The Idaho Springs siftings-news., 1920-07-02

and bluebills in a marsh at Nevada, Mo. 1t real
ly . distinguished party. In it were Attorney
General Frank McAister of Missouri; ]. r. Rey-
nolds Of Kansas City; E. S. Vilmoare, Kansas
City, and M. S. Bodne and Clarence Evans Of
Paris, Mo-
But congress had previously passed the fed
eral migratory bird act, which among other things
prohibits spring shooting of water fowl How
came 1t then. that the attorney general of the
state of Missouri was in the party?
Well he was from Missouri" The Missouri
folks have to be shown, you know. And Attor-
ney General McAllister and his friends had
idea that the migratory bird act unconsttu-
tional They liked to shoot ducks-spring.
well fall-and they proclaimed that the act
nterfered with the sovereignty of the state of
Missouri and with the property rights Of the peO-
pie of Missouri
> So Attorney General McAllister Of Missouri
and his friends hunting March Z, 1910.
Moreover, they didn't care who knew 1t. Maybe
they tipped 1t off to the federal game
dens Anyway, the federal game wardens put In
an appearance and arrested the attorney general
and his party The party arragned at ClIn-
ton, Mo. McAister took the case into court, ask
ing for injunction to restrain the federal game
wardens from enforcing the law. Federal Judge
A. s. Van valkenburgh held the law constitutional
and the state appealed to the United States Su-
Meme court sss~4
To George Shiras Ill, and Elihu Root the
millions of birdovers owe gratitude So do the
millions of gardeners and farmers who with the
their insect foes. George Shiras, member of
congress from Pennsylvania. began the fight away
back in 1904. Elihu Root-possbly the most COM
manding intellect In the country today-cinched
the victory
T. Gilbert Pearson, secretary and executive Of
ncer Of the National Association Of Audubon So
cieties, who has also big share in the victory,
is a wideawake citizen and thoroughly familiar
with the situation. Let him tell the story of the
long hard fight. Says Mr.. Pearson:
George Shiras III. a man Of means who
was interested In good works. In looking over
the situation in reference to the protection OF
birds he discovered that the states all had differ
ent seasons in which migratory game birds could
be shot and that what the situation really amount
ed to was that game birds could be shot In diff
ferent parts of the country all through the year.
He decided that the only way to remedy this state
of affairs which would in time result In the ex-
tipction of game birds, was to put the matter un-
der government control and thus do away with
the constant and everlasting wrangng of the
states So he introduced bill In congress for
the protection of migratory birds. 1t re-
ferred to q committee and put In a pigeonhole,
and that the last of It.
"Before this time the only protection law in
force in the States the Audubon law, which
I've succeeded in getting enacted in all but about
e,pbt states. This. however, did not prohibit the
selling of birds In 1910 we brought about the
prohibition of the sale of aigrettes.
"In theory, the state game laws worked nice
,v and II could be shown on paper that each
state could have its chosen shooting season and
et,II there would be dying out OF birds. But
in practice they did not work so We'll rake Tor
instance. duck shootng-when the ducks start
north In the spring they are mating and II you