74 
EDITORIAL 
Mr. Rowe a very efficient, competent and careful 
officer. He is in a very rough and dangerous 
country, which, by the way, is only one of many 
such in Pennsylvania. Mr. Rowe is not the only 
officer of this office that has been in trouble. We 
have had five men shot at, one killed and five 
wounded, including Rowe and his assistant, during 
the past year. We are in it all the time with these 
men and purpose at the next session of the Legis- 
lature to present a bill asking that the unnatural- 
ized foreigner shall not have the right to be pos- 
sessed of firsarms of any description in any place 
within this Commonwealth. [ am now collecting 
statistics from the several counties of the State 
regarding the murders committed by this class of 
people during the past year, and the increase of 
taxation placed upon all our people because of 
these people. 
We are up against a very serious proposition and 
have got to meet it as men and as Americans and 
we will so meet it. Our people are about tired out 
in this matter and something positive will be done. 
I understand the entire situation around Wilkes- 
Barre. I have been in that county a number of 
times and had a number of prosecutions, and know 
the feeling of the court. I also understand the 
reasons. We purpose making the best fight possi- 
ble, and have but little fear of the result. My 
understanding of this case is that this shooting was 
justified and right, but I do not care to expose the 
defense at this time. I thank you for the interest 
that you are taking in this matter. 
Respectfully yours, 
JosEpH KALBFUS, 
Secretary of the Game Commission. 
Aside from the vexing question of restricting 
or forbidding (a hard thing for Americans to 
agree to, no matter how much warranted) the 
hunting of the Italians, whose poaching pro- 
clivities have been developed through centuries 
of land tenure s’stems in their native land, this 
case, before it has come up for trial even, illus- 
trates the bad effect of mixing politics with game 
and fish protection. 
It is enough that the game and -fish com- 
missioners, and particularly their wardens, are 
constantly opposed in their good work by the 
newspapers and by an unenlightened, ruthless 
and selfish people (not the Italians), without 
adding the enmity of a political faction. The 
way of the warden is precarious enough, and 
politics should cut no figure whatsoever in his 
appointment. Given the assurance that his 
position nor the game laws can suffer from the 
politicians, and your warden will gladly keep to 
his wardening. He knows well enough that in 
his work alone he may at any time gain the 
disfavor of the district attorney or the town 
boss, through the arrest of a constituent or a 
relative. Let it be given to him to say to all who 
may carp or cry ‘‘unfair,”’ that he does his duty 
and owes fear nor favor to no one. At least, let 
463 
it be that the district attorney cannot take to 
court a political prejudice against the warden. 

A Test Case 
From the appeal to game wardens sent out 
by the Vermont warden, referred to in a pre- 
ceding paragraph, we cull the following: 
“How far must a warden go in permitting 
criminal poachers (who are always armed) 
to resist arrest and attack him before he draws 
his own weapons?” 
This is a point{which will surely be well 
threshed out at the trial of Protector Rowe; 
we hope to his profit and with justice to him 
and all other game wardens. The most in- 
significant village constable may pull his “‘gun 
and blaze away at the casual thief, and if 
he kills him, itfis no matter, the man was a 
criminal and might have killed the constable— 
if he’d shot at him. But what of the game 
warden? We have just reviewed the evidence 
of a game warden’s encounter with two Italian 
criminals of the black-hand clan, who when 
caught stealing game birds from the State 
opened fire on the State’s officers with shotguns 
loaded with buckshot. And because in the fight 
which followed one of the black-hand gang 
was killed, the State’s officer was clapped into 
jail, without bail, and his friends, the game 
wardens, and the sportsmen of the State must 
be quick to subscribe a sum to retain the three 
best attorneys in the county lest he be con- 
victed of manslaughter. 
How long are the game protectors to be 
denied by law the right to search without a 
warrant persons suspected of violating the 
laws? It is a common practice among Italians 
to conceal a shotgun on their person by taking 
it apart and carrying the barrels down one leg 
of their trousers—and, of course, game illegally 
shot is as easily concealed. How long shall the 
warden be required by law to deal gently with 
these shotgun-carrying desperadoes, who have 
shot the farmer on his own land when he pro- 
tested againstitheir hunting and who, as 
Secretary Kalbfus has shown, are not averse 
to shooting an officer of the State every little 
while for practice? If, as alleged, the district 
attorney’s office can be actuated by spite and 
revenge and bring dirty politics to bear upon 
the court, it shows that both are in rotten, 
bad company, and we look to the sports- 
men of the State to a man to support the Board 
of Game Commissioners in having the laws so 
amended at the coming session of the Legis- 
lature that the life and liberty of the men 
employed in protecting the game and fish of 
the State shall no longer be endangered by 
the Dago and his friend the district attorney. 
