Page 272 - Our Vanishing Wild Life

250 OUR VANISHING WILD LIFE
annumthantheentireannualcostoftheBureau. Nexttothesplendid services of Dr. Palmer, all over the United States, one great value of the Bureau is found in the fact-and-figure ammunition that it prepares and distributes for general use in assaults on the citadels of Ignorance and Greed. The publications of the Bureau are of great practical value to the people of the United States.
Dr. Palmer is a man of incalculable value to the cause of protection. No call for advice is too small to receive his immediate attention, no fight is too hot and no danger-point too remote to keep him from the fray. Wherever the Army of Destruction is making a particularly dangerous fight to repeal good laws and turn back the wheels of progress, there will hebefound. Asthewarfaregrowsmoreintense,Congressmayfindit necessary to enlarge the fighting force of the Biological Survey.
The work that has been done by the Bureau in determining the economic value or lack of value of our most important species of insectiv- orous birds, has been worth millions to the agricultural interests of the UnitedStates. Throughitweknowwherewestand. Thereasonswhy we need to strive for protection can be expressed in figures and percent- ages ; and it seems to me that they leave the American people no option but to protect!
State Game Commissions.—Each of our states, and each province of Canada, maintains either a State Game Commission of several persons, one Commissioner, or a State Game Warden. All such officers are officially charged with the duty of looking after the general welfare of the game and other wild life of their respective states. Theoretically one of the chief duties of a State Game Commission is to initiate new legis- lative bills that are necessary, and advocate their translation into law. The official standing of most game commissioners is such that they can successfully do this. In 1909 Governor Hughes of New York went so far as to let it be known that he would sign no new game bill that did not meet the approval of State Game Commissioner James S. Whipple. As a general working principle, and quite aside from Mr. Whipple, that was wrong; because even a State game commissioner is not necessarily infallible, or always on the right side of every wild-life question.
As a rule, state commissioners and state wardens are keenly alive to the needs of their states in new game protective legislation, and a large percentage of the best existing laws are due to their initiative. Often, however, their usefulness is limited by the trammels of public office, and there are times when such officers can not be too aggressive without the risk of arousing hostile influences, and handicapping their own depart- mental work. For this reason^ it is often advisable that bills which propose great and drastic reforms, and which are likely to become storm- centers, should originate outside the Commissioner's office, and be pushed bymenwhoareperfectlyfreetoabidethefortunesofopenwarfare. It should be distinctly understood, however, that lobbying in behalf of udld-life measures is an important part of the legitimate duty of every state game commissioner, and is a most honorable calling.