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To the Editor of the Enterprise:“Many Virginia people have asked for my reason for resigning as game j warden for the gun clubs of northern Minnesota. In reply I can only say j that I have been 3^ the work a long while and have tHed hard to enforce the game laws, traveling over thousands of miles of trails and roads and water through the big game belt and have, I think, stopped a great deal of illegal hunting and fishing. However while the protection of our wild life is under the present system little can be done. The present executive head of the game and fish commission has been in politics for years and is totally unfit to discharge the duties of the position which he holds.“When a state game warden is appointed with the work at heart, with field captains and wardens under him, and no political strings tied to them, j who are all on the job 30 days a month lt;j —as any officer should be who per- • forms the duties—and are made to « patrol the whole big game belt, we can look for an increase in both large and small game and fish. We have almost wardens enough now to do this if they were rightly distributed and made to get out and dig. Forty war- « dens in a month could cover over 18,-000 miles of trail, traveling 15 miles 1 a day. This would be a small hike or trip for any man fit for the work . 1“The present game and fish com-mision had up to this spring 70 wardens holding commissions and spent in their maintenance an immense sum of money. Outside the fisheries department under the personal supervision of Mr. E. Cobb, an efficient officer who is getting splendid results, the whole thing is almost a farce. The last legislature, realizing this, cut down the appropriation, which resulted in the discharge of almost half of these political wardens,* many of whom were engaged in lucrative business for themselves. A great part of the wardens still on the payroll are in the southern and central portions of the state and could hardly tell a moose from a kangaroo. Most of them are the type of woodsmen who would easily get lost on a forty acre lot. The only game bird they see are the migratory game birds on wing or an occasional prairie chicken on the premises of a farmer, who is usually a first rate gjime warden himself. Of 75 arrests I have made and 74 convictions1 have secured in the six months just past, during which I have been in the employ of the range rod and. gun clubs, not one farmer was convicted of having venison in his possession for his own use. Not one day's jail sentence was served by any farmer. The farmers, as a rule, are strong for the enforcement of the game laws.Crimp Put on Cummings.“Several months ago Mr. J. E. Cummings, a state game warden, was asked by the clubs to work with me. I found him a fearless, efficient, fair-minded officer and we secured a number of convictions together. About
Newspaper Details
The Virginia Enterprise
Virginia, Minnesota, US
Fri, Feb 20, 1914
Page 5
Full Page
Clipped by
George W.
USA 28 Sep 2022
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