"We have," Hersey said, "in the case of this McGuire, a fair
sample of the outcome liable to follow or attach to a man who makes a
business of preying upon the vices and follies of the lumbering
class. It is a sort of evolution in law-evasion and opportunity,
encouraged and aided by the animosity which is sure to arise between the
lumberman and us, whose duty it is to enforce the fish and game laws.
These lumbermen, or a majority of them, feel and believe that the forest
and all it contains is theirs by natural right; that no law forbidding
them to obtain all the fish and game they can, is just; that such laws
are enacted and accrue for the sole benefit of city sportsmen who,
like yourself, come here for rest and recreation. It is all a wrong
conclusion, as we know, and yet it exists. Now come these leeches
like McGuire, who prey upon this hard-working class. Such as McGuire
foster the prejudice and antagonism of the lumbermen in all ways
possible, arguing that moose and deer are the natural perquisites of
those who go into the woods for a livelihood, and belong to them as much
as the trees which they have paid stumpage to cut. Also that we who come
in to execute the laws are interlopers, who draw pay for the sole
purpose of robbing them of their rights. Of course, we receive no welcome
at a lumbering camp, and not one iota of information as to what is
going on or where a law-breaker may be found. More than that, they will
protect the leeches who fatten on them in every way possible, even
after, as in McGuire's case, they become murderers and outlaws, with a
price set upon their capture. And here comes in the factor of terrorism.
A few of these lumbermen might give information from a desire to aid the
law, or to obtain a reward, did they not know that to do so would expose
them to the inevitable fate of all betrayers.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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