THIRD BIENNIAL STATEMENT 107 



tection Fund on February 15, 1920, as Bulletin No. 6, in an 

 article entitled 'The Free Killing of Alaskan Brown Bears." 



Just why the editor of the Daily Empire should elect to 

 give the author of the pamphlet ten times more credit than 

 he deserves for the protection that the Alaskan brown bear 

 has received up to date does not appear, and therefore apol- 

 ogies are due to Dr. C. Hart Merriam, the real leader of the 

 opposition to Alaskan brown bear extermination. 



The article in the Daily Empire applies various opprobri- 

 ous epithets to the Campaigning Trustee of the Permanent 

 Wild Life Protection Fund, who has noted with interest the 

 fact that he has not yet been called a horse thief or a mur- 

 derer by direct attack. 



To the editor of the Empire the following letter was for- 

 warded, calling attention to the shortcomings of the people 

 of Alaska in living up to the legal privileges in the abate- 

 ment of the alleged brown bear evil : 



New York, May 14, 1920. 



The Editor of the Alaska Daily Empire, 

 Juneau, Alaska. 



Dear Sir : My attention has been called to the article in 

 your newspaper of April 26, giving the distressing details 

 of the death of Clarence Thompson from injuries received 

 from a bear while out hunting. I deeply regret the death 

 of Mr. Thompson, and also his failure to kill the bear before 

 it attacked him. 



Ordinarily I do not answer newspaper attacks that are 

 made upon me personally, because I believe that the public 

 has little interest in personal controversies. I will, there- 

 fore, pass by in silence the very harsh and quite uncalled 

 for epithets which you so freely applied to me throughout 

 your article. I will not, however, permit the principle in- 

 volved to go undefended. 



Whenever an unfortunate accident occurs it is one of the 

 frailties of human nature that no matter whether any sec- 

 ond party is to blame or not efforts immediately are made 

 to place the "blame" upon someone, no matter how remote 



