102 



THE GAME BREEDER 



crime making power to people of this class. 

 Another member of this committee we under- 

 stand is opposed to the trapping of stock birds 

 for breeding purposes. Why should A be 

 permitted to kill 20 or 30 birds in a day for 

 sport and B be denied a permit to take 20 or 

 30 birds for breeding purposes when the re- 

 sult of his activity will be the production oi 

 thousands of food birds? In all civilized 

 countries except the United States, the trap- 

 ping of wild birds for breeding purposes is 

 encouraged and the result is that the game 

 birds always are abundant and cheap in the 

 markets and the poorest classes are permitted 

 to shoot and to trap the wild fowl on all pub- 

 lic waters and saltings for the markets. 



Details of the Proposed Law. 



Sections one and two of the act pro- 

 vide : 



Sec. 1. That unless and except as permitted 

 by regulations made as hereinafter provided, 

 hunting, taking, capturing, killing, attempting 

 to take, capture or kill, possessing, offering 

 for sale, selling, offering to purchase, pur- 

 chasing, delivering for shipment, shipping, 

 causing to be shipped, delivering for trans- 

 portation, transporting or causing to be trans- 

 ported by any means whatever, receiving for 

 shipment or transportation, or exporting, at 

 any time or in any manner, any migratory bird 

 included in the terms of the convention be- 

 tween the United States and Great Britain for 

 the protection of migratory birds, or any part, 

 nest, or egg thereof, is prohibited. 



Sec. 2. That, subject to the provisions, and 

 in order to carry out the purposes of the con- 

 vention, the Secretary of Agriculture is au- 

 thorized and directed, from time to time, to 

 determine when, to what extent, if at all, and 

 by what means, having due regard to the zones 

 of temperature and to the distribution, abund- 

 ance, economic value, breeding habits, and 

 times and lines of migratory flight of such 

 birds, it is compatible with the terms of the 

 convention to allow the hunting, taking, cap- 

 ture, killing, possession, sale, purchase, ship- 

 ment, transportation, and export of any of 

 said birds, or parts, nests, or eggs thereof, and 

 to adopt suitable regulations permitting and 

 governing the same, in conformity with such 

 determinations, which regulations shall become 

 effective when approved by the President. 



The Restored "Teeth." 



When the provision permitting the 

 new force of amateur game policemen 

 to raid the people without warrant was 

 removed from the bill in order to aid its 

 passage, the only original wild lifer not 

 in captivity at once lost interest in the 

 legislation and it seemed likely it would 

 fail since he produced most of the "stuff" 

 or sinews of war needed to carry on an 



effective lobby, and in fact was the im- 

 portant figure among the lobbyists, all of 

 whom by the way appear to have been 

 from New York City. The bill having 

 been repaired to suit the chief of the 

 lobby it soon became evident that ''full 

 steam ahead" was the order of the day 

 and the smaller lobbyists were delighted 

 as they saw their chief rapidly putting 

 the thing over. 



The War Chest. 



Those engaged in the lobby for the 

 legal criminal absurdity had more annual 

 revenues (cash or money in their pants) 

 than is paid for salaries to all of the 

 Governors of the States east of the Mis- 

 sissippi. The last year's revenue of the 

 few New York lobbyists who make an 

 annual business of getting new game 

 laws in all probability was larger than the 

 annual revenues of the Governors of all 

 of the States east and west and possibly 

 of all of the United States Senators for 

 good measure. There can be no doubt 

 that the game law industry is booming. 

 By continuous and active practice these 

 lobbyists learn just how to handle the 

 legislative assemblies and often it is sur- 

 prising to us to see so large a number of 

 statesmen as there is who refuse to be 

 fooled by the lobby, read the nonsense 

 offered, and vote right. Many, no doubt, 

 are told that it is good politics to run 

 with a lobby which has such vast rev- 

 enues. 



We cannot give all the figures accur- 

 ately since some of the protective socie- 

 ties do not publish any statements. We 

 have, however, accurate figures showing 

 that the amount collected last year by 

 the chief of the lobby and his smaller 

 imitators is larger than the combined sal- 

 aries of all of* the Governors of the 

 States east of the Mississippi. We can 

 furnish detailed .figures up to this amount. 

 This money is gathered for the most part 

 from benevolent old ladies, newly rich 

 magnates and others who seem to be 

 easily plucked. Since one of the lobby- 

 ists had $5,000 of Andrew Carnegie's 

 money in his pants it seemed to us to 

 be in rather bad taste to denounce the 

 benevolent Andrew at the Congressional 



