500 



RECREATION. 



anywise part with their power to regulate 

 the taking of fish and game, and that the 

 power so retained by the States is not cur- 

 tailed except as the power of Congress to 

 regulate commerce and navigation inciden- 

 tally affects traffic in game, and fisheries. 

 In the recent case of Geer vs. the State, 

 the Supreme Court, discussing the game 

 law of Connecticut, upheld the law, which 

 forbade the transportation of game killed 

 in the State to points beyond the State, al- 

 though game thus killed and acquired in 

 traffic was claimed to be an article of com- 

 merce. The decision rested on the point 

 that it was the right of the State not only, 

 to control the subject of killing game, but, 

 under its police power, to preserve a food 

 supply to its citizens. These powers were 

 declared to rest with the State and be un- 

 impaired, even if their exercise incidentally 

 rstricts commerce. In support of this, the 

 Supreme Court cited its decision in the 

 oleomargarine cases, where, under the law 

 of Massachusetts, oleomargarine was re- 

 quired to be labeled as such so the peo- 

 ple who ate it would know what it was, 

 notwithstanding it was an article of com- 

 merce. This I take to be the undoubted 

 law of the case ; and the only limitation 

 on the control of the States over the 

 subject of game and fish is that power of 

 Congress to regulate commerce which 

 might seem to conflict with these laws. 



The exercise by Congress of its power to 

 regulate commerce is certainly discretion- 

 ary, and when Congress passes an act like 

 the Lacey bill, expressly declaring that it 

 will not exercise its power to regulate com- 

 merce so as to negative local laws on the 

 subject of fish and game, there is no power 

 anywhere, in any court, State or Federal, 

 which can compel Congress to pass such 

 laws. In the absence of such a law, the 

 State laws are supreme, and dealers in game 

 will have to submit to them until they con- 

 vince the local legislators that the State 

 laws are unwise. 



In my opinion, the State law of New 

 York is wise, and the Lacey law is equally 

 wise; and the 2 laws make the State law, 

 as it stands, impregnable. 



John S. Wise. 



YOU CAN AFFORD IT. 



In response to the article on pages 282 

 and 283 of October Recreation, and to the 

 postal card which followed it, a number of 

 people have written me that they could not 

 afford to join the League — that they could 

 not spare the dollar. This sounds strange 

 to me. There is scarcely a sportsman in 

 the United States who does not fool away 

 a dollar every month, and many people pay 

 out that amount every day for things that 



are not necessary to their comfort. There 

 are few sportsmen who can not afford a 

 box of cartridges, or several boxes of them, 

 when the shooting season comes. There 

 are few who can not afford a new line or a 

 new rod when the fishing season opens. 

 There are few who can not afford to buy 

 a railway ticket to some shooting or fishing 

 ground when the time comes. There are 

 few who will deny themselves the luxury 

 of a box of cigars, or a few packages of 

 good smoking tobacco, or a good bottle of 

 whisky, when fitting out for a shooting or 

 fishing trip; yet when you ask these same 

 people to put up $1 a year to increase the 

 supply of fish and game some of them say, 

 ''I can not afford it." 



When the League was organized, a num- 

 ber of gentlemen in the convention were in 

 favor of placing the membership fee at $5 a 

 year, and others at $10 a year. The senti- 

 ment of the majority, however, was that the 

 membership fee should be made so small 

 that a boy working on a farm at $10 a 

 month, or in a grocery store at $5 a week, 

 could afford to be a member. The fee was 

 therefore placed at $1 a year, and now for 

 any man or boy to get up on his hind legs 

 and say he can not afford this, makes me 

 tired. 



One man in this State replied to my ap- 

 peal to the effect that he could not spare 

 the dollar, and I told him in plain English 

 what I thought of him. He answered in 

 this way : 



"You have won out. I have 40 uses 

 this month for the enclosed dollar, but the 

 other 39 may wait." 



This is the voice of a man. Now let the 

 other hard luck howlers do likewise. I 

 hope no other man may ever tell me he can 

 not afford $1 a year for membership in the 

 L. A. S. 



A WHOLE FAMILY. 



We read Recreation and like it. We 

 are much interested in the League of 

 American Sportsmen. Our father says 

 you have dene more for the cause of game 

 protection than any other man in this coun- 

 try. We like you and believe in your ideas 

 of game protection. Father says the life 

 work of such men as you is largely done 

 for the young generation of sportsmen, and 

 that the country must look to them for car- 

 rying out your ideas ; so my brother Char- 

 ley and I would like to belong to the 

 League of American Sportsmen. Here is 

 a money order for $2.70. This will pay our 

 membership fees and leave 50 cents for 

 each of us a bronze badge. We also put 

 in 10 cents each to help buy a gold watch 

 for Mr. Lacey. What a grand thing it is 



