150 WILD LIFE PROTECTION FUND 



At this point I would like to ask every American Sports- 

 man this question: How many game laws can you count 

 that have been enacted for the purpose of giving the game 

 a square deal in the struggle for existence, regardless of 

 the killable supply? 



I do not believe that there are, in all the statute books of 

 our forty-eight states, and over the nation at large, one 

 round dozen of game laws that have been placed there solely 

 on ethical grounds, to give the game justice and a square- 

 deal. Every law of which I know that affects killable game 

 owes its existence to the sordid purpose of preserving to- 

 day in order to have something to kill tomorrow! 



We have laws for the protection of women, children, and 

 men; dogs, horses, cats; sheep, swine, and song-birds, from 

 oppression and from cruelty. We have societies for the 

 protection of the aborigines, to the utmost corners of the 

 earth. We prevent the slaughter of gulls and terns, the 

 defacement or destruction of the wonders of inanimate 

 nature, and we have a series of national monuments for 

 the prevention of vandalism in cherished places. 



But do we protect any killable game for the sake of giv- 

 ing it a square deal, and a fair chance to win against us 

 in the chase? 



Has any state ever forbidden the use of telescopic sights 

 on game rifles ? No ; not that we can remember. 



Has any state ever forbidden hunters to fire at big game 

 at a greater distance than 200 yards? Emphatically, no I 

 What an idea! A sporting magazine of June, 1916, con- 

 tains a picture of a small mountain sheep "killed at a dis- 

 tance of one mile!" And great be the glory of the gallant 

 hunter, who, so we must infer, was not a sufficient moun- 

 taineer to stalk within fair gunshot of his game. 



Do the sportsmen of New York, or any other state, who 

 with sad faces and tearful voices sometimes tell us of the 

 freezing and starving of quail in bad winters, ever refrain 

 from quail hunting during the next open season out of pity 

 for the half-starved remnant? Not on your life. And do 



