Page 330 - Our Vanishing Wild Life

308 OUR VANISHING WILD LIFE
into the ring, and the struggle began. At first the no-sale-of-game bill looked like sheer madness, but no sooner was it fairly launched than supporters came flocking in from every side. All the organizations of sportsmen and friends of wild life combined in one mighty army, the strength of which was irresistible. The real sportsmen of the state quickly realized that the no-sale bill was directly in the interest of legitimate sport. The great mass of people who love wild life, and never kill, were quick to comprehend the far-reaching importance of the measure, and they supported it, with money and enthusiasm.
The members of the legislature received thousands of letters from their constituents, asking them to support the Bayne-Blauvelt bill. They didso. Onitspassagethroughthetwohouses,onlyonevotewasrecorded against it! Incidentally, every move attempted by the Army of De- struction was defeated and in the final summing up the defeat amounted to an utter rout.
In 1912, after a tremendous struggle, the legislature of Massachusetts passed a counterpart of the Bayne law, and took her place in the front rank of states. That was a great fight. The market-gunners of Cape Cod, the game dealers and other interests entered the struggle with men in the lower house of the legislature specially elected to look after their interests. Just as in New York in 1911, they proposed to repeal the existing laws against spring shooting and throw the markets wide open to the sale of game. From first to last, through three long and stormy months, the Destroyers fought with a degree of determination and per- sistenceworthyofabettercause. TheycontestedwiththeDefenders everyinchofground. InNewYork,theDestroyerswereoverwhelmed by the tidal wave of Defenders, but in Massachusetts it was a prolonged hand-to-handfightontheramparts. Fivetimeswasabilltorepealthe spring-shooting law introduced and defeated!
Even after the bill had passed both houses by good majorities, the Governor declared that he could not sign it. And then there poured into the Executive offices such a flood of callers, letters, telegrams and tele- phone calls that he became convinced that the People desired the law; so he signed the bill in deference to the wishes of the majority.
The principle that the sale of game is wrong, and fatal to the existence of a supply of game, is as fixed and unassailable as the Rocky Mountains. Its universal acceptance is only a question of intelligence and common honesty. Theopenstatesoweittothemselvesandeachothertoenact both the spirit and the letter of the Bayne law, and do it quickly, before it is too late to profit by it ! Let them remember the heath hen,—amply protected when entirely too late to save it from extinction!
It is fairly beyond question that the killing of wild game for the market, and its sale in the "open season" and out of it, is responsible for the disappearance of at least fifty per cent of our stock of American featheredgame. Itisthemarket-gunner,thegame-hogwhoshoots"for sport " and sells his game, and the game dealer, who have swept away the wild ducks, the ruffed grouse, the quail and the prairie chickens that