THE GAME BREEDER 



167 



subject permanently and in a proper 

 manner. The question of bounties and 

 all other questions should be considered 

 and settled before any attempt is made 



to secure legislation. 



Class Legislation. 



Sportsmen were heard to say not so 

 very long ago that there must be no 

 game breeding, no renting of shooting 

 from the farmers ; that there must be no 

 sale of game even when it be produced 

 by industry. It was urged that legisla- 

 tion in these directions was class legis- 

 lation, intended to favor an industrious 

 class, to be sure, willing to do some- 

 thing practical, but decried as inimical 

 to the free licensed gunners. 



The farmers, on the other hand, have 

 a right to regard laws proposed by 

 sportsmen and intended to provide shoot- 

 ing on the farms as class legislation. 

 Sportsmen may regard laws made by 

 farmers as class legislation. People who 

 would prefer to eat the desirable food 

 may well regard the limiting to sports- 

 men only of the right to have the food 

 or the closing of the farms to food pro- 

 duction as undesirable class legislation 

 in so far as they are concerned ; and 

 people who for sentimental reasons are 

 opposed to field sports may regard all 

 the others as engaged in class legislation 

 quite at variance with the ideas of people 

 of their class, who surely are entitled to 

 their opinions and should have the right 

 to express them, but possibly not to put 

 them in the law books. 



It may seem difficult to plan -a meas- 

 ure acceptable to a majority of the peo- 

 ple of the various classes. There has 

 been, however, a "revolution of thought 

 and a revival of common sense" recently, 

 which the late Charles Hallock, the popu- 

 lar dean of sportsmen said was quite 

 necessary. There can be no doubt that a 

 few years ago it would have been diffi- 

 cult to persuade the Audubon Associa- 

 tion to favor the sale of game. The 

 Association believed that such sales 

 would result in extermination. The 

 writer, a sportsman of some experience, 

 entertained the same ideas, but aban- 

 doned them after studying the subject. 



A Change in Opinion. 



People who understand, the subject 

 now believe that the regulated sale of 

 game quickly will result in a tremendous 

 abundance of the desirable food. Pro- 

 fessor Pearson, secretary of the Audubon 

 Association, after giving the subject due 

 consideration and study, wrote to the 

 editor of The Game Breeder that the 

 producer of game should have +he same 

 right to sell his food as the producer of 

 a pig has to sell his pig. Such ideas 

 may seem shocking to professional game 

 savers and to some sportsmen who have 

 not studied the subject and who don't 

 know what is the matter or how to apply 

 a remedy. 



Study and Publicity. 



There certainly can be no objection to 

 a careful study of all phases of the im- 

 portant subject. There should be no ob- 

 jection to the widest publicity being given 

 to investigations intended to discover 

 what is the matter and if there is a rem- 

 edy which can be accepted by all classes 

 and not regarded as class legislation. 



It is evident that such study and in- 

 vestigation should be made by people of 

 ability ; that all classes should be given a 

 patient hearing and that publicity should 

 be given to their demands. 



There can be no doubt that the sub- 

 ject should not be studied only by people 

 of one class. All should be fully repre- 

 sented. Heretofore classes have acted 

 separately with bad results. It is an 

 absolute certainty that the subject should 

 not be studied by people of one political 

 faith to the exclusion of people of an- 

 other political faith. Politics should 

 have no place whatsoever, but await the 

 result of the impartial investigation and 

 see if it be not eminently satisfactory to 

 both parties. 



The trouble, as we see it, has resulted 

 in the hostility referred to between farm- 

 ers and sportsmen and the attempts of 

 politicians to ride both. 



Quiet Places. 



The State of Massachusetts has gone 

 in strongly for quiet places where the 

 first essential is, "The Prohibition of 





