Page 317 - Our Vanishing Wild Life

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NEW LAWS NEEDED IN THE STATES
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Theindividualshooterdesireslawsthatwillpermithimtoshoot when he pleases, where he pleases, and what he pleases! If you meet those conditions all over a great state, then it is time to bid farewell to the game; for it surely is doomed.
No, decidely no ! Do not attempt to pass game laws that will " jjlease everybody." Themorethegame-hogsaredispleased,thebetterforthe game ! The game-hogs form a very small and very insignificant minority ofthewholePeople. Whypleaseonemanattheexpenseofninty-nine others? The game of a state belongs to The People as a whole, not to the gunners alone. The great, patient,—and sometimes sleepy, majority has vested rights in it, and it is for it to say how it shall and shall not be killed. Heretofore the gunning minority has been dictating the game laws of America, and the result is—progressive extermination.
First of all, Oregon should bury the pernicious idea of individual and local laws.
She should enact a concise, clearly cut, and thoroughly effective code of wild life laws, just as New York did last winter.
Her game seasons should be uniform in application, all over the state.
Every species of bird, mammal or fish that is threatened with extermination should be given a close season of froin five to ten years.
It is now time to protect the white goose and brant. Squirrels, band-tailed pigeons and doves should be perpetually protected.
The State Game Commission should have power to close the shooting seasons on any species of game in any locality, whenever a species is threatened with extinction. The sale of native wild game, from all sources, should be permanently stopped, by
a Bayne law.
The use of automatic, "autoloading" and pump shot guns in hunting should be
perpetually barred.
Pennsylvania:
As a game protecting state, Pennsylvania is a close second to New York and Massachusetts. She protects all native game from sale; she has the courage to prohibit aliens from owning guns; she bars out automatic shot- guns in hunting; she makes refuges for deer, and feeds her quail in winter, and she permits the killing of no female deer, or fawns with horns less than three inches in length. Her splendid State Game Commission is fighting hard for a hunter's license law, and will win the fight for it at the next session of the legislature (1913).
But there are certain things that Pennsylvania should do:
Sheshouldstopallspringshooting. Shemuststopkillingdoves,blackbirds,wild turkeys, sandpipers, and all the squirrels save the red squirrel.
She should give all her shore birds a rest of at least five years, for recuperation.
She should enact a comprehensive Dutcher plumage law, stopping the sale of aigrettes.
vShe should provide a resident license to furnish her Game Commission willi ade- quate funds to carry on its work and exterminate game-killing vermin.
Rhode Island:
Little Rhody needs some good, small bag limits; for now (1912) she has none!