78 WILD LIFE PROTECTION FUND 



shielded from the consequences of the foolish acts that they 

 would commit if unrestrained. A child that is heading for 

 an open fire is snatched back by violent but kindly force. 

 In the same manner, far-sighted men must restrain the 

 Rocky Mountain and Pacific states from rendering every 

 national forest a scene of lifeless desolation. Those un- 

 tillable and ungrazable forest lands should be made to teem 

 with big game; and then when it teems sufficiently, the 

 bars should judiciously be let down, in order that a right- 

 ful annual toll of male wild game might be taken for the 

 legitimate uses of the American people. 



At this point we have neither the time nor the patience 

 to write anew the story of wild life destruction and de- 

 pletion in the western third of the United States. The elk 

 herds of Wyoming and the Olympic National Monument, 

 the herds of big-horn sheep in Colorado, the deer of Ver- 

 mont, the Adirondacks and Maine all point the way toward 

 the sane conservation of big game, and show what real 

 protection can do in a few years' time. These facts should 

 be sufficient to silence all argument that might be made 

 against the creation of game preserves in the National Re- 

 serve Forests; but by many persons they will be ignored. 

 The moment we approach Congress with a bill, the war 

 will begin. 



Let us now classify our foes and our friends : 



Those ivho ivill oppose National Forest Game Preserves : 



1. The hunting freebooter who lives on the game of the 



country. 



2. The ranchman and frontiersman who thinks his game- 



killing privileges will be abridged, or entirely cut 

 off. 



3. The stockman who thinks that the deer and elk will 



deprive his stock of some of the grass. 



4. The Governor who is jealous of the national govern- 



ment in the matter of game laws and federal control. 



