518 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
[Sept. 30, 1911. 
A New Game Protective Association 
J OHN B. BURNHAM has resigned his position 
of Deputy Commissioner of the Department 
of Fish and Game of the New York Conser¬ 
vation Commission to take effect Oct. 1. On the 
same day he becomes president of the American 
Game Protective and Propagation Association. This 
association is to administer the contributions of 
$25,000 a year, promised for at least five years 
by certain arms and ammunition companies, to 
be used for game protective purposes. It is the 
fund which last spring was offered to the Na¬ 
tional Association of Audubon Societies, and by 
them accepted, and then declined. The founders 
and directors of this association are: H. S. 
Leonard, New Haven, Conn.; George W. Jen¬ 
kins, Morristown, N. J.; E. C. Fink, Chicopee 
Falls, Mass.; Mahlon H. Marlin, New Haven, 
Conn.; James T. Skelly, Wilmington, Del.; 
Murray Ballou, Concord, Mass.; Charles W. 
Dimick, Boston, Mass.; W. E. Keplinger, Cin¬ 
cinnati, Ohio; Evans McCarty, New Rochelle, 
N. Y.; Edward Brush. New York city; F. W. 
Olin, East Alton, Ill. These founders and direc¬ 
tors represent the following companies: Win¬ 
chester Repeating Arms Company, Remington 
Arms Company and U. M. C. Company, J. 
Stevens Arms and Tool Company, Marlin Fire 
Arms Company, E. I. Du Pont de Nemours 
Powder Company, American Powder Mills, 
United States Cartridge Company, Peters Car¬ 
tridge Company, United Lead Company, Selby 
Smelting and Lead Company and The Western 
Cartridge Company. 
The objects of this association are: 
(a) To preserve and propagate game and 
fish. 
(b) To urge the enactment of proper laws 
for the preservation and propagation of game 
and fish. 
(c) To co-operate with and assist the proper 
authorities, regularly organized societies, clubs 
and individuals in enforcing the laws for the 
protection and propagation of game and fish. 
(d) To establish and maintain preserves and 
reserves where game may be propagated. 
(e) To awaken interest among individuals, 
societies, clubs and organizations in the protec¬ 
tion and propagation of game and fish, and to 
demonstrate to them that propagation is feasi¬ 
ble and can be made commercially successful. 
(f) To buy and sell game and fish and eggs 
of game birds, as permitted by law, for purposes 
of propagation of game. 
(g) To own or lease any and all property, 
real and personal, necessary, convenient or use¬ 
ful for the purposes of the corporation. 
The membership of the association is divided 
into two classes, active members, who are the 
original incorporators or persons who shall sub¬ 
scribe and pay a fixed sum annually for a period 
of at least five years and who shall be elected 
as such by the board of directors; and associate 
members, similarly elected and classified as year¬ 
ly members by the annual payment of one dollar; 
as life members by the payment of $100 at one 
time; as patrons by the payment of $1,000; as 
founders by the payment of $5,000, or as bene¬ 
factors by the payment of $25,000. Officials of 
the Biological Survey and of the Department of 
Agriculture may become members without the 
payment of any sum, and game commissioners 
and officers of the game protective departments 
of the several national and State organizations 
and representatives of publications may likewise 
become members without the payment of any 
dues. There is also provision made for honorary 
membership. Ail members are entitled to re¬ 
ceive the reports of the association as they are 
issued. The control and conduct of the property 
and business of the association is vested in a 
board of directors not to exceed eleven in num¬ 
ber. 
The work of the association will largely be 
shaped and directed by an advisory board of not 
less than ten nor more than thirty members, of 
which board the president of the association is 
ex-officio a member and at whose meetings he 
presides. 
The association has been incorporated under 
the laws of New' York State. 
The following officers have been selected: 
President, John B. Burnham; Treasurer and 
Counsel, Wiliiam S. Haskell; Secretary, George 
M. F'ayles. 
This association is national in its scope. Its 
field of activity takes in not only the United 
States, but also Canada and Mexico. There is 
no part of the continent where there is not need 
of game conservation. 
The association wishes to work in harmony 
with existing organizations. It has several main 
lines of endeavor, ranging from the propagation 
of game to the practical enforcement of the 
game laws. It be'ieves in simpler laws and a 
better enforcement, in limiting the bag that can 
be taken at one time and in national legislation 
for the protection of migratory game birds. 
It has been intimated that the contributors to 
this fund expect to derive from it some trade 
advantages and advertisement, but this is de¬ 
nied. At a meeting held recently, at which most 
of the manufacturers were present, it was de¬ 
clared that nothing of this kind is contemplated, 
and that any member who tries to secure any 
direct trade advantage from the association shall 
cease to be a member. The object of the manu¬ 
facturers in contributing to finance the associa¬ 
tion is to secure better game protection, which 
is essential to the continuance of their business 
activities. Many of the best known sportsmen 
of the country are enthusiastic over the good 
that can be done by such an association. Col. 
Roosevelt has written Mr. Burnham a cordial 
letter, heartily approving the plans and purposes 
of the association. Among other things he 
says: 
“The experience of Maine has shown that even 
beasts like moose and deer can be protected with 
entire success, and that to the inhabitants of the 
neighborhood a live moose or deer in the w r oods 
is in mere money return worth many hundred 
times the value of the dead carcass. Not only 
from altruistic motives, from motives of real 
patriotism, but from motives of self-interest our 
people ought at once to put a stop to the destruc¬ 
tion of wild life, and especially to the process 
of exterminating game birds and beasts in our 
country. The arms and ammunition men are 
bound to see their manufactures diminish if 
there are no game birds and animals to at¬ 
tract the sportsman afie.d, and their interests and 
his are identical. The supply must be conserved. 
“The manufacturers are showing sound public 
spirit as well as farsighted recognition of their 
own interests in starting this movement. They 
should be backed up by every sportsman worthy 
of the name, and by every lover of nature, and 
every good citizen. The purpose of the associa¬ 
tion is to focus popular attention on the imme¬ 
diate need of conserving the remnant of Ameri¬ 
can wild game. It is imperatively necessary to 
create a popu ar sentiment favorable to the in¬ 
crease of game by propagation, and with this 
purpose, not only to work for better game laws, 
but for the better enforcement of the game laws. 
I he bag that can be taken in a day by any sports¬ 
man should be limited by law, and there should 
he national legislation to protect migratory game 
birds. Probably every man fit to pass judgment 
on the subject at all already believes in these 
purposes, but in order to secure their being put 
into practical operation, it is necessary to have 
co-operative effort. Your association provides 
the necessary working organization. I bespeak 
for it the hearty support of all good citizens.” 
It is quite obvious that the success of the as¬ 
sociation depends on the man who is to run it. 
Its executive head must be earnest, honest and 
able._ That man has been found in John B. 
Burnham. He is a thorough woodsman, with 
an experience covering a large part of North 
America. He did hunting in the West in 1886; 
after graduating from college he was for six years 
on the staff of Forest and Stream, when he 
went to Alaska to share in the gold excitement 
of the Klondike, and there he showed himself 
an able outdoor man. In the course of his 
travels he shot the Miles Canon and White 
Horse Rapids alone in a twelve-foot folding 
canvas boat—a feat that remains perhaps still 
unique. With a companion he made a long trip 
to the coast in January, the men hauling their 
own supplies, without tent or stove, and sleep¬ 
ing in the open with no fire at 65 degrees below 
zero. 
In this new position it will be his executive 
experience that will count for most. In 1906 
Commissioner Whipple appointed Mr. Burnham 
chief game protector of New York State, no 
doubt because of the efforts that he had made 
earlier to see that the anti-hounding iaw was 
enforced in western Essex county. Mr. Burn¬ 
ham took hold of the force of game protectors, 
organized, built it up, and made it what it is to¬ 
day, a real cohesive force, full of esprit de corps 
and enthusiasm for its work, a force that has 
been taught and schooled and weeded out, until 
it consists almost wholly of effective men who 
are earnest in their work, and who perform it 
effectively, yet withal tactfully. It was Mr. 
Burnham who inaugurated the division system 
in New York, dividing the State into districts, 
each with a chief at its head. These division 
chiefs are enabled to keep close track of the 
work of their men, and, consulting with the chief 
protector at frequent intervals, know just what 
is being done by each member of the force. 
With this experience behind him, with his 
earnestness and his integrity, Mr. Burnham may 
be expected to handle this new association in a 
most effective way. We believe that he will do 
so, and he and his association should have the 
encouragement and help of every sportsman and 
every conservator in the country. 
