The Virginia enterprise. [volume] (Virginia, St. Louis County, Minn.) 1893-19??, 1914-02-20

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THE PASSING OF GEORGE E. WOOD.
George E. Wood, perhaps the most active. in
most respects the most efficient and as a whole
the best man who has ever served the state game
and fish commission, or those considerable inter-
ests In this section who are interested in better
enforcement of the state game, and fish laws is
down and out He is stripped of his pristine
splendor as seuth relentless upon the trail of
the fish hog and poacher The state game and
fish commission has won great victory, for Wood
is out of the way for the present at least
Wood was not beyond criticism as a game
warden. He had lapses of Judgment he adopted
methods that may have been questionable but be-
side those of the executive department of the state
game and fish commission as applied to the dis
charge of it's duties in this section they were
puerile at the worst. Wood hung on with leech-
like tenacity When he was discharged by the
commission the rod and gun clubs of the range
took him up, not so much because he was personal
ly one to be particularly admired as because they
had confidence in his ability to do something in the
face of a condition that the commission had for
years ignored. Wood made enemies. Some of
them were the result Of callow mistakes on his
part others resulted from less substantial ground
When he began securing wholesale convictions, it
was said he would be shot in the woods Many who
did not like him personally we're not slow to ex-
press the fervent hope that he would be- But
Wood kept on sleuthng about the game country
He made his name a terror to game law violators
all of northern Minnesota. He didn't stop
violations of the game laws but he helped reduce
the number wonderfully.
Then came the blow-up
The officers Of the state game and fish COM
had the goods on him in a hundred different ways.
They gave out yelled newspaper interviews in
sinuating that Wood might have stolen million
dollars more or less. Maybe he did.
The state game and fish commission never
proved it.
Why didn't it? 1t was openly challenged so
to do.
Was the state game and fish commission
afraid? Various of it's members went about the
state reviling Wood. They said he was as crook
ed a barrel Of fish hooks They looked wise
and knowingly insinuated they had something up
their sleeves that would land Wood in Saltwater:
No man who deserves Saltwater has any right
outside of there. Why isn't Wood there if as
servant of the state he was party to transac-
tons of questionable nature that entitled him
to berth in the states stone house?
There is something extremely rotten some
where. How many and whom does this some
thing involve? Why was Wood so relentlessly
pursued by the state game and fish commission?
Why did they make him an issue sufficient to
warrant the checking up of the records of every
municipal court on the range where he had tried
cases? What was found result of the check
ing up? Why is it not made public? Who is afraid?
Why can't we have the great, white shining truth
of this whole business?
The impression has long been growing here
that the state game and fish commission is one
OF the most useless Of the several useless depart
ments the state has. The opinion is confirmed
that it should be wiped off the slate as constituted
at present in favor of some sane, efficient plan
that will give real law enforcement in the game
country This newspaper believes that some of
the stories of the wholesale violations of game
laws are distorted, but it also believes that wheth
er they are or not the state game and fish CON-
mission as body has no knowledge on the sub
ject that is worth while and that it is not so con-
sttuted that there any to believe it would
make an effort to remedy the conditions if they
were as bad as painted. AS medium for the
paying off of political debts it is doing it's whole
duty nobly even though handicapped for funds.
It has served it's day of usefulness in Minnesota
THE KNIGHTS OF COLUMBUS OATH.