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life of this country, which has enabled us 
to secure the enactment of so many good 
laws in so many States, greatly aids us in 
enforcing these laws. 
I believe it is possible for us so to 
strengthen this public sentiment, this whole- 
some respect for game, fish and forest laws 
and this interest in the preservation of all 
wild life, that violations of such laws will 
practically cease. We have an immense 
amount of work to do before we can bring 
about this condition, but we are doing it 
every day; and the number of people who 
favor good game protective laws, and who 
respect them when enacted, .is growing 
more rapidly than most people are aware of. 
Sometimes when we learn of large num- 
bers of depredations against game and fish 
laws in various parts of the country we 
are led to fear that in time all the wild 
animals and birds will be swept off the con- 
tinent, except such as may be confined in 
private or State preserves. On the other 
hand when the mails and the daily papers 
bring us glowing reports from every cor- 
ner of the land as to the thousands of 
people who are daily becoming interested 
in our work, we are inspired to hope and 
to believe that we shall be able in time to 
exterminate the game and fish destroyers, 
and to leave to posterity a country inhab- 
ited by millions of wild animals and birds. 
The membership of this League does not 
grow so fast as it should, but it grows. 
In my last annual report I told you we had 
9,210 members. To-day we have 9,947 
members, a gain of 737 during the year 
1903. 
A year ago we had 45 State divisions. 
To-day we have 48. 
A year ago we had 54 local chapters, and 
we have organized 9 since. At the last an- 
nual meeting I reported 176 local wardens 
commissioned and in the field. We have 
appointed 12 since then, making a total of 
188. 
A year ago we had 35 life members. We 
have enrolled 4 during the past year, so 
that we now have 39. 
From these figures it will be seen that 
the wheels of progress still move, and as 
we grow stronger they will move more rap- 
idly. 
For several years we kept an accurate 
account of the number of prosecutions and 
convictions of law breakers, in which 
League members were directly or wholly 
concerned. I am glad to be able to tell 
you that during the last year our members 
were more active on these lines than ever 
before, and it is no exaggeration to say 
that during 1903 members of this League 
prosecuted and secured the conviction of 
over 600 men for violating game, fish or 
forest laws. The value of this work is 
simply beyond computation. We all know 
RECREATION. 
that when a man in any town or village or 
farming community is convicted or fined 
for violating a game or a fish law every 
man and woman within 20 miles of him 
hears of it. More fear of and respect for 
the law is inspired by one conviction than 
by all the reasoning and preaching that 
could be done in a month. A burnt child 
dreads the fire, and when one gets burned 
the others learn to dread the fire, also. 
Even the Indians of the far West have 
learned that game laws are dangerous 
things to tamper with, and there have been 
fewer instances of wholesale killing of big 
game by Indians in the past year than in 
any previous year since the first game laws 
were made. 
I reported last year the sending out of 
a circular letter to wealthy men, asking for 
contributions to the game protective fund 
of the League. As a result we collected 
$770. A second appeal was sent to these 
same men, and to many others during 1903, 
but I regret to say the responses were not 
so generous. About $460 has been collect- 
ed thus far, as a result of this second re- 
quest. This is no doubt due largely to 
the shrinkage in stock values last fall. 
The distribution of printed matter from 
the general office of the League has gone 
on during the year as regularly and as ex- 
tensively as heretofore.. Our cloth posters, ~ 
offering a reward of $10 for each convic- 
tion of a violation of a game or fish law, 
are still being distributed wherever we can 
find men willing to put them up, and many 
thousands of them have gone out during 
the year. The daily newspapers are giv- 
ing more and more attention to the League 
every year, and most of them have now 
learned that this organization is the source 
from which nearly all the practical and 
aggressive game protective work of this 
country emanates. A single quotation from 
the Tacoma, Washington, Ledger will 
serve to illustrate the general trend of 
newspaper comment on our work: 
“A game bill has passed both houses of 
the Legislature that is believed to be as 
nearly perfect as it is possible to make 
a game law. It was prepared by the 
League of American Sportsmen; and F. A. 
Pontius, of Seattle, Secretary-Treasurer of 
the Washington Division of that body, has 
been at the capital during the entire ses 
sion working for the passage of this bill. 
Chief Warden F. S. Merrill, of Spokane, 
and H. Reif, of Seattle. also a League 
member, have worked diligently with Mr. 
Pontius for the passage of the measure, 
and the League is entitled to all the credit 
for having secured the passage of this law.” 
The work carried on by the League and 
kindred societies has practically abolished 
the millinery traffic in bird skins. There 
are few women in this country to-day who 
