II Forest and Stream 
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NEW YORK, SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 14 , 1908 . 
. VOL. LXXI.—No. 20. 
I No. 127 Franklin St., New York* 
A WEEKLY JOURNAL. 
Copyright, 1908, by Forest and Stream Publishing Co. 
George Bird Grinnell, President, 
Charles B. Reynolds, Secretary. 
Louis Dean Speir. Treasurer. 
127 Franklin Street, New York. 
= ■- ' " - 
THE SILZ CASE DECISION. 
I* 
The Silz game case was decided by the Su¬ 
preme Court of the United States last week. 
! August Silz, a game dealer of this city, having 
carried up to the highest tribunal in the land the 
contention that he had a constitutional right to 
possess imported game in the close season, in 
contravention of a State provision forbidding it, 
has met defeat. The Court denies that he has 
such a right. The opinion, written by Mr. Jus¬ 
tice Day, is unanimous; there is no dissent. 
The full text of the document, lucid and com- 
1 mendably brief in its statements and conclusions, 
is printed in another column. The review of the 
case there made is so simple and comprehensive 
that the reading will give a clear understanding 
of the points at issue. 
Counsel for Mr. Silz contended that the pro¬ 
vision of the game law, which forbade in close 
time possession of game lawfully killed abroad 
and imported by their client, was unconstitu¬ 
tional, first, because it deprived him of property 
without due process of law, and second, because 
it was an unjustifiable interference with foreign 
commerce. 
The Court acquiesces in neither of these views. 
It holds that the acts in question were passed 
in the proper exercise of the police power of the 
State, and constitute due process of law. As to 
the plea of an unwarrantable interference in 
' foreign commerce, it is held that this objection 
! ! is untenable because such interference as may 
here be involved is not the direct purpose of the 
enactment, but is incidental and remote. 
A third point argued was that the Court below 
had erred in its construction of that provision of 
If the Lacey Act, which makes imported game sub¬ 
ject to the State law, and extended discussion 
was given to this by counsel for both sides. But 
the Supreme Court did not consider the point 
: : at all, holding that the statute under considera- 
1 tion was a valid exercise of the police power 
l of the State, independent of any authorization 
1 by the Lacey Act. 
I The decision is far-reaching in its effect. The 
prohibition of the possession of game in close 
sea-son is justified, and the whole system of game 
protection thereby made more secure by this 
reaffirmation of the basic principle on which the 
{ decision rests, namely, that to forbid in close 
season possession of game brought from with¬ 
out the State is a legitimate exercise of the 
I police power, for the reason that such an ex- 
I pedient is absolutely essential to preserve the 
game native to the State. Experience has demon¬ 
strated the difficulty of stopping the illicit close 
season traffic in game, unless also traffic in im¬ 
ported game is forbidden, and the public in¬ 
terest involved in abolishing the sale of game is 
so large as to justify any individual hardship 
which may attend the prohibition of dealing in 
foreign game. 
While the decision has done much for the 
country at large, its effect upon the work of 
game protection in New York city will prove 
especially valuable. In this market the sale of 
foreign game as conducted by many dealers— 
we here make no reference to Mr. Silz and some 
others—has been largely a cloak for traffic in 
the game of New York and adjoining States. 
The “Austrian pheasants’’ of the restaurant bills 
of fare are Chenango county, New York, ruffed 
grouse. “Brazilian quail’’ come from New York, 
New Jersey and North Carolina. The only way 
to keep our native game out of the market is 
to keep all game out. Most of us have long 
clearly recognized this principle; and we have 
never questioned that it would be affirmed by the 
highest court in the land whenever the oppor¬ 
tunity should come. The Supreme Court has 
settled the point once for all. 
Because of the decision in the Silz case the 
cause of game protection is to-day on a surer 
foundation than ever before. 
AFRICAN TIGERS. 
We are told that home-keeping youth have 
ever homely wits. To learn new things about 
our own people and our own country as well as 
about foreign lands, we must go abroad. 
President Roosevelt’s contemplated African 
trip is receiving much attention from the news¬ 
papers, whose remarks are often of a character 
to lighten the heart of the sportsman, naturalist 
or statesman who is oppressed with care. In 
a recent special cable dispatch, an unnamed 
American gives us some novel information about 
Mr. Roosevelt, declaring that “the President will 
be delighted when he hears that he can shoot 
any kind of game he wants, literally from the 
car windows.” In bygone years it was often 
possible to see men and women variously armed 
with needle guns, Henry rifles, navy six-shooters, 
.22 caliber revolvers and other lethal weapons, 
shooting from car doors and windows in the 
general direction of nearby buffalo, antelope, 
coyotes, jackrabbits and prairie dogs, but it 
would strain the imagination a little to picture 
Mr. Roosevelt doing this. The President enjoys 
seeing wild animals in any situation. He will 
he delighted to shoot game that he has earned 
by fair work. He will not be delighted to 
shoot a lion in a cage or an elephant from a car 
window. 
If Mr. Roosevelt goes to Africa there will 
apparently he an opportunity for him to make 
an interesting zoological discovery which will 
greatly extend the range of an important animal. 
The unnamed American says: “I have seen 
droves of buffalo and dozens of lions and tigers 
wandering in the woods while the railway in 
Nairobi was being built.” This unnamed Ameri¬ 
can is the only person who has ever seen a tiger 
in Africa. Is it possible that he can put Mr. 
Roosevelt in the way of seeing one or a dozen, 
and thus let him bring back that unique speci¬ 
men, the skin of a tiger killed in British East 
Africa? 
Is it possible also that locked within his breast 
the unnamed American holds other natural his¬ 
tory secrets? We have read of pigmies, uni¬ 
corns, the roc and other mysterious creatures in 
Africa, and some of these have since been re¬ 
discovered and are found to be the very animals 
that an earlier generation regarded as mythical. 
Is it possible that this unnamed American may¬ 
be able to provide the President with sport such 
as no modern has ever enjoyed? 
Forest and Stream often receives letters and 
manuscripts from persons who neglect to attach 
their names and addresses thereto. Communica¬ 
tions sent for publication are frequently signed 
with initials or noms- de plume only. Photo¬ 
graphs are sent without any explanation of what 
they represent and with neither the names nor 
the addresses of their owners. Obviously mat¬ 
ter without marks for identification cannot be 
acknowledged, and correspondents who may have 
failed to receive acknowledgment of material 
sent us are requested to forward their names and 
addresses. 
The safest plan is to place the full name and 
address at the top of the first page of any com¬ 
munication or manuscript, and on the back of 
each photograph submitted for publication. In¬ 
close sufficient postage for the return of same, 
if found unavailable for publication. In this 
way possible loss and annoying delays may be 
avoided. 
* 
That Postmaster Edward M. Morgan lies 
wounded by the pistol shot of a lunatic is a 
misfortune not only to New York, but to the 
whole country to which New York sends its 
mail messages. Mr. Morgan is the most efficient 
postmaster that New York has ever had, and 
notwithstanding the relatively slender means 
granted him for running this great postoffice, he 
has brought it to an unexampled point of effi¬ 
ciency. Although appointed to the postmaster¬ 
ship only in 1907, he had been the executive 
officer, the man who did the work, of the post- 
office for a number of years. Mr. Morgan is 
a good sportsman, and in past years has been 
a not infrequent contributor to the columns of 
Forest and Stream. All who know him, or who 
know of him, will rejoice that his physicians re¬ 
port that his injury, though serious, is not likely 
to terminate fatally. 
