Evening times-Republican. [volume] (Marshalltown, Iowa) 1890-1923, 1907-04-13
a Low LICENSE, BUT 4 WINNER.

Iowa needs some advanced legisla-
ton in game and fish laws. The bill
to license hunters and thus raise a,
fund for game protection was a good
one and should have been made law.
Large appropriations from the general
funds of the state for the purpose Of
furthering sport INDUCED in by the
few. and to which many are opposed
thru sentimental conception of its
cruelty may not be entirely fair deal
but license law requiring those WHO
destroy the game to contribute to its
protection and propagation is just and
advisable. If the sportsmen Of the
state are to continue in the delusion
that Iowa is still game state and are
willing to pay dollar year as an
evidence of good faith there seems to
be no good reason why they should be
denied the privilege.
This is qually true Of the fish and
the fishermen and in the matter of fish
and fishing the opportunity is large
and open However much gunners
may deceive themselves the days of
good hunting" in Iowa are gone for
ever. Conditions have changed. The
breeding places have disappeared. We
may protect the pheasant but the
pheasant has gone from Iowa never to
return. So has the prairie chicken. So
have the Indians, the buffalo and the
wild deer. But the streams offer the
same opportunities as in an earlier
day. The lakes have not changed as
ha.bitats. We can have fish in plenty
and offer the common and healthful
sport Of the rod and line to all. We
can raise our own fish We can hatch
them in millions and billions and stock
nually at small expense 10 the multi
tude of fishermen. We need a fisher
mans license law. A dollar a year paid
by every fisherman in the state would
supply the funds to stock and keep
stocked thru state hatcheries all the
waters of the state and pay for proper
and effective protection. More, it
would constitute in every licensed fish
erman a self appointed fish warden.
He would feel himself robbed by the
seiner and poacher of something he
had paid for out of his own pocket
The Oregon Fish and Game Associa-
ton tried to persuade the legislature
to pass two bills: One Of these provid-
ed for the establishment of an anglers
license law, by which every person over
the age of sixteen years must pay one
dollar for a license to catch game fish
during the open season. The sum of
all licenses was to go into the state
treasury, there to be held as a game
fish hatchery fund, and to be used in
the establishment and operation of
state fish hatcheries, the payment of
salaries TO operatives, etc. Fines also
were TO go lntO tulS IuuQ. AlOlHeT
bill was intended to create a state
game fish commission, consisting of
three members, whose duties should be
to establish and maintain fish hatcher
les, and propagate and distribute game
fish in the waters of the state. The
Oregon lawmakers turned them down.
Conditions in Washington and in Iowa
are greatly different. Here the market
fishermen would welcome fish hatch
cries in the hope that their es-
xablishment would keep the seines of
the fish commissioner out of the bayous
of the Mississippi aud Missouri.
Let the fsherman's associations and
societies feel Of their membership.
Start something. There is no good rea-
son why Iowa shouldn't have good
fishing all summer long. Five years