36 GAME BEFUGES. 



I am not going to speak much longer, gentlemen, but I do wish to 

 say this: I regard this measure as virtually the last call for bringing 

 back and maintaining a real supply of big game in the national forest 

 States. Throughout my long western trip last fall the feeling that 

 prevailed among the men whom I met who are interested in this sub- 

 ject was universal pessimism. In the State of Idaho, for instance, 

 at Pocatello, a leading citizen said, hopelessly: 



"Oh, what is the use ? The game is just as good as gone already, 

 and there is no use in trying to save it. What is the use?" 



I know that the only way to really bring back to the States of the 

 West a good supply of big game, and maintain it on a basis of legiti- 

 mate sport, is for the Federal Government to step in and do what the 

 States have not done and can not do. 



On one hand the trouble is with the old spirit of killing as long 

 as there is any game left to kill, and on the other hand it lies in 

 the State legislatures, which do not wish to antagonize large bodies of 

 State sportsmen. That is only natural, perfectly natural. 



In every State that contains game, without any exception so far as 

 I know, there is now no increase in big game except in actual game 

 preserves. The State of Maine, which was supposed to be impreg- 

 nable so far as the supply of deer is concerned, now reports through 

 Maine sportsmen that the deer of Maine are rapidly decreasing. We 

 once thought that the laws of the State of New York were so good 

 that we would always have a fine supply of game in the Adirondacks. 

 The count of the deer seen in the Adirondacks last year revealed the 

 fact that we have only a fraction of what we supposed we had. 



In the face of that situation, what is going on in New York ? 

 What is happening, on the one hand, among the people who kill 

 and, on the other hand, in the legislatures of our States? 



The guides of the Adirondacks are insisting that "the buck law," 

 which provides that no female deer shall be killed, shall be repealed, 

 and that the killing of female deer shall be made legal. That idea 

 started as soon as the buck law was placed on the statute books, 

 and it has persisted ever since. It culminated at the last session of 

 the New York Legislature, and I assure you that it would be difficult 

 to describe the vigor and determination of those guides in their 

 attempts to bring back the killing of female deer for sport. We had 

 a tremendous fight in the last legislature. The cause of the deer 

 was championed by every important wild-life protective association 

 in the State of New York; and that means a good deal. I will not 

 take up your time in giving the names of the national and State 

 organizations who sent their officers to the legislature to fight the 

 Kasson bill. After a great hearing we were told by a joint committee 

 of the two houses that the Kasson bill was dead. The champions 

 of the deer made such a good showing that everybody thought the 

 bill was dead. And then what happened ? 



The politicians got busy; and when politics enters into wild-life 

 protection, wo get beaten. The first thing we knew that bill was 

 quietly slipped through the assembly; but when it came to the 

 senate it was beaten by a good majority. That was on the day 

 before the session closed. We thought everything was safe; but in 

 one of the last hours of the session the speaker of the assembly came 

 down from his high office, put on his gum shoes, trailed over to the 



