MISSOURI'S ATTACK, AND FINAL DEFEAT, 

 ON THE MIGRATORY BIRD TREATY 



A STRANGER to the Interstate Sportsmen's Protective 

 Association of Missouri would suppose that men who 

 have been beaten several times in their assaults on an Ameri- 

 can basic principle of wild life protection would thereby 

 learn a little wisdom on the subject of having "enough." 

 He also might suppose that when an international treaty has 

 been negotiated by act of Congress with a neighbor nation, 

 solemnly agreed to, ratified and entered as law in the United 

 States Statutes at Large, all responsible citizens would have 

 for it a measure of respect. 



But not so with the spring-shooting fanatics of "Miz- 

 zoury," the headquarters of the Interstate Sportsmen's Pro- 

 tective Association. 



With the passage by Congress of the treaty enabling act, 

 the malcontent spring shooters of Missouri lost no time in 

 attacking its foundations. Their last forlorn hope for the 

 restoration of their beloved pastime of shooting wild fowl 

 on their way to their nesting grounds, lay in the desperate 

 chance that the Supreme Court of the United States could 

 be relied upon to declare that the Treaty is unconstitutional, 

 null and void. 



On February 25, 1919, at Bean Lake, Platte County, Mis- 

 souri, George L. Samples and W. C. DeLapp were arrested 

 by federal game wardens, and charged before United States 

 Commissioner Duncan at St. Joseph, with hunting, killing 

 and possessing certain migratory wild fowl after the close of 

 the federal open season. 



On March 4, 1919, the Federal Grand Jury at St. Joseph 

 indicted both men on all three counts. On March 24 the 



