The Concordia sentinel. (Vidalia, Concordia Parish, La.) 1882-current, 1920-07-03

Il
ping away merrily at the mallards
and bluebills in marsh at Nevada, Mo- 1t real
ly was distinguished party. In 1t were Attorney
General Frank McAlIister of Missouri; J. r. Rey-
nolds of Kansas City; E. s. vilmoare, Kansas
City, and N. S. Bodine 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 party2
Well, he was from Missouri" The Missouri
folks have TO be shown you know. And Attor-
ney General McAIlister and his friends had an
idea that the migratory bird act was unconsttu-
tionaL They liked to shoot ducks-spring as
well as falkland they proclaimed that the act
interfered with the sovereignty of the state of
Missouri and with the property rights of the peo-
pie Of Missouri.
SO Attorney. General McAlIIster of Missouri
and his friends went hunting March z 1919
Moreover, they didn't care who knew 1t. Maybe
they even tipped 1t of to the federal game war
sdeRs. Anyway. the federal game wardens put In
AN appearance and arrested the attorney general
and his party. The party arraigned at ClIn-
ston. Mo- McAlllster took the case into court ask
ing for an injunction to restrain the federal game
swardens from enforcing the law. Federal Judge
A. s. Van valkenburgh held the law constitutional
and the state appealed to the United States Su-
preme court
TO George Shras III. and Elihu Root the
millions Of birdlOvers gratitude So do the
millions of gardeners and farmers who with the
snsectiv0rous birds gone. would be eaten I'D by
their insect foes. George Shlras. a member of
congress from Pennsylvania began the fight away
back In 1904 Ehu RoOt-possibly the most COM
manding intellect In the country tOday-cnched
the victory.
II Gilbert Pearson. secretary and executive Of
icer Of the National Association of Audubon so
cietes who has also a 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 Shlras III. was 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 I'm diff
ferent parts of the country all through the year.
lie. decided that the only way to remedy this state
OF affairs, which would in time result in the ex
tinction of game birds. was to put the matter un-
der government control and thus do away with
the constant and everlasting wranglng of the
states so he introduced bill In congress for
the protection Of migratory birds. 1t was re-
ferred to a committee and put In a pigeonhole
and that was the last Of 1t.
sBefore this time the only protection law in
force In the States was the Audubon law, which
we succeeded In getting enacted In all but about
eight states This. however, did not prohibit the
selling of birds. In 1910 we brought about the
prohibition of the sale Of aigrettes.
Elm theory, the state game laws worked nice
w. and II could be shown paper that each
state could have its chosen shooting season and
stil there would be no dying out Of birds. But
On practice they did not work so well. Take for
instance, duck shooting-when the ducks start
north 10 the spring they are mating and IL you