12 AUTOMATIC SHOTGUN, but there is no dangerous animal on this continent except the grizzly bear, and in hunting these it is well to have a repeat ing rifle. But that is the only animal on this continent that will ever attack you. I will read you what the President said. I sent him a typewritten copy of this interview, as I said. Mr. Bover. Mr. Chairman, may I make a suggestion? I do not think that the name of the President should be introduced in this discussion, particularly in the way in which it has been introduced. T think it is a questio n of propriety, of a gentleman placing himself upon record as being in contradiction with the President of the United States in respect to some proposed legisla and I suggest to the gentleman on the other side that nothing tion, should be said, because it invites a statement in this controversy which I hoped might be obviated. The Cuairman. There is a rule which prevails, I think, in committees as well as on the floor of both Houses, that criticism should not be indulged in by either House of the other. But I know of no rule in relation to comments upon the Executive within reasonable bounds. If any member of the committee knows of any such rule, I would like to have him mention it. Mr..Moon. No, sir; there is no such rule as to the President. He is free property. Just hit him as you want to. he Cuairman. A good deal must be trusted to priety which animates all gentlemen in this matter. the sense of proMr. Shields is presenting his view in relation to this matter, and I suppose the gentlemen on the other side will want to present their view. Mr. Boverr. If we do so, we will do so with extreme reluctance, having expressed our desire to avoid it, as it involve s a question of veracity between the President of the United States and the gentleman who is addressing the committee. Mr. Surexps. I am perfectly willing to withdr aw what I have said and not to present the letter to you, 1f the gentlemen on the other side will not say anything about it and will refrain from reading their letter from the President, The Cuairman. If you gentlemen by mutual agreement desire to strike out all reference to the matter, I suppos e that might be done. Mr. Surexps. I simply started to read this in self-defense. (Informal discussion and conversation betwee n the members of the committee followed.) Mr. Suretps. I believe the question has not been quite settled as to whether I should read my letter from the President and the interview with him. If the committee desires to have it left out, I am quite willing to leave it out. Mr. Lioyp. I think you have got to a point where you had better read it. The CHarrman. With that understanding, will the committee agree to let the other side have as much time this morning as has been consumed on behalf of the bill? You have talked fifty minutes, Mr. Shields. Mr. Suiexps. I had started to say that I sent the President a typewritten copy of this interview, and I told you what I had written him. The interview referred to by Mr. Shields, as presented by him, is here printed in the record, as follows: AUTOMATIC PRESIDENT I called on President SHOTGUN. ROOSEVELT Roosevelt at the IS P33 WITH White US. House, January 1%, and the bird life of laws to prohibit had a long and interesting talk with him on the subject of game Provecuony pel the course of our conversation the President sas ta meet as heartily in symy with our campaign against the automatic shotgun. | ge him iff ar quote him to that effect, and he replied that I might ; that he country, regarded that weapon as a and he heartily in favor that is Serious of menace the its use in the hunting of birds and wild animals. the time when when the buffalo and great herds of elk could the antelope be found to enactment were in almost of this He said we had lived through everywhere any range on the pee of mountains west of the Mississippi; when mountain sheep traveled in great bands, even down in the Bad Lands of the upper Missouri River. In those days we did not think it would ever be necessary to restrict the killing of game. We did not realize then that wild animals could be photographed alive in their native haunts. We have lived to see all these conditions changed. The head hunters, the skin hunters, and the thoughtless sportsmen have Swept these herds of noble wild animals off the earth, or have decreased their numbers to such an extent that all we can do now is to preserve and perpetuate the remnant. We have seen the prairie chicken and the wild turkey exterminated in certain States where they were once abundant. We have seen the quail and the woodeock and the ruffed grouse decimated, until but pitiable remnants of these noble species remain. Hereafter thoughtful sportsmen should bend their utmost energies to the preservation of what is left, and where shooting can be permitted at all it should be with a view to the preservation of species rather than to the j ig bags. es Oe as eee ited the sportsmen of this country to understand that they have his hearty termination, and sympathy in their efforts to save our wild animals from that he will do all in his power to aid in this good work. ex- Tn his latest book, ‘‘ Pastimes of an American Hunter,” the President Says: “rue sportsmen, worthy of the name, men who shoot only in season and in moderation, do no harm whatever to game. The most objectionable of all game destroyers is, of course, the kind of game butcher who simply kills for the Sake of the record of slaughter, who leaves deer and ducks and prairie chickens to rot after he has slain them. Such a man is wholly obnoxious; and, indeed, so is any man who shoots for the purpose of establishing a record of the quantity of game killed. To my mind this is one unfortunate feature of what is otherwise the admirably sportsmanlike English spirit in these matters. The custom of shooting great bags of deer, grouse, quails, and pheasants, the keen rivalry in Inaking such bags, and their publication in sportsmen’s Journals, are Symptoms of a spirit which is.most unhealthy from every standpoint. It is to be earnestly hoped that every American hunting or fishing club will strive to inculcate among its own members, and in the minds of the general public, that anything like an excessive bag, any destruction for the sake of making a record, is to be severely reprobated.” The President replied in this wise: (Mr. Shields here read a letter from President Roosevelt, as fol- lows:) [Personal.] My Dear SuHreLps: I am sorry; to say that I must ask you, under no circum- stances, to put me in quotation marks; for though you give the sense of what I said, you in no case give the exact language used, so do not try to quote me in the first person or to use quotation marks. You can state that my views are substantially as you have Sincerely, yours, quoted them, but don’t actually quote them. THEODORE The Cuatrman. The President understood the purpose ROOSEVELT. for which you wrote him, and the purpose for which you proposed to use his reply ? Mr. Suretps. Most emphatically. I asked him when I went in and told him what I came for, what his feeling was in the matter, and he