756 
FOREST AND STREAM 
Dec. 14, 1912 
Published Weekly by the 
Forest and Stream Publishing Company, 
Charles Otis, President. 
W. G. Beecroft, Secretary. S. J. Gibson, Treasurer. 
127 Franklin Street, New York. 
CORRESPONDENCE — Forest and Stream is the 
recognized medium of entertainment, instruction and in¬ 
formation between American sportsmen. The editors 
invite communications on the subjects to which its pages 
are devoted, but, of course, are not responsible for the 
views of correspondents. Anonymous communications 
cannot be regarded. 
SUBSCRIPTIONS: $3 a year; $1.50 for six months; 
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This paper may be obtained of newsdealers throughout 
the United States, Canada and Great Britain. Foreign 
Subscription and Sales Agents—London: Davies & Co., 
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ADVERTISEMENTS: Display and classified, 20 cts. 
per agate line ($2.80 per inch). There are 14 agate lines to 
the inch. Covers and special positions extra. Five, 
ten and twenty per cent, discount for 13, 26 and 52 inser¬ 
tions, respectively, within one year. Forms close Monday 
in advance of publication date. 
TO PROTECT MIGRATORY BIRDS. 
Although the Weeks bill, which provides 
that the Federal Government shall have charge 
of all migratory birds, did not come to a vote 
at the last session of Congress, it has never been 
in a livelier condition than at the present time. 
Sportsmen know more about it than ever before; 
the protectors of insectivorous birds understand 
the bill's purpose and heartily approve it; and, 
for the first time, the great public comprehends 
something of what the bill should accomplish 
when it becomes law. 
All this knowledge is due chiefly to the 
energy, industry and unfailing persistence of the 
American Game Protective and Propagation So¬ 
ciety, whose president, John B. Burnham, orga¬ 
nized the forces in favor of the bill and brought 
together in Washington, at the hearing held 
under the chairmanship of Senator McLean, for 
the Senate bill (S. 2367) and Mr. Weeks for 
the House bill (H. R. 36), such a showing 
of persons interested in wild bird protection as 
was never made before. Able and useful assist¬ 
ance was given by a number of societies of na¬ 
tional importance, as the New York Zoological 
Society, the Association of Audubon Societies 
and the Boone and Crockett Club. 
The Weeks bill for the House, and the Mc¬ 
Lean bill for the Senate, are practically identical, 
and the hearings on the two measures took place 
in Washington on the same day, March 6. At 
these hearings there were represented, either by 
delegates or by communications, more than forty 
States and Provinces, and there were represented 
also a great number of associations from all 
over the country, some actuated by one motive 
and some by another, but all with the good pur¬ 
pose of preserving, for the benefit of the citizens 
of the whole country, a great economic asset— 
our wild birds. 
A few perhaps may have been brought here 
by selfish motives; sentiment may have drawn 
to the hearing some of the protectors of small 
birds, but among the broadest men present it 
cannot be doubted that the welfare of the coun¬ 
try was the first consideration; and on the North 
American continent the welfare of the country 
means the welfare of the farmer. He produces 
the food on which the country subsists, and 
his surplus, sent to other less favored lands, 
is sold, the money coming back here and ulti¬ 
mately reaching the hands of the farmers. 
Whether the birds protected be game birds 
or wildfowl, or herons or song and insectivorous 
birds, each species and each individual does its 
part toward helping the farmers of this land to 
raise their crops, and for this reason should be 
protected. It is not too much to say that we 
owe to the birds all the profit in every crop that 
comes out of the ground. 
Whether during the short session of Con¬ 
gress now just beginning it will be possible to 
bring this bill to a vote is quite uncertain, but 
we may feel sure that the work of educating the 
public and members of Congress will continue, 
and that before very long Congress will act, and 
act favorably on this bill. In order that this 
action may come as soon as possible, it is the 
duty of all associations and all individuals in¬ 
terested in bird protection to bring to bear on 
members of Congress all possible influence in 
behalf of the bill, and to endeavor to make their 
representatives understand that this is a measure 
purely for public good and not for the benefit 
of any group of people, any political party or 
any section of the land. 
GAME LAWS IN BRIEF. 
Forest and Stream's new edition of Game 
Laws in Brief is now ready for delivery. There 
never was a time when this compendium was 
more needful to hunter, fisherman or to anyone 
wishing to keep posted on laws governing the' 
taking of game and fish. It has been a consider¬ 
able task to bring this issue up to date. Sixty- 
seven new laws were enacted in fourteen States 
as well as in three Canadian Provinces. These 
changes were as follows: Alaska, 1; Arizona, 
1; Georgia, 7; Kentucky, 1; Louisiana, 2; Mary¬ 
land, 17; Massachusetts, 8; Michigan, 1; New 
Jersey, 17; New Mexico, 1; New York, 2; South 
Carolina, 1; Virginia, 4; Wisconsin, 1; New¬ 
foundland, 1; Nova Scotia, 1; Ontario, 1. 
This edition we believe to be absolutely 
correct to December, 1912. It is pocket size 
physically and a complete library in the infor¬ 
mation it contains of every day use to the well 
informed sportsman. We have no hesitation in 
referring to the Game Laws in Brief as the in¬ 
disputable authority. 
THE ETHICS OF SPORT. 
Is it not true, perhaps, that in our discussions 
of “sportsmanship” we constantly overlook the 
existence of that vast army of those who kill 
game and fish for game and fish, and not in 
any measure whatever for sport? If a man re¬ 
quires a mess of bass or trout for his home 
table, or a bag of quail, and if he goes out to 
gather in the one or the other precisely for the 
purposes and with the utilitarian hunger appeas¬ 
ing motive that controls him in digging potatoes 
or wringing the neck of a hen that has ceased 
to lay, why should he be denounced because of 
his unsportsmanlike conduct? What is sport to 
him; or what is he to sport? He has a perfect 
right to the fish and the game, and should have 
the unquestioned privilege of taking them in any 
way under heaven that pleases him, provided only 
that the method he chooses is not unreasonably 
destructive. The only excuse, for instance, to 
forbid the trapping of game is found in the prac¬ 
tical experience which has demonstrated that 
trapping so destroys the stock that the supply 
is depleted to a point where no more birds are 
left for either shooter or trapper. The gunner 
may very properly claim that his way of taking- 
game is of a higher grade than the trapper’s 
way, but he can rightly have no quarrel with 
the trapper because the man of the snare is 
wanting in sportsmanlike sentiment. As well 
might the amateur tooler of the tallyho coach 
berate the unsportsmanlike spirit of the driver 
of the ash cart. It is well and proper to hold 
a professed sportsman in the exercise of his 
sportsmanship strictly to the dictates and limi¬ 
tations of sport; but is it reasonable to require 
that every person who takes game or fish must 
do it for sport and after a mode recognized as 
sportsmanlike? 
E. REED SHANER. 
A fitting tribute was paid father and a 
proper appreciation shown son when the Inter¬ 
state Association, at its annual meeting, Dec. 6, 
elected E. Reed Shaner, Secretary of the Asso¬ 
ciation. The new secretary is just like his 
father, Elmer E. Shaner, and has the “to be 
dones” of the Association at his finger tips, while 
his popularity—for he has inherited the qualities 
that make for geniality from Elmer—makes him 
the logical successor to his pater. 
The “big association” is to be congratulated 
upon being able to retain the services of Elmer 
E. Shaner, as treasurer, which retention we be¬ 
lieve to have been due to the persuasive power 
of J. T. Skelly, its able president. 
MENU ADDENDA. 
The bounties of Christmas were bestowed 
upon us so copiously in the way of holiday 
articles for our Christmas number, we were 
obliged to omit Fred A. Olds’ story of “Christ¬ 
mas in ’64” and Edward Breck’s Canadian 
romance The former appears in this issue; 
the latter will follow. Magna cst veritas, et 
prcevalebit being our office motto, we are asked 
by our industrious advertising manager to say 
that the list of Christmas books, crowded out 
of the hindermost pages in the holly and ever 
green number, will be found in this issue. 
ARTHUR ST. JOHN NEWBERRY. 
Once more the ranks of the old guard suf¬ 
fered depletion. Arthur St. John Newberry, a 
foremost fisherman, authority on fishing subjects 
and places, has joined the great majority. He died 
in Cleveland, Nov. 30, 1912. Our condolences go 
forth to the family of this remarkable man. 
Last summer we promised an article from an 
unusual angle on the sinking of the Titanic. 
At the time we called attention to this paper it 
was in preparation by Col. Archibald Grade, 
who had spent some little time with our editorial 
staff in planning for it. Colonel Grade's im¬ 
paired health, due to the sinking of the great 
ship, made it necessary that he go very slowly 
in his work. Unfortunately the Reaper moved 
more rapidly than convalescense could progress 
in the patient’s battered physique, so that Col. 
Gracie’s version of the wreck of the ill-fated 
liner never was heard and perhaps never will 
be known. 
