26 GAME REFUGES. 



preserve and kill woodcock if the State has said that woodcock shall 

 not be killed for 10 years. 



Mr. Reilly. Then you claim that the United States Government 

 has the right to interfere only as to making the closed season longer 

 and that it can not interfere with the open season at all ? 



Mr. Williams. That is it exactly. 



Mr. Reilly. I do not see any reason for that distinction. 



Mr. Williams. It is the same distinction that is made with regard 

 to the private owner. He has the right to say that you may come 

 upon his land and hunt for six months, even though the State has 

 prescribed that you may hunt for nine months in the State. You 

 would not have the right to go upon that man's land and hunt for 

 more than six months if he so decreed, even though the State law 

 permitted hunting for nine months. The public lands in these 

 national forests are the property of the United States in much the 

 s ame sense that the property of an individual is his property, and the 

 United States may regulate the disposition and the use of them in 

 any way that it sees fit. 



Mr. Jacoway. You can carve out a smaller period, but you can not 

 carve out a period greater than the whole period prescribed by the 

 State. 



Mr. Williams. Exactly. If the State says that a man may hunt 

 deer for six months in the year the owner of the land may say, "I 

 will let John Smith hunt deer on my land for three months in the 

 year." He has a perfect right to do that or he has the right to say, 

 "I will not let him come here at all to hunt," or he has the right to 

 say, "I will let him hunt on my land for the full six months." And 

 that is all in the world that this bill claims and it is all the jurisdic- 

 tion that the Federal Government is asserting in this bill. It is the 

 same jurisdiction that is asserted, as I have cited to the committee, 

 in previous acts of Congress. 



Mr. Reilly. Then your claim is that the bill is along the line of 

 assisting the States in conserving the game or controlling it ? 



Mr. Williams. Yes, sir. Now, whether it is a wise thing for the 

 Federal Government to do this or whether it ought' to be left to the 

 States to do this is another question. I agree with Mr. Mondell that 

 any State in this Union can draw a ring around the public lands of 

 the United States and make them a game sanctuary. Why '? Not 

 on any theory that the State has exclusive jurisdiction over that 

 land for the protection of the game but on the theory that it has 

 jurisdiction over the protection of game as such and it can forbid 

 the shooting of game in any section of the State that it sees fit, on 

 the public lands if it sees fit to do so ; but that does not negative the 

 power in Congress to say also, "You shall not hunt any game on 

 certain designated areas of public lands." 



Mr. Jacoway. In your judgment could the State say it was going 

 to prosecute you for trespassing on the public lands ? 



Mr. Williams. No; it would say, "We will prosecute 3^011 for kill- 

 ing a bird." That is all. And I doubt not — I may be incorrect 

 about it — that the Federal Government could go into the State courts 

 and prosecute a man for trespass on the public lands if there was any 

 State law forbidding him to trespass upon another's land. But, of 

 course, those cases are always brought in the Federal courts. 



