Canadian on Ducks
Sirs:
Having read your article in the Aug. 10 issue of TIME entitled "Duck .Moratorium?" I consider your magazine the proper medium for a further discussion of this subject if you will so permit.
Canadian sportsmen do not agree with your contributor, Dr. Thomas Gilbert Pearson,* that the principal reason for the shortage of ducks is the continued drought in the southern part of the three prairie Provinces, as there are large bodies of water in the northern portion of these provinces that annually contribute to the duck supply, sufficient grounds for all the ducks in the world to breed in. Visitors to the northern lakes report more ducks than ever before due to the migration to those parts.
It is not a lack of breeding places that is responsible for the duck shortage but nonenforcement of the law governing shooting on both sides of the boundary. As Canadian shooters only get from one month and a half to two months against from three and one-half to five in the States it is evident more ducks are shot to the south of the line. Also that 6,500,000 licenses are annually issued in the U. S. and that in some States there is open season the year around leads us to question the right of Americans who are clamoring at Ottawa for an embargo on duck and geese shooting in Canada this year.
It is our contention that the various States should restrict their shooting seasons, forbid the use of automatic shotguns, live decoys and baiting in fields. As Dr. Pearson might like some proof of what happens to ducks in Arkansas let him read the September issue of Field & Stream. Nash Buckingham writing about what he has actually seen states that 40,000 crippled and rotten ducks were found in a 450-acre field. These are the places where a little law enforcement would be useful. Can't blame the drought for such slaughter, only inhuman beings could do it ...
D. R. BALL
Yorkton, Saskatchewan.
The U. S. duck season has been limited this year to one month; the hag limit (per day l remains 15 (see p. 51).—ED.
Judges Cardozo
Sirs:
TIME for Aug. 17 carries a picture of Judge Cardozo of N. Y. Court of Appeals with reference to his decision concerning testimony of Horse Doctor Doyle before legislative investigating committee. But TIME does not mention— and I wonder if it is aware that another Judge Cardozo figured conspicuously if ingloriously in the history of Boss Tweed's infamous career and downfall? I have often wondered if the present Judge Cardozo is a descendant of the Tweed judge of super-"fine distinctions"? Being a casual student of history such questions interest me and any enlightenment TIME can give me on this point will be interesting to me and perhaps other TIME readers.
J. THOMAS
Montauk, N. Y.