FOREST AND STREAM 
405 
Some Reflections of an Ex-Warden 
By Henry Chase. 
It seems plainly apparent that, with the present 
wave of radicalism which is sweeping over this 
country, the game departments and the movement 
for conservation of our wild life have not es¬ 
caped criticism. Every institution in the country 
must now be thoroughly investigated and new 
methods adopted with respect to them. Nothing 
acceptable in the past is now deemed correct. 
Everything must be changed, because change is 
what we are seeking, rather than improvement. 
Everything learned in the hard school of experi¬ 
ence must be consigned to the scrap-heap and 
new theories evolved. Aye, indeed, this is the 
age of the theorist. 
The above random thoughts flitted through the 
writer’s mind recently when he was perusing 
some literature of that new organization whose 
slogan is: “More Game and Fewer Game Laws.’ 
The leading exponent of this theory boldly pro¬ 
claims in large type that his object is To make 
North America the biggest game-breeding coun¬ 
try in the world.” And how is he going to ac¬ 
complish this? Well, never mind, he knows, but 
he doe. not propose to inform us in plain Eng¬ 
lish. He propounds his theories covertly and 
does not dare to say openly what the necessary 
consequences of his scheme are when put into 
practical effect. When, however, they are put 
to the acid test of analysis they amount to this: 
Every wealthy sportsman in the country—either 
individually or associated with others in clubs— 
must own a private shooting preserve and propa¬ 
gate game of every species thereon to its full 
capacity. Then North America, being a very ex¬ 
tensive country, will be converted into one im¬ 
mense sportsman’s paradise. That is, of course, 
a paradise for such sportsmen as are fortunate 
enough to be members of this wealthy class. 
“But hold on,” you say to this great promoter, 
“there is a large majority of sportsmen in this 
country, like myself, who are poor men, living on 
moderate wages and salaries, who cannot afford 
this new luxury of yours, and yet we are just 
as fond of shooting and fishing as these wealthy 
brothers. Where do we come in A 
“Oh, well, of course,” he replies, “I had for¬ 
gotten about your class, but nevertheless you will 
come in all right, for we have not wholly over¬ 
looked you. To be sure, you are to have the 
benefit of the ‘overflow’ on the outside of this 
sportsman’s paradise. Yes, you can pick up the 
crumbs which fall from our aristocratic table. 
That is, providing any should happen to fall. If 
there is any overflow from our preserves you will 
be entirely welcome to it, and we shall be happy 
to know you got it. I really do not know how 
much room there will be for you on the outside, 
but if we find it necessary to take all of the 
available game ground for our purpose, you can 
shoot wild fowl on the navigable waters of the 
country. That ought to be sufficient sport to 
satisfy any ordinary, common member of the 
public. If not, perhaps you can get a job as a 
game breeder or general roustabout on this para¬ 
dise, for it will offer considerable employment 
to the working class and you will then have an 
opportunity to see what a wonderland it is. What 
is that you say? You own some of the game 
on these preserves? My boy, who has been giv¬ 
ing you that nonsense about the wild game be¬ 
longing to the public? That old legal theory is 
archaic and outworn. Besides, we only have 
game on our preserves which is ‘produced by in¬ 
dustry.’ We raise every head of it on our place 
and if any comes from the outside which you 
claim to have title to we immediately ‘shoo’ it 
away, just to make you fellows think we are do¬ 
ing you a favor and recognizing your rights. But 
you can see all of this game belongs to us, and 
we are going to have the present game laws re¬ 
pealed and new ones enacted for our special 
benefit. They will be up-to-date laws, too. You 
will then hear no more about this nonsense of 
Reflections. 
the game and fish being the property of all the 
people. In these new laws there will be no re¬ 
strictions at all upon private shooting preserve 
owners. There will be no close seasons with 
them. We will shoot when and how we please 
on our preserves, and there will be no bag 
limits, either, to stop a fellow when he desires to 
shoot. This, because the game is our private 
property to do with as we see fit. What we don’t 
want to keep we will put on sale in the markets, 
and you fellows can buy it there—if you have 
the price, and certainly we cannot afford to sell 
it very cheaply. Also, we are going to have 
very severe penalties in these laws for anyone 
who dares to trespass on our paradise. If any 
of you outsiders molest our property or step a 
foot on our land you will go to state’s prison for 
it. Now, that’s the kind of game laws we are 
going to place on the statute books.” 
“And by the way, about that ‘overflow’ I was 
telling you of. Well we won’t have any objec¬ 
tion to you fellows enacting laws about that, be¬ 
cause we can spare it and don’t care to bother 
about getting it back on our grounds. So we 
are just going to give you this overflow to keep 
you in a good humor, so you won't be bothering 
our paradise. Don’t you think our newly dis¬ 
covered idea to make North America the biggest 
game-breeding country in the world a good one?” 
For some reason which our new theorist cannot 
comprehend, he doubts your sanity because you 
do not take the same view of the situation as he 
does. On the contrary, after this very full ex¬ 
planation of this new scheme, you fail to dis¬ 
cover, even with the aid of a microscope, just 
where you come in at all. 
The foregoing is one of the new theories of 
game conservation which startles us with its 
audacity and lack of appreciation of the well- 
known principles of public rights. Then I came 
upon another, which appears to be a necessary 
corollary to it. The public press reports that 
Governor Glynn recently made this statement: 
“We are not in sympathy with the theory that 
the game protector who makes the most arrests 
is the best agent of fish and game conservation. 
We agree with the conservation commission that 
the best protector is the officer who keeps his 
district freest from violation of the law by the 
sane performance of his duty, and by enlisting 
the sentiment and support of the law-abiding 
citizens of the community.” 
That is, indeed, a startling expression from 
the highest executive officer of a state. It means 
the laws will not be properly enforced; officers 
are called upon to exercise a certain discrimina¬ 
tion which they have no right to make, and just 
how they can command the respect and support 
of law-abiding citizens in doing this is a great 
conundrum not solved by any human being. It 
is to be regretted that Gov. Glynn did not go into 
details about his theory and furnish us with an 
accurate chart for future guidance. 
Every intelligent and experienced peace officer 
knows there is just one way—and only one way— 
to do his “sane duty,” and the law itself makes 
it absolutely mandatory that he perform it in no 
other way. “Arrest and prosecute everyone 
whom you find violating the law.” That is the 
command of the law and that is the exact func¬ 
tion of the game protector as the statute provides. 
Besides, what right has a game protector to mo¬ 
lest or interfere with anyone whom he has no 
reasonable ground to suspect is violating the 
law? How can he prevent violations? Experi¬ 
ence inform* us that only those officers whom 
the prospective violators fear can deter them 
from commititng offenses, and such offenders 
fear oniy such officers as are sure to detect and 
prosecute them. The fear of a zealous officer 
is the only insurance against violations. No one 
has any respect for an officer who is a bluffer and 
is continually warning violators. For instance, 
they tried that plan upon the police of Cleveland, 
O., not long ago, and it proved such a failure 
that no law-abiding citizen felt safe on the 
streets after dark. However, if Gov. Glynn 
means that the protectors should enforce the 
law with common sense and not arrest for tech¬ 
nical violations we will probably all agree with 
him. But that is not what his words import. 
In fact, these innovations and new theories ap¬ 
pear to be preparing the way for an end of all 
fish and game protection by law. 
