yy) ammunition AUTOMATIC makers withdrew SHOTGUN. their advertising Magazine, which I published up to a year ago. AUTOMATIC from Recreation before you. This magazine contains half-page advertisements of. those three corporations and of a number of others in the gun and ammunition business. That issue also contains a severe criticism, a severe arraignment, of the so-called “ pump gun,” the repeating shotgun, which fires six shots in ten seconds, and perhaps in less than that. I inaugurated in that issue a very strenuous crusade against that weapon, and I have been fighting it from that day to this. I have been making rapid progress, as will appear here from documents, in creating public sentiment against the use of these murderous weapons, not only the automatic shotgun, but the repeating shotgun as well. I have all this time been conducting a crusade against the reckless slaughter of game with any weapon, whatever it may be, and have been urging the enactment of laws to prohibit the sale of game; to prohibit the shipment of game from one State to another; to limit the number of birds which a man may kill in a day; and I think you all know that great progress has been made on all those lines. All the States have enacted laws looking to the preservation of their game, and some of them more stringent and drastic laws than others. The sentiment of the people of the United States, and of Canada as well, is to-day rapidly crystallizing in the direction of giving to the wild animals and birds of this country every possible show for their existence and of limiting the time of killing them and the number of those that may be killed. These things must be done, or in a few years there will be no game left in this country for anybody to hunt. We can easily see that the time is not far distant when the only living wild animals and birds will be those on preserves, either public or private, and such game as may overflow on to the surround- ing territory. This letter reads as follows: If any of you are interested in knowing the facts about that, J have a copy of that magazine here containing the advertisements of the Union Metallic Cartridge Company, the Winchester Arms Company, and the Remington Arms Company, the people who are opposing us to-day in our effort to secure laws to prohibit the use of this automatic gun. They are all directly or indirectly interested in the measure which is now These are the conditions as you will find them, those of you who live ten or twenty years from now. Every State in this Union is spending money on its game. The gun and ammunition people—I say this without any unfriendly feeling—are placing on the market all the time guns some of which are very cheap, others very expensive and beautiful, which naturally create in the mind of the man who has one of them an anxiety to go out and kill things. Ammunition is being made and sold at a rate that is simply alarming. In this connection I want to read you an extract from a letter from William T. Hornaday, of the New York Zoological Society, one of the most conscientious men in the world; a man who never goes at anything carelessly; a man famous as a student of game He wrote this letter to Representative protection and of nature. Lacey a few days ago; it is dated March 24. Mr. Lacey handed it It relates to the measure that is under considerto me this morning. ation by Congress to enact a law to protect migratory wild fowl. An opinion has been requested of the Attorney-General as to whether Congress has the right to do that. SHOTGUN. NEW Hon. JouHn F. House YorRK New Lacry, of ‘ Vet limene Representatives, & me Washington, I amy delighted D. fo know ZooLoGicaAL Park, York, March 24, 1906. CO. that the two giume preserva- in which we are interested are in such favorable condition and I beg you to accept through me the thanks of the ZOOlogical society for your appearance before the Committee on Agriculture in recommendation of the fence appropriation for the buffalo herd. The item seems in a fair way now to 0 through. If it does it will mean the consummation this year of 2 proposition in which a great many Americans are interested. : ra , In offering a buffalo herd to the National Government as a gift the zoological Society seeks to demonstrate the interest of private individuals in ae fate ne our most conspicuous American quadruped. We feel that it is the duty. of individuals to do something toward the establishment of the series of buffalo herds that should be established very soon. Aub hia wl 4 hs ai He aa ing to know that the game-refuge bill is in a fair way to We earnestly hope that the opinion of the Attorney-General in regard to the constitutionality of a migratory wild-fowl act against spring shooting will be as all wish it to be. In view of the enormous annual outlay for firearms to be used against game birds it is impossible to have too much legislation in behalf of the birds. I have recently been assured by a gun inventor and manufact urer who has every opportunity for obtaining information, that every year there are sold in this country about 500,000 shotguns, of which about 250 000 cost $5. or less. about He also stated that in his opinion there are now in use in this ‘country 10,000,000 shotguns, in which about 1,000,000,000 cartridges are used every year. Of these 700,060,000 are manufactured in the factories and the number is therefore well known. The other 300,000,000 are shells that are reloaded. AE vee In view of these figures, is it then possible for laws for the protection of bird life to be too numerous really is appalling. Yours, very or too stringent? ‘The outlook truly, W. T. for twenty years uae Hornapay, Director. hence Mr. Hornaday is the author of the best natural history that has ever been written of American wild animals and birds. es ue The New York Zoological Society, at its annual meeting last January, passed this resolution: Resolved, That the automatic shotgun as that the Society urges hibiting is use. New York Zoological Society condemns the use of the unsportsmanlike and highly destructive to bird life, and on the legislature of this State the passage of a law pro- The Camp F ire Club, of New York City, at its last meeting pre- ceding January 17, 1906, the date of this letter, adopted the following resolution : Resolved, the That. introduction birds enact this and association use of the emphatically so-called condemns automatic and Shotgun protests in the or other game, and we respectfully request. the New York a law prohibiting the use of such weapon for such purpose. against hunting of legislature be to _ The New York Association for the Protection of Fish and Game 1s one of the oldest game protective associations in the United States and numbers among its members such men as Grover Cleveland. Hon. Perry Belmont, Hon. Warner Miller, Hon. Robert B. Roosevelt Wilham Fred P. Clyde, J. Coleman Pierson, Gen. Warren M. Drayton, Healy, Charles R. Flint, and F. Augustus Gen. J. Schermer- |