BULLETIN NUMBER FOUR 163 



mize the importance of stopping the sale of game. We 

 heartily and sincerely congratulate the Missouri League for 

 so doing, and we know full well that bucking the St. Louis 

 and Kansas City markets was an uphill job not lightly 

 accomplished. But we fail to understand why this entitled 

 Missouri to shoot ducks until March 31. Because open 

 markets are a public shame and disgrace, are closed mar- 

 kets a virtue deserving of special reward? We submit that 

 they are not. Every decent state in the Union has closed 

 its markets; and decency, not concessions, is their reward. 

 Nowadays, closed markets are a necessity that is abso- 

 lutely obvious; and to achieve them is accordingly a virtue 

 that is taken for granted. "THOU SHALT NOT 

 SELL GAME" has become the American Sportsman's 

 ELEVENTH COMMANDMENT, for the observance of 

 which he claims no reward. Why should Missouri? 



Fourth, and lastly, we have with us that 42-centimeter 

 bomb of opprobrium, that mighty projectile of misunder- 

 standing, — "unconstitutionality." Shade of Alexander 

 Hamilton, what ducks are killed in thy name! Brother 

 sportsmen, we are not lawyers, but we thought that every 

 American citizen knew that no statute is "unconstitutional" 

 until declared so by the Supreme Court, and that legality 

 has nothing to do with merit. The constitutionality of 

 this law has nothing to do with the question of whether 

 it is right, or just, or needed. To mix the two questions 

 is throwing dust into the eyes of the public. 



In working to achieve their ends, the Missouri League 

 first tried to prevail on the Biological Survey to change 

 the regulations. The Survey was accused of unwillingness 

 to sit down on a log and thresh it out. Nevertheless, the 

 Survey came out and sat right on the Missouri log, and 

 evidenced the utmost willingness to "thresh." Said the 

 Survey: "Let's talk about March 10." Whereupon the 

 Missouri League jumped up. "March 31, or nothing!" they 

 said. Whereupon the discussion ended. 



