T h ! Game Breeder 



Published Monthly. Entered as second-class matter. July g, 1915, at the Post Office, New York City, 



New York, under the Act of March 3, 1879. 



Office of Publication, New York, N. Y. t - Subscription Price, $1.00 Per Year 

 VOLUME XIII JULY, 1918 NUMBER 4 



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SURVEY OF THE FIELD. 



The Migratory Bird Bill. 



The latest reports from Washington 

 indicate that the migratory bird bill 

 passed the House of Representatives 

 after it had been repaired; to put "more 

 teeth in it," and that it had gone to a 

 conference committee of the House and 

 Senate. We are informed that the 

 chances are that the. bill with all the vi- 

 cious "teeth" in it will become a law. 



Since an army of game politicians will 

 be created, necessarily selected from 

 those who have escaped the draft, we 

 have no doubt these politicians will be 

 able to hold on to their law after they 

 secure it since they can make glowing 

 reports from time to time about the fines 

 'collected from people who may be found 

 to have birds or eggs in their possession 

 or who have ventured to ship or sell 

 birds or eggs which may appear to belong 

 to the migratory species. Since wild 

 game has become very scarce some State 

 wardens, recently, have found it profit- 

 able to raid the owners of pheasants and 

 !to arrest people who trapped birds for 

 breeding purposes or had eggs in their 

 possession even when taken from irri- 

 gated fields and other exposed situations. 

 Under the new law the opportunity for 

 national wardens to arrest game breeders 

 will be even better than they are under 

 many State laws. The opportunities for 

 graft also will be splendid since the war- 

 dens practically will be responsible to no 

 one, a large committee being supposed to 

 control them. The committee, appointed 

 by the Secretary of Agriculture, will 

 make numerous regulations having the 

 effect of criminal laws. These will be 



known to very few persons since they 

 will be published in bulletins and changed 

 often. 



Animus of the New Congress. 



The new Congress of lawmakers ap- 

 pointed by the Secretary of Agriculture 

 has full power to create new crimes and 

 the new national wardens are given the 

 right to raid any one and search his 

 premises without warrant, excepting only 

 dwelling houses, which for some reason 

 are excepted — a warrant is required to 

 raid the dwelling houses of food pro- 

 ducers. 



The animus of those appointed by the 

 Secretary of Agriculture under the for- 

 mer unconstitutional bill and who no 

 doubt will hold over and make the new 

 crimes under the new law, is important. 

 One of them recently said to a Congres- 

 sional committee : 



"We could not follow the English principles 

 here without upsetting what most Americans 

 consider a system way ahead of the old conti- 

 nental and European system, where only the 

 rich men have the privilege of shooting. We 

 don't want that system in this country." 



When this individual (who evidently is ig- 

 norant of the fact that many thousands of 

 poor people in England shoot and trap migra- 

 tory wild fowl and sell them in the markets 

 as cheap food for the people) was a deputy 

 State Game Warden he openly opposed the 

 passage of the first bill offered in New York 

 permitting the breeding of game for food. 



It was not possible to secure a law per- 

 mitting food production without the danger 

 of a fine or jail sentence until this individual 

 and his associates retired to private life. Later, 

 when it was proposed to permit the breeders 

 in other states to send their food to the New 

 York markets there was more opposition, and 

 now we find the Congress turning over the 



