FIRST BIENNIAL STATEMENT 63 



15,000. But the friends of wild life reckoned without Mr. 

 Newbert ! 



Now it happens that Mr. F. M. Newbert, who is president 

 of the California State Game Commission, is a crack shot, 

 an enthusiastic duck hunter, and a Commissioner who kills 

 game not wisely but too well. During the summer of 1914 

 he had been severely criticised for the formation of a new 

 game-shooting " preserve" of very large proportions and 

 the usual exclusiveness — a proceeding that did not at all 

 tend toward popularizing the Commission with the haters 

 of preserve owners. 



On Sunday, November 1, the San Francisco Examiner 

 published on its front page, a ''game-hog picture" of the 

 kind that sets the public wild. It showed 187 dead ducks 

 hanging in festoons, and behind them stood seven men in 

 their shirt sleeves and suspenders, posing as the killers of 

 the birds. They were all fully named, and the central 

 figure was that of Mr. F. M. Newbert, President of the 

 Game Commission of the sovereign state of California. On 

 the ground lay piles of dead ducks. 



And the election was due on November 3. 



The instant that picture was seen by the champions of 

 wild life, they knew that their cause was defeated. The 

 picture was taken on October 15, 1914, and it represented 

 the first day's work of the shooting season. Some of Mr. 

 Newbert's friends endeavored to help him out of the ugly 

 situation by stating in print that the picture was taken 

 "ten years ago," but Mr. Newbert himself told the truth 

 about it in print (See Forest and Stream, December 5, page 

 730) . Several good judges estimated that the Newbert game 

 slaughter picture cost our cause 25,000 votes. Others say 

 40,000. Certain it is that the no-sale-of-game law was 

 wiped clean off the statute books of California by a ma- 

 jority of 8,154. The triumph of Corriea and President 

 Newbert was thorough and complete. In his letter to For- 

 est and Stream, Mr. Newbert admitted that the publication 

 of his picture "resulted in the loss of a great many votes." 



The voting record of Los Angeles and southern Cali- 

 fornia is without a flaw. There the Flint-Carey law was 



