I beg officially to state that the National Association of Audubon Societies is absolutely opposed to either the manufacture, sale, or use of such firearms, and therefore hopes that the meritorious bill introduced by the New York Zoological Society will become a law.

I beg further to add that any statement contrary to the above in effect is unauthorized.

This society is working for the preservation of the wild birds and game of North America, and it sincerely should not stultify itself by advocating the use of one of the most potent means of destruction that has ever been devised.

You are at liberty to use this communication either publicly or privately.

Very sincerely yours, [Signature:  William Dutcher] President.

A LETTER THAT TELLS ITS OWN STORY]

* * * * *

Yes; we will “limit the bag” and “enforce the laws;” but the machine guns and the alien shooters shall be eliminated at the same time!  Each state has the power to regulate, absolutely, down to the smallest detail, the manner in which the game of The People shall be taken or not taken; and such laws are absolutely constitutional.  If we can legislate punt guns and dynamite out of use, the machine guns and silencers can be treated similarly.

No immunity for wild-life exterminators.

The following unprejudiced testimony from a New York business man who is a sportsman, with a fine game preserve of his own, should be of general interest.  It was written to G.O.  Shields, March 21, 1906.

  DEAR SIR: 

Regarding the use of the automatic shot-gun, would say that I am a member of two southern ducking clubs where these guns are used very extensively.  I have seen a flock of ducks come into a blind where one, two, or even three of these guns were in use, and have seen as many as eleven shots poured into a single flock.

We have considerable poaching on one of these clubs, the territory being so extensive that it is impossible to prevent it.  We own 60,000 acres, and these poachers, I am told, nearly all use the automatic guns.  They frequently kill six or eight ducks out of one flock—­first taking a raking shot on the water, and then getting in the balance of the magazine before the flock is out of range.  In fact, some of them carry two guns, and are able to discharge a part of the second magazine into the same flock.

As I told you the other evening, I am not so much against the gun when in the hands of gentlemen and real sportsmen, but, on account of its terrible possibilities for market hunters, I believe that the only safe way is to abolish it entirely, and that the better class should be willing to give up this weapon as being the only means of putting a stop to this willful game slaughter.

  Very truly yours,

  ARTHUR ROBINSON.