96 
FOREST AND STREAM 
February, 1918 
Bulletin-k ME RICAN GAME 
PROTECTIVE ASSOCIATION 
“More Game!” 
E. A. QUARLES, Editor 
KEEP MARKET HUNTERS OUT 
A PROPAGANDA, engineered by those 
who hope to profit by it, has been in 
existence in this country for some time 
now, designed to open the game covers of 
the nation to the market hunter under the 
plea that the war necessitates letting down 
the bars on game to replenish the food 
supply. 
While some respectable people have been 
duped into espousing this movement, it de¬ 
rives its major impetus from the com¬ 
mercial dealers in game, allied with many 
large hotels of the country, who long for 
a return of the good old days when they 
could cater to the appetite of the epicure 
with wild game furnished them by dealers 
who maintained an army of shooters from 
coast to coast. 
American game tottered on the brink of 
extinction when sportsmen and other lov¬ 
ers of wild life arose in their organized 
might and demanded and secured the pas¬ 
sage of the laws forbidding its sale. A 
full divorce between game and commer¬ 
cialism was effected by this legislation, then 
and there for all time—it was believed. 
We do not think any considerable por¬ 
tion of the press will be taken in by the 
pleas of these gentry, and there is on the 
other hand evidence that many of the most 
influential daily papers are fully alive to 
the situation. 
The false logic employed to bolster a 
shameless propaganda which has not hesi¬ 
tated to use the sacred cause of patriotism 
as a shield is revealed in a recent editorial 
expression of the Courier-Journal of 
Louisville, Kentucky: 
“To suspend the fish and game laws,” 
says that publication, “would be like de¬ 
ciding to kill all of the hogs and cattle at 
once, to avert starvation before feeling the 
pangs of hunger, and thus insuring short¬ 
age at a later period when hunger might 
he felt.” 
The writer insists, correctly we think, 
“that there should be a rigid continuance 
of the conservation of the fish and game,” 
and he cites the indisputable fact that “The 
laws do not prevent the use.of any sort of 
fish or game which is in existence in suf¬ 
ficient supply to be useful.” 
Moreover, it is declared that existing 
laws are designed to “protect the source 
of supply and permit the use of the sup¬ 
ply,” and this statement is embellished by 
drawing attention to the fact that in the 
case of deer, for instance, the difference 
between the supply which is available 
under protective laws and that which would 
accrue under unrestrained slaughter rep¬ 
resents the margin of safety which insures 
the continuance of a supply of venison. 
The Courier-Journal agrees with this As¬ 
sociation that sinister influences are behind 
the proposals that have been made, and its 
editor closes his pronouncement with these 
words, which should be taken to heart by 
every sportsman: 
“A legislator wishing to make capital 
upon one hand as a patriot, and upon the 
other as an advocate of the people, whom 
he could represent as being hard pressed 
for food, could make a facile speech de¬ 
manding the abolition or suspension of 
fish and game laws. Shortsighted per¬ 
sons would commend him and indorse the 
repeal of the protective laws for the period 
of the war. The conservationists, if they 
would defeat a much misguided response 
to an insincere effort to get the protective 
laws suspended, should be up and doing in 
every state. By vigilance only can they 
avert what would be the undoing, needless¬ 
ly, of all that has been done during the 
last twenty-five years to prevent the ex¬ 
termination of game.” 
Every sportsmen’s organization and every 
individual sportsman should address a res¬ 
olution or letter, as the case may be, to 
Mr. Herbert C. Hoover, United States 
Food Administrator, Washington D. C., 
letting him know how the men who have 
labored to save one of the nation’s most 
precious heritages—an invaluable asset at 
this time—feel regarding the proposal to 
undo the work of a score of years, over¬ 
night, as it wpre. 
They might mention that one of the 
first actions of the French government 
after the declaration of war was to make 
game conservation more stringent, with the 
result that it was possible during the past 
year to permit the taking of a considerable 
toll of cetrain species. The thrifty French 
do not believe in killing the goose that 
lays the golden egg, so long as the eggs 
will suffice. 
Our prospective sportsman correspond¬ 
ents might well point to the significant fact 
that the men who lead the conservation 
movement are united in their Apposition to 
its overthrow—George Bird Grinnell, 
Theodore Roosevelt, William Dutcher, 
George D. Pratt, George Shiras, 3d, Clin¬ 
ton M. G'dell, John B. Burnham, T. Gilbert 
Pearson, William L. Finley, Charles Shel¬ 
don, Ernest Harold Baynes, William T. 
Hornaday, M. L. Alexander, E. C. Hin- 
shaw—what conflicts in the past with the 
forces of greed these names recall! Put 
them down every one as opposed to sur¬ 
rendering our hard-won heritage of wild 
life to the market hunter! 
NO RELAXATION OF PROTECTIVE 
LAWS WARRANTED 
A T the annual meeting of both the New 
York and the Wisconsin State sports¬ 
men’s associations, resolutions were adopt¬ 
ed disapproving of suggestions to allow 
greater use of the game supply at the 
present time as not warranted by the de¬ 
mands of the situation. 
The New York meeting was held in New' 
York City and presided over by Mr. John 
B. Burnham, who was succeeded by Mr. 
Albert J. Squires, of Batavia. Commis¬ 
sioner George D. Pratt was one of the 
speakers at the convention dinner and his 
administration was strongly endorsed. Mr. 
Roy C. Andrews, of the American Museum 
of Natural History, made a splendid talk 
on his recent expedition to Southwest 
China and showed some big game moving 
pictures in connection therewith that were 
excellent. Mr. E. H. Furbush, state ornith¬ 
ologist of Massachusetts, showed by illus¬ 
trations and statistics how the war made 
more necessary than ever the conservation 
of our wild life. 
Mr. Clinton M. Odell, president of the 
Minnesota Game Protective League, at- 
ended the Wisconsin meeting as the spe¬ 
cial delegate of the American Game Pro¬ 
tective Association, and spoke on “The. 
Game Refuge.” Due largely to his de¬ 
voted efforts, Minnesota has one of the 
best state associations in the country, with 
a paid secretary who gives all his time to 
the work. 
The Wisconsin organization possesses an 
aggressive personality in Dr. A. T. Ras¬ 
mussen, its president. He has outlined an 
ambitious and well-considered plan of ac¬ 
tivities, which should advance Wisconsin 
sensibly in its rank as a more game state. 
CONGRESS MUST INSURE FOOD 
SUPPLY 
EAL 1 ZING fully the tremendous im¬ 
portance of the momentous measures 
which the Sixty-fifth Congress has before 
it and stirred as we are by patriotism in 
this great world crisis, we feel that the 
moment has come when the migratory bird 
treaty enabling act should be passed by the 
House of Representatives at Washington. 
The last session of the Sixty-fourth 
Congress took no action on this measure. 
In the house it was similarly ignored in 
the special session, though the Senate 
found time to pass it. Now the moment 
has arrived when the house should com¬ 
plete this great work which has been be¬ 
fore Congress since 1913. And this should 
be done, not because practically all the 
