* * * * *

CHAPTER XXVIII

NEW LAWS NEEDED:  A ROLL-CALL OF THE STATES

The principles of wild-life protection and encouragement are now so firmly established as to leave little room for argument regarding their value.  When they are set forth before the people of any given state, the only question is of willingness to do the right thing; of duty or a defiance of duty; of good citizenship or the reign of selfishness.  Men who do not wish to do their duty purposely befog great issues by noisy talk and tiresome academic discussions of trivial details; and such men are the curse and scourge of reform movements.

There are a very few persons who foolishly assert that “there are too many game laws!” It is entirely wrong for any person to make such a statement, for it tends to promote harmful error.  The fact that our laws are too lenient, or are not fully enforced, is no excuse for denouncing their purposes.  We have all along been too timid, too self indulgent, and too much afraid of hurting the feelings of the game-hogs.

Give me the power to make the game laws of any state or province and I will guarantee to save the non-migratory wild life of that region.  I will not only make adequate laws, but I will also provide means, men and penalties by which they will be enforced!  It is easy and simple, for men who are not afraid.

I have been at considerable pains to analyze the game laws of each state, ascertain their shortcomings, and give a list of the faults that need correction by new legislation.  It has required no profound wisdom to do this, because the principles involved are so plain that any intelligent schoolboy fifteen years old can master them in one hour.  I have performed this task hopefully, in the belief that in many states the real issues have not been plainly put before the people.  Hereafter no state shall destroy its wild life through ignorance of the laws that would preserve it.

Let no man say that “it is too late to save the wild life”; for excepting the dead-and-gone species, that is not true.  Let no man say that “we can not save the wild life by law”; for that is not true, either.  As long as laws are lax, even law-abiding people will take advantage of them.

There are millions of men who think it is right to kill all the game that the law allows!  There are thousands of women who think it is right to wear aigrettes as long as the law permits their sale!  And yet, if we are resolute and diligent there is plenty of hope for the future.  During the past three years, to go no farther back, we have seen the whole state of New York swept clean of the traffic in native wild game by the Bayne law, and of the traffic in wild birds’ plumage on women’s hats through the Dutcher law.  To-day, in this state, we find ninety-nine women out of every one hundred wearing flowers, and laces, and plush and satin on their hats, instead of the heads, bodies and feathers of wild birds that were the regular thing until three years ago.  The change has been a powerful commentary on the value of good laws for the protection of wild life.  The Dutcher law has caused the plumage of wild birds almost wholly to disappear from the State of New York!