THIRD BIENNIAL STATEMENT 147 



tion, are all determinable by the inexorable rules of logic, 

 and of reasoning from cause to effect. 



The interests of a great number of people are paramount 

 to the interests of a few. To the conservationist of natural 

 resources, waste is abhorrent, and the extermination of 

 valuable species is a crime. The robbery of posterity is 

 wicked and repulsive ; and all robbery deserves to be either 

 prevented or punished. 



In every well-settled country containing a fair supply of 

 game birds, game and fur quadrupeds and food fishes, the 

 questions involved in the taking and utilization of those 

 assets of nature create an irrepressible conflict. Every 

 country produces its annual crop of uncompromising de- 

 stroyers, and some countries contain a few real conservators. 



The western world contains few fanatics of the oriental 

 type, to whom all killing is abhorrent and wicked. The 

 white races of men believe in the doctrine of legitimate 

 sport and sensible utilization; but the game-hog is a con- 

 stant menace. 



The game-hog is a factor with which every government 

 and every individual game protector must reckon. In the 

 slaughter of game he has no conscience, and to him, game 

 laws are an intolerable evil. He is utterly devoid of senti- 

 mental or scientific interest in wild life, and he will go far 

 to kill the last representative of a species in order to boast 

 of it. 



KILLING EVERYTHING IN SIGHT 



Some game-hogs, who are honestly ignorant of what they 

 are, can be educated out of their evil ways, and reformed ; 

 but others can not be. The last annual report of the New 

 York State Conservation Commissioner, George D. Pratt, 

 contains this striking passage regarding the confirmed 

 game-hogs of the Adirondacks who slaughter deer illegally, 

 and for whom no one can plead the excuse of ignorance. 

 Commissioner Pratt says : 



