Alabama, ip 15. 67 



(f) The bag-limit has been respected by all true sportsmen who 

 have compelled many game-hogs, by fear of prosecution and moral 

 suasion, to abide its terms. 



(g) The farmers have realized the value of birds and game and 

 have resisted its wholesale slaughter on their possessions. 



(h) Public sentiment has become thoroughly awakened as to 

 the value of birds and game, and except in notoriously lawless com- 

 munities, has compelled the observance of our conservation statutes. 



It must be realized that it is impossible to enact an unbreakable 

 law. Men are constantly committing offenses punishable by death, 

 although they have full knowledge of the penalty of their crime in 

 the event of conviction. A man-made law that does not embrace a 

 portion of the decalogue is popularly construed to envolve no moral 

 wrong ; it is therefore difficult to secure convictions for offenses like 

 smoking on street cars, expectorating on the sidewalks or exceeding 

 the speed-limit prescribed for motor cars. No man feels called 

 upon to report his neighbor for such offenses, and the local peace 

 officers are notoriously inactive, hence but few prosecutions for the 

 class of offenses cited follow. 



It is imperative therefore that if a conservation law is to be 

 enforced it must be committed to a specially constituted department, 

 aided and augmented by vigilant special law officers, or wardens, 

 whose specific duty it is to bring all offenders against it promptly 

 to justice. 



All other systems of enforcing conservation statutes have been 

 tried and have been abandoned for the reason that they have proven 

 woeful failures. In forty-seven States the enforcement of the game 

 laws is entrusted to game commissioners. 



A law is observed for the following reasons : 



(a) Because the individual favors that particular law. 



(b) Because it is the law, and the individual, though he may 

 oppose it, is a law-abiding citizen. 



(c) Fear of apprehension and of subsequent punishment. 



The enforcement of a conservation statute therefore is not merely 

 a matter of education and civilization, but of constant vigilance as 

 well. 



