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so-called was costing a vast sum of money without adequate return to the 
State. 
The General Assembly, on my recommendation, has wisely consolidated 
the Fish and Game Commissions under a plan of reorganization that is 
comprehensive and scientific and in accord with progressive ideas and withal 
capable \of operation and enforcement. 
IT have named you three men as the commissioners to carry out its 
terms. 
FISHING WORTH $1,500,000. 
The fishing industry along the Illinois River is annually worth a million 
and a half dollars, and is growing rapidly. I have seen the statement that 
the output of the Illinois River is second in value to that of the Columbia 
River. All our streams, lakes and ponds should be conserved, the supply 
of fish replenished and protected to the end that from these sources of food 
enough may be taken to influence the cost of living downward. 
Our game, especially our birds, perform their service in another way 
and we cannot estimate their value in dollars and cents, but we know that 
the farmers’ best friends are those birds which fight the pests and parasites 
of his fields. How much of our magnificent yields of corn and other grains 
and fruits of all kinds, should be credited to our birds, we cannot even 
approximate. 
Illinois can and should cooperate with the general government in this 
work of conservation. It is too extensive and its possibilities, too varied, 
for me to attempt enumeration today. The new law affords you a wonderful 
opportunity to perform a great service that will benefit our people financi- 
ally and socially. I hope you will measure up to the demands and oppor- 
tunities. It is my desire that you shall so enforce this law that it may be 
raised to a plane of dignity, and respectability and so administer your 
department that when you leave it you will leave a monument to efficiency 
and an asset to the public service. 
TO ASSURE FOOD SUPPLY. 
Further let me say that the investigation of the game and fish depart- 
ments have impressed me with the necessity for applying, especially to 
fish, a system of culture and conservation that will, in years to come, 
assure the people of the State of Illinois a needed auxiliary food supply. 
Our beef food supplies are diminished year by year at a rate that is too 
startling to contemplate. The last decennial census disclosed that, not- 
withstanding there has been an increase in population aggregating nearly . 
12,000,000, the cattle supply of the Nation has diminished from 77,000,000 to 
57,000,000. This, obviously, can mean but one thing. The people, sooner or 
later, will be forced to seek new forms of food supply. 
My investigations disclosed that the State of Illinois possesses ele- 
mentary sources of food supply that are equal to those of any other state 
in the Union. The Illinois River alone should become, under thoughtful, 
skillful management by the new Game and Fish Conservation Commission, 
one of our greatest and most enduring sources of wealth. 
I would respectfully suggest that as soon as the new commission has 
been organized and is ready for business, that the question of fish conserva- 
tion be taken up in a broad, intelligent manner with Prof. Stephen A. Forbes, 
of the State University, who is acknowledged to be the most eminent biolo- 
gist in the country. Professor Forbes is wonderfully interested in our 
natural resources and possesses a vast fund of important information which 
can readily be applied to existing conditions. 
' I wish you gentlemen to go to work at once and divide the State into 
districts, each to be overlooked by a district warden. The deputy wardens 
