The Alaska citizen., 1910-10-17
GAME CONSERVATION.


 has ever proven helpful alike To he man engaging in il and to the community contiguous to his opera tions has been hunting. l. has play ed a prominent part in empire building. for railroads which reach ed out their steel bands to the west ward were built al a much lower cost, and in shorter time. by reason of the fact that plentiful supply of wild game was procure able There has always been work for the professional hunter in every new territory where game abounded. and conditions of existence have been made easier for the pioneers because that game was To be pro cured al a reasonable price. Why should Alaska furnish the exception 10 this rule? Conditions here are as strenuous as in any part of the West. and surely the cost of living $ not so low bur that any opportu- ni,y To lessen it should be seized.
 A a preliminary 10 registering a very decided pro,est against the existing game laws The Citizen would rtale Ina, n Is opiuica the man who is commonly known as a game hog" deserves all the abuse that can be heaped on him and worse II believes that he should he punished to the full extent If the law and then some The man who shoots simply for the purpose of destroying rates himself In class lower tAan that of any other anl- nal and the whipping post is the only fiji punishment for his crime. Within all reasonable bounds the zane should be protected, but that he supply furnished by wise
 Proidence should he wasted is another proposition.
 As the law stands today the pro , sessional hunter is entirely eliminat- pd and the sale of game on the pub lie market is practically impossible. And. a. a consequence, the meat trust is catered 10 and any competi-
 ion that might be opposed to it by he sale of venison al a reasonable price is prevented, The prospector who would provide himself with the price of a grubstake by going to the hills and killing for sale half dozen carbon or moose is debarred from doing so by the law. And all that is being effected is the con seryation of the carbon herds for the use of rhe Indians and Hudson Bay company of the Canadian North west, who annually slaughter three times as many as are killed through out the whole of Alaska.
 What good reason can be adyanc- ed why the pioneers of Chis country should not be allowed the same pri- yileges that have been extended to the pioneers of every other Ameri- can territory? Why should not the people of interior Alaska be allowed the use of the wild game which abounds here? Have the future generations which will escape the rigors or existence here more right 10 the natural resources of the coun- try than the pathtinders who are m lEinp fbn.n possible? Ten or fifteen years hence livestock will be raised in in teriOr Alaska and railroads will have so cheapened the cost of living that the game supply of the country will be a minor detail in it's econo- mics. By that time. if a sane poli- cy is adopted, the supply will have been lessened, but the game will haved helped materially in the devel- opment of the country and served the purpose for which it was in tended
 There can be no good reason ad- Vanced why man should not be allowed to go out and kill all the caribou that he can use. either as food for himself or others in the 1 community If he can find sale in the nearest market for those he cannot eat himself he should have | a legal right to sell the extra car casses. If this were the law a con siderable number of men would be furnished with a means of livelihood | and hundreds more would find their cost of living lessened. To what better purpose could the herds be ] put. or. for that matter. for what | else were they intended?
 The law could be so drafted that wanton slaughter could be prevent | ed just as surely as it is at present | It could read that the entire dressed | carcass must be brought to market, | and not only the choice portions. It could limit the time for the killing of more than three to the month | of October. and might prescribe | twelve as the maximum number | that could be killed by any one man. |