Jan. 29, 1910.] 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
177 
, Gifford Pinchot. 
The conservation movement had its first ex¬ 
pression in the movement of the American 
sportsmen for conservation of game and fish. 
After a quarter of a century the movement is 
successful and an effective system of game and 
fish protection is firmly established by law 
throughout practically all of the States and 
strongly entrenched by public sentiment every¬ 
where. The real work was done when the senti¬ 
ment became solidified, for it was then that good 
laws became possible and that they came to stay. 
Then came Gifford Pinchot. He is the living 
exponent of the principle of conservation, and 
the sentiment nourished into growth by the 
sportsmen of the country eagerly grasped the 
larger principle and adopted it. 
The people of America have adopted Gifford 
Pinchot. He is their forest protector. They 
have placed him on guard and henceforth he 
will be known in every woodland and on every 
stream, and the leaves will whisper and the 
waters talk about him. No mere governmental 
edict can change the sentiment, nor annul the 
deed of adoption, nor suppress the winds of the 
forest and the waters of the stream. He has 
been dismissed from the service of the people 
by the officers of government as summarily as 
any malfeasor in office. Why? His assistants, 
certain of them, saw robbers and raised the 
alarm and Pinchot upheld them therein, but the 
Government said these men are subordinates; it 
is time enough to raise the alarm when we see 
fit to raise it. 
This is a new principle of ethics that any ser¬ 
vant of the people, when he sees, or thinks he 
sees, a robber, must wait until superior noblesse 
oblige red-tapism stamps his eyesight with offi¬ 
cial approval. For the common idea of service 
is that any servant ought to do that at any time 
without waiting or depending on any other ser¬ 
vant just because he is higher. 
It is the common understanding that honest 
public service is honest service of the public— 
not of some other servant of the public. Who 
cares about the etiquette of official procedure 
when a thief is in sight? Half the wrongdoing 
in this country goes on because somebody is 
afraid to cry “Stop thief,” for half the time 
somebody knew what was going on from the 
.start. The very last big “defalcation”—if it is 
big enough you ought not to say “steal”—was 
known by a whole coterie of office associates to 
have been going on for years. They would not 
tell because they were working for their superior 
officers instead of the stockholders. 
Do the people want their employes to work 
for their superior officers or for the country? 
Do they intend to countenance this theory of 
public service? Do they believe that, just as all 
signs fail in dry weather and just as the writ of 
habeas corpus is suspended in time of war, so 
official decorum must stand aside when there is 
a thief in sight? 
All the signs and portents go to show that the 
people are mad “clear through” about this affair, 
and if they are, then Gifford Pinchot has become 
an issue in the country. If a vote could be taken 
on it, it would not be worth while to count it. 
All that would have to be done would be to take 
the total number of citizens and subtract from 
it a few bureaucrats and all the rest would be 
for Pinchot. Even if his men were wrong and 
there were no thieves, he would get the votes 
just the same. 
Gifford Pinchot, of Washington, bids fair to 
last as long as John Brown, of Ossawattomie 
Kansas. 
All of which is by way of saying that the prin¬ 
ciple first nourished by the Forest and Stream 
family has in one short month received an im¬ 
petus not otherwise possible in many years. 
George Kennedy. 
New York Legislature. 
Albany, N. Y., Jan. 24.— Editor Forest and 
Stream: Assemblyman Cosad, of Seneca county, 
has introduced in the Legislature a bill amend¬ 
ing the forest, fish and game law by providing 
an open season in Seneca county for Mongolian 
ring-necked, English and other pheasants, for 
which there is no open season under present law 
except in Livingston, Monroe, Ontario, Orleans, 
Wayne, Suffolk, Fulton and Dutchess counties. 
The bill brings Seneca county under the same 
rules governing the first five counties named 
where the cock or male of these pheasants may 
be taken on Thursdays and Saturdays in the 
month of October, and possessed during that 
month, but with the burden of proof on the 
possessor to show that the pheasants were legally 
taken. The law further provides that these 
pheasants shall not be sold or offered for sale 
at any time, and that no person shall kill, take 
or possess more than three in any one year. 
A bill has just been introduced in the Legis¬ 
lature, by Assemblyman Whitney, of Saratoga, 
appropriating $6,450 for the forest, fish and game 
commissioner to acquire title to certain lands in 
Saratoga county, including a tract in the patent 
of Kayaderosseras and a tract on Mount Mac¬ 
Gregor, town of Moreau, subject to a right of 
way heretofore acquired by the Mount Mac¬ 
Gregor Railroad Company across the former 
tract. This is the region around Grant cottage. 
Assemblyman Stevenson, of Delaware, put in 
a bill amending the forest, fish and game law to 
permit the spearing and hooking of fish and the 
setting of lines in streams inhabited by trout in 
Delaware county. This is at present prohibited 
in all counties. 
Assemblyman Greenwood, of Wayne, has in¬ 
troduced a bill amending the forest, fish and 
game law by permitting the spearing of suckers, 
bullheads and eels in the several creeks in Wayne 
county from March 1 to May 15, both inclusive. 
A bill has been introduced by Assemblyman 
Cosad, of Yates, amending the forest, fish and 
game law by permitting nets or seines with 
meshes of not less than two-inch bar to be used 
in any portion of Cayuga Lake from May 1 to 
Sept. 15. At present they are permitted only in 
a specified portion of the lake. 
Assemblyman Thorn, of Buffalo, has intro¬ 
duced in the Legislature a bill amending the 
forest, fish and game law by permitting the 
spearing of suckers, mullet, carp and catfish in 
the waters of Lake Erie and the streams tribu¬ 
tary thereto, in Erie county, the open season to 
be from April 1 to June 1, both inclusive. 
Senator Hill has introduced the Assembly bill 
in the Legislature, authorizing the forest, fish 
and game commission to reforest lands in the 
forest preserves. 
Two bills amending the game law have been 
introduced in the Legislature by Assemblyman 
Sweet, of Oswego, amending the forest, fish and 
game law by providing that bass taken in any 
waters of the State shall not be sold or offered 
for sale. 
Amending the forest, fish and game law by 
providing an open season for marten and sable, 
the same as for mink and skunk, from Nov. 1 
to March 15, both inclusive. Under present law 
there is no open season for marten and sable 
prior to 1910, and in 1910 the season is to be 
the same as for mink, skunk and muskrat. The 
open season for muskrat is lengthened so that 
it shall be from Nov. 1 to April 15, instead of 
March 15, both inclusive. The bill also pro¬ 
vides that skunks which are injuring property 
or which have become a nuisance may be taken 
or killed at any time. 
Assemblyman Dana, of New York city, has 
just introduced in the Legislature the following 
bills amending the game law relating to the 
storage of fish and game in close seasons. The 
bill provides that storage in the close season of. 
stock undisposed of at the beginning of the 
close season, permitted under present law, be 
limited to the storage of fish only. 
Excluding woodcock from the provision for 
an open season to last from Nov. 1 to Dec. 31, 
both inclusive, at present applicable to wood¬ 
cock, grouse and quail. 
Prohibiting the sale or offering for sale of 
wildfowl from Jan. 10 to Sept. 15, both inclu¬ 
sive- ; r E*. C. C. 
Boone and Crockett Gub Annual. 
The Boone and Crockett Club, having been 
founded in December, 1887, is now a more or 
less venerable institution. Originally established 
as a club of riflemen devoted to big-game hunt¬ 
ing, the rapid changes which have taken place 
on this continent have resulted in somewhat 
modifying its objects, so that- while still a club 
of riflemen and big-game hunters — some of 
whose experiences go back to buffalo days— 
it has now become devoted largely to the preser¬ 
vation of our natural things—the game, the 
forests and the water supply. 
Since the founding of the Boone and Crockett 
Club a number of other clubs have been estab¬ 
lished which have similar objects. One of the 
most interesting and important of these is the 
Shikar Club of London, established only a few 
years ago, of which King Edward of England 
is the honorary president, and the Prince of 
Wales the president. Englishmen wander much 
further afield than Americans and in their pos¬ 
sessions in Africa and India they have territories 
for big-game hunting as yet scarcely touched— 
regions which Americans are only now begin¬ 
ning to visit. The aims of the Shikar Club are 
so well phrased that they may be quoted: 
“To develop the social side of sport. 
“To bring together camp-fire chums—the old- 
time hunter and the young aspirant, the empire 
maker (whether soldier or civilian) and the 
humble globe trotter who carries a gun; in a 
word to cement friendships and to revive memo¬ 
ries of golden days. 
“To maintain the standard of sportsmanship. 
It is not squandered bullets and swollen bags 
which appeal to us; the test lies rather in a 
love of forest, mountain and desert; in acquired 
knowledge of the habits of animals; in the 
strenuous pursuit of a wary and dangerous 
