Our Vanishing Wild Life: Its Extermination and PreservationHornaday, William T. (William Temple)
History
Our Vanishing Wild Life: Its Extermination and Preservation
Hornaday, William T. (William Temple)
Game-laws -- United States; Wildlife conservation -- United States
THE PERSONAL EQUATION.--One determined man can secure the passage of a
good law, provided he is reasonably intelligent and sufficiently
determined. The man who starts a movement must make up his mind to
follow it up, direct its fortunes, stay with it when the storms of
opposition beat upon it, and never give up until it is signed by the
governor. He must be willing to sacrifice his personal convenience, many
of his pleasures, and work when his friends are asleep or pleasuring.
In working for the protection of wild life there is one mighty and
unfailing source of consolation. It is this:
_Your cause always gains in strength, and the cause of the destroyers
always loses strength!_
THE CHOICE OF A CAUSE.--Be broad-minded. Do not rush to the legislature
with a demand for a law to permit the taking of bull-heads with
June-bugs in the creeks of your township, or to give your county a
specially early open season on quail in order that your boy may try his
new gun before he goes back to college. _Don't propose any "local"
legislation_; for in progressive states, local game legislation is
coming strongly into disfavor,--just as it should! Legislate for your
whole state, and nothing less.
Do not bother your legislature with a trivial bill. Choose a cause that
is worth while to grown men, and it shall be well with you. It takes no
more time to pass a large bill than a small one; and big men prefer to
be identified with big measures.
Before you have a bill drawn, advise with men whose opinions are worth
having. If the end you have in mind is a great and good one, _go ahead_,
whether you secure support in advance or not. If the needs of the hour
clearly demand the measure, _go ahead_, even though you start absolutely
alone. A good measure never goes far without attracting company.
DRAFTING A BILL.--As a rule, the members of a legislative body do not
have time to draft bills on subjects that are new or strange to them. A
short bill is easily prepared by your own representative; but a lengthy
bill, covering a serious reform, is a different matter. Hire a lawyer to
draft the bill for you. A really good lawyer will not charge much for
drafting a bill that is to benefit the public, and grind no private axe;
but if the bill is long, and requires long study, even the good citizen
must charge something.
Your bill must fully recognize existing laws. It must be either
prohibitory or permissive; which means that it can say what shall not be
done, or else that which may be done according to law, all other acts
being forbidden. Your lawyer must decide which form is best. For my
part, I greatly prefer the prohibitive form, as being the stronger and
more impressive of the two. I think it is the province of the law _to
forbid_ the destruction of wild life and forests, under penalties.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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