to be cast in iron around the rim of the Club's camp- 

 kettle, adopted this : 



KEEP THE FAITH, THOUGH I GO EMPTY 



In the "Sportsman's Platform," the following planks par- 

 ticularly relate to the ethics of hunting game at this time : 



