GAME KEFUGES. 39 



general welfare" are too plain to be mistaken, or to admit of doubt. 

 If we were to revise the Constitution to-day, we could not possibly 

 improve upon that phrase as a means to provide for things now 

 unforeseen. 



In the past Congress has not split hairs in the doing of things 

 necessary for the general welfare. Why begin with so simple, so 

 harmless, so inexpensive and so beneficial a measure as the making 

 of game sanctuaries in the public domain without interference with 

 legitimate industries? 



Gentlemen, in conclusion I repeat that this is constructive legis- 

 lation. Contrary to Mr. MondelFs fear, I see no reason for the 

 •expenditure of any large sums of public money on this cause; none 

 whatever. We have taken pains to say that we were not in favor 

 of big appropriations from the Federal Government in connection 

 with these forest reserves. We do not believe they are necessary. 



It is quite true, as has been suggested, that the men of the Forest 

 Service are keenly interested in this development. The reason is 

 quite evident. The men of the Forest Service see a great oppor- 

 tunity to do a great thing for the American people. They are anxious 

 to produce something good and great out of the raw materials that 

 are now going to waste. 



I believe sincerely that if the National Government does not enact 

 the Hayden bill into law and does not carry out some grand, com- 

 prehensive scheme for repairing the mistakes of the past that the 

 big game of the West, excepting in existing National and State game 

 preserves, will totally disappear, and that hunting as a sport will 

 become a pastime of the past. 



I do not agree with Mr. Mondell in believing that the food-supply 

 question is absurd or negligible; quite the reverse. I know this: 

 That whenever a frontiersman is arrested for killing game out of 

 season and is taken to the local court, in about 7 cases out of 10 

 the jury sets him free on the ground that " he needed the meat." 

 That is a very common expression out there: "Not guilty; he needed 

 the meat." The frontiersmen out West do not consider this food 

 question in connection with big game as negligible; not by any 

 means. 



You and I know, gentlemen of the committee, that in the United 

 States there are not millions, but there are scores of millions, and 

 hundreds of millions of acres of waste land to-day, in the Appalachian 

 region, in the White Mountains, in the West, and in the South in 

 which a vast amount of wild game might be produced if only the 

 proper measures were taken. If we ever become so rich that 2,000,000 

 deer a year are of no consequence as a food supply, then I am wrong 

 and Mr. Mondell is right; but with beef at 25 and 30 cents a pound, 

 a million deer a year added to the 'menu of the very men who need 

 it most — the individual frontiersman in our wild country— would be 

 something well worth having. 



Mr. Chairman, I thank you for this opportunity. In conclusion, 

 I would like to file with you, as an addition to my testimony, the 

 following summary of the subject under consideration: . 



