SECOND ANNUAL MEETING, 



259 



J S STANGROOM, 

 Chie/ Warden Wash. Div 





work that exists to-day. All live news- 

 paper editors would gladly give space to 

 good articles on the subject of game pro- 

 tection, and if all members would load up 

 their newspaper offices with newsy mate- 

 rial, as Professor Elrod and Mr. Stearns 

 have done, the membership of the League 



would grow rapidly 

 and its usefulness 

 would increase ac- 

 cordingly. 



Mr. Stearns called 

 a mass meeting at the 

 Chamber of Com- 

 merce in Richmond 

 for the night of Jan- 

 uary 24, which I had 

 the pleasure of at- 

 t e n d i n g. A large 

 ^ ^L number of the promi- 



^mSB/E&mMk nent and influential 



^B2^ 1 ' i ?^fi HE sportsmen of that 

 WW ^k State were present, 



■ * #? ^J anc ^ a committee was 



J ^| appointed to draft a 



new game law to be 

 presented to the Leg- 

 islature. The com- 

 mittee was instructed 

 to provide in this bill some radical re- 

 forms in the way of shortening the sea- 

 sons for killing and selling game, and it 

 is well nigh certain the bill will be passed. 

 Still another way in which the mem- 

 bers of the League could do great service 

 for it is by personal solicitation among 

 their friends. Almost any live sportsman 

 or naturalist would pay a dollar for mem- 

 bership in this League if the matter were 

 placed before him by some friend, in a 

 forcible manner. As a further evidence 

 of this I may mention that Dr. H. R. 

 Bishop. ex-Chief Warden of the Massa- 

 chusetts division, has personally sent in 

 76 applications for membership. Mr. J. 

 S. Stangroom, Chief Warden of the Wash- 

 ington division, has sent in 51: Mr. R. B. 

 Lawton, Chief Warden of the Connecticut 

 division, Mr. M. D. Hart and Mr. C. B. 

 Cushing, 40 each; Mr. W. T. Hornaday, 

 35; Mr. J. A Loring, Mr. A. F. Rice, Mr. 

 Franklin Stearns, Mr. J. W. Furnside, 28 

 each; Mr. H. C. Went, Mr. VV. E. 

 Beach, Mr. L. H, Reutinger, 20 each; Mr. 

 Mark Wedge, Hon. L. A. Huffman and 

 Dr. Dunham. 15 each. It is safe to say 

 there is not a member of this League any- 

 where who could not turn in 25 applica- 

 tions for membership in one day if he 

 would work as these men have worked. 

 Yet there are scarcely 50 men among our 

 2,300 members who ever sent in a single 

 application other than their own. 



Congressman John F. Lacey, of Iowa, 

 a member of this League, has introduced 

 in Congress a bill which authorizes the 



agricultural department to engage in the 

 propagation, distribution and preservation 

 of game birds and other birds useful to 

 man. This bill also authorizes the inter- 

 state commerce commission to prohibit the 

 shipment from one State to another of 

 game killed in violation of law, or the 

 shipment of game killed at any time in 

 any State having a law prohibiting the 

 exportation of game. Mr. Lacey's bill is 

 known as House bill 6,634. 



Your President recently visited Wash- 

 ington and held an interesting conference 

 with Mr. Lacey. This gentleman earn- 

 estly requests the aid of the L. A. S. in 

 securing the passage of his bill. All mem- 

 bers of the League are therefore urged 

 to write personal letters to their Senators 

 and Representatives in Congress, urging 

 and demanding the passage of Mr. Lacey's 

 bill. Not only this, but each member of 

 the League should induce as many as pos- 

 sible of his friends to write similar letters, 

 whether they be sportsmen or not. There 

 are few men or women in the United 

 States who, if their attention were called 

 to the necessity and the desirability of pre- 

 serving the game, the song, insectivorous 

 and plumage birds in this country, would 

 not do this much to aid in such a cause. 

 Mr. Lacey says he realizes that the only 

 hope of securing the passage of his bill 

 is in having great numbers of such letters 

 written to Congressmen and Senators by 

 their constituents. There are few mem- 

 bers of either House who realize the great 

 importance of preserving the birds and 

 mammals of this 

 country. These men 

 are too busy with 

 politics and their 

 official duties to have 

 considered this mat- 

 ter carefully. Their 

 course of action on 

 these bills will, there- 

 fore, be merely a 

 question of what will 

 secure them the 

 greatest number of 

 votes at some future 

 election. In other 

 words, if by voting 

 tor this measure, a 

 Congress man or 

 Senator can please a 

 greater number of 

 his constituents than 

 by voting against it 



he will do so. It therefore remains for the 

 members of this League to see that public 

 sentiment is so strongly expressed by let- 

 ter that these men will be compelled to 

 vote "yes." 



The League is now in the act of intro- 

 ducing, through its various Chief War- 



J. T DROUGHT, 

 Chief Warden Wis. Div. 



