
— 
- condemnation from 
GUNS AND AMMUNITION. 223 
pose to attempt to dictate the future busi- 
ness policy of your firm, yet I protest 
against your taking chances of ruining 
the good reputation the Winchester Com- 
pany has enjoyed these many years by put- 
ting on the market such a destructive wea- 
pon as this new shot gun promises to be. 
The game in the country is being killed off 
rapidly. Many States have prohibited the 
sale of game entirely, and other States will 
follow their example. I predict that if 
this new gun is put on the market there 
will be a whirlwind of disapproval among 
all true sportsmen and a quick and deter- 
mined move toward legislation to prohibit 
its use. I have now 2 of your guns, a rifle 
and a shot gun; but if this new engine 
of destruction which you contemplate mak- 
ing is ever marketed you may count me 
in as fighting in every way possible against 
its sale and use. jE. Bates. 
Aldan, Pa. 
The Winchester Repeating Arms Co., 
Dear Sirs—I am informed that you are 
about to manufacture and place on the 
market an automatic shot gun. If you 
will listen to one who has used Win- 
chester goods for years, you will confer a 
favor on multitudes of sportsmen, who 
feel regarding the manufacture of the pro- 
posed death engine as I do. Such a wea- 
pon would only be sold to boys and men 
who are in reality pot hunters, who shoot 
at anything and everything that wears fur 
or feathers, and as long as it remains in 
sight, and who are not sportsmen. A true 
sportsman would not seek to reduce the 
number of our game birds or game. The 
scarcity of game to-day is due chiefly to the 
use of the repeating shot gun in the hands 
of indiscriminate persons. The production 
of an arm more rapid in its manipulation 
for hunting purposes would bring forth 
thousands of true 
sportsmen who have made the Winchester 
company what it is to-day. 
T. H. Seavey. 
Franklin, O. 
Winchester Arms Co. 
Dear Sirs: 
_ [learn through Recreation that you are 
intending to manufacture automatic guns. 
Permit.me to raise my voice against your 
doing so. Already our fields and forests 
are nearly tenantless. Few of our beau- 
tiful birds are left and .the little crea- 
tures of the fields and woods have gone with 
them. I plainly see that in a few short 
years we shall have none. The automatic 
gun, devised through greed, will rob all 
alike, the sportsman, the lover of nature 
and the farmer, who is benefited directly 
through the birds. 
It seems the chief delight of many people 
to destroy the most essential, the most use- 
ful of our birds. The flintlock, the muzzle 
loader, the breech loader, the repeater, have 
been used to depopulate our fields; and now 
comes a gun that will make destruction com- 
plete. In the cause of God’s creatures, ap- 
pealing as one who loves them all, I entreat 
you not to place this deadly arm on the 
market. ' C. H. Morningstar. 
, Morgantown, W. Va. 
Winchester Repeating Arms Co., 
Dear Sirs: 
I have learned through ReEcrEATIOoN that 
you contemplate the manufacture of an au- 
tomatic shot gin. : 
You probably figure that by catering 
to market hunters, pot hunters and game 
hogs you could make a good interest on 
the money put into the special equipment 
required to manufacture the gun. Pos- 
siby this is true, but your action would cer- 
tainly meet with the stern disapproval of 
every true sportsman in this and every 
other country. I assure you I would never 
use an automatic shot gun or associate with 
any person who would use one. In thus 
stating my position in the matter I know I 
express the sentiment of at least 50 sports- 
men in this little city and of thousands of 
other sportsmen throughout the country 
whose names and addresses I could furnish. 
Hoping you will not see fit to add to the 
already too great effectiveness of game ex- 
terminating weapons, especially the shot 
gun, I am, 
Bennett S. White. 
Enid, Oklahoma. 
Winchester Arms Company, 
Dear Sirs: 
I understand that you are preparing to 
build an automatic shot gun. Such a 
weapon should not go on the market for 
general use, as I have heard a number of 
lovers of shooting remark. There is a 
strong movement on foot for the protec- 
tion of our birds and it will be my duty to 
discourage the use of an automatic shot 
gun in every legitimate way, as will be the 
case with hundreds of our citizens. I sin- 
cerely hope you will not manufacture any 
guns of this kind. 
H. D. White, 
Recreation Rod and Gun Club, 
; Setauket, N. Y. 
Winchester Arms Co., 
Dear Sirs :— 
I learn that you intend to manufacture 
an automatic shot gun. A gun of this kind 
can not be necessary for, nor desired by, 
any true sportsman. It can only be of use 
to pot hunters and duffers. I do not think 
it is for your interest to manufacture arms 
for either of those classes. The destruction 
of game is going on too fast in this country, 
and any who minister to the wholesale 
slaughter of game are doing injury to true 
