The record-union., 1899-02-27
NOT FOR SPORTSMEN ALONE
GAME PRESERVATION IS FOR
FARMERS, ALSO.
A Timely and Able Presentation
Of. Subject Not Generally
Understood.
(Fron Field. shorts !

all the papers, even those professed to
be sportsmen's journals never speak of
the game laws except as being devised
in the interest of the sportsman, and
enacted for his sole benefit and pleas
ure. OF course the lay journals are
excusable for making this blunder, as
they are not supposed to have given
the subject more than a casual study.
Unfortunately for the education of the
public mind, even the oldest of our
sportsmen's. papers have pursued this
course from the beginning, and even
to-day are pursuing 1t to a very large
extent. That sportsman's paper owes
an unyielding allegiance to the dearest
interests of its constituents, cannot,
and will not, be denied But with all
this it cannot assume to sacrifice the
best interests Of the community TO
those Of a class. If not, then it must
owe its first allegiance to the best in
terests of the community at large, or
it is an injury to the we'll being of the
State to have it published and SOW the
seed of theories which are in opposi-
ton of the general good of the whole
people.
If the sportsmen's papers Of America
cannot delve deep enough into the
game question, to see and understand
how and wherein the preservation of
the game rebounds to the general good
of the whole community, and from this
understanding of it's wide ramifiea-
lions, find a more potent argument than
that of it's sole benefit to the one class
called sportsmen, it would be better
for the class they are trying to assist,
if they would devote their columns to
some other subject.
The people of America are opposed
to anything savoring Of class legisla-
ton, and rightly, too, and though we
love the game and gun as dearly as
any one can, we would oppose every
game law on our statute books if we
could find no other cause for their ex-
istenoe than the one-idea plea of the
benefit of the sportsman, and their en-
actment in his interest.
Field Sports" was the first paper in
America to go right to the heart of the
game question, and discuss it. not from
the narrow standpoint of it's benefit to
that one class called sportsmen, but
upon the broad score of the greatest
good to the greatest number, present.
ing line of arguments showing how
and wherein the game supply of any
community became resource whose
Importance could only be measured by
the extent Of the supply.
These arguments have been present
ed and represented in every conceivable
form, and fortified and refortified with
facts and figures, until our exchanges
at least should know them by heart.
Yet with the exception of one or two
Eastern papers who have seen the
force of the arguments and the effect
they must exert upon the public mind
in the way of proper education, the So
called sportsmen's papers are hammer
ing away upon that one idea Of the
benefit of the sportsman and the great
pleasure he will derive by the enact
ment Of protective game laws, never
for a moment touching the economic
side Of the question, or showing the
value of the game as a natural re-
source to the community in which it
abounds.
Such presentations of the game ques-
do more harm than good, because of
the fact that such arguments are un-
| tenable in principle and unjust in APP
plication, and must be so considered
| by right thinking men. 1t is therefore
no wonder that there is a strong feel
| ing against the passage of protective
laws, when they are urged upon what
| is nothing more than a plea for class
| legislation, and must therefore seem
| to the public mind, if based only upon
such arguments, as against public pol
| icy
| In its discussion of the game ques-
ton, Field Sports has always held
that the interests of the sportsmen are
of
| Der of any other class of citizens. 1t
| has always held that they have no
rights that are paramount to those OF
any other class Of citizens. Nor has
! it ever asked, or will it ever ask for the
passage of any law for the protection
of any bird or beast, if it can show
no better reason for the enactment of
such law than that of the interest of
| the sportsman or the enhancement of
his pleasure.
who have had better opportunity to
learn of the benefits that have and can
be derived from the game of America,
than the editor of this journal. We
have seen it succor the furnishing pi-
oneer as he toiled across the plains of
Kansas and Colorado on his westward
march to open up the great possibili-
ties of the vast empire of the Pacific.
We have seen it feed and clothe the
settlers of Nebraska, Colorado and
Kansas while they We're developing the
rich farms that cover the State to-day.
/ Without it the settlement of these
! States could never have taken place.
Without it they would still be the bar
rem deserts that they were when We
| first crossed them
| We have seen it feed the half naked
| and bare-footed, aye, OftentimeS hun
cry emigrants that toiled across the
wastes of Arizona and New Mexico.
| We have seen it form the only fresh
meat that reached the mining camps
of California, and form the menu for
months of the prospector who laid bare
the wealth of the Golden West We
| have seen it form more than half of the
| food of the California squatter as he
| toiled and waited for the coming Of
| the first yield Of the land he titled
making possible the building of the
| home wherein he has since reared q
happy and useful family, to add their
energy to the later development of the
State.
| We have seen it In the few short
years of one life dwindle from AN
abundance which would challenge the
belief of even the most credulous, to
the mere 1.-THE of its former numbers.
| as found to-day. We have seen it fill
| the pleasure resorts with those who
pursue it for pleasure, and later we
| have seen these same resorts closed
! for the want of patronage, because
their game was gone. We have watched
this rapid diminution under the con-
| tin,,o,1S MULTIPLICATION of the number