At the last session of the Maryland legislature, the law preventing the use of power boats in wild-fowl shooting was repealed.  That was a step ten years backward; and Maryland should be ashamed of it!

The list of things that Maryland must do in order to clear her record is a long one.  Here it is: 

  Local regulations should be replaced by a uniform state law.

  The sale of all native wild game should be stopped.

  Spring and late winter shooting of game should be stopped.

  All non-game birds not already included under the statutes should be
  protected.

The exportation of all game should be prohibited, unless accompanied by the man who shot it, bearing his license, and the law should be state-wide instead of depending upon a separate enactment for each county.

  There should be a hunter’s license law for all who hunt.

  The use of machine shotguns in hunting should be stopped, at once.

  Stop the use of power boats in wild-fowl shooting.

MASSACHUSETTS: 

In 1912 the state of Massachusetts moved up into the foremost rank of states, where for one year New York had stood alone.  She passed a counterpart of the New York law, absolutely prohibiting the sale of all wild American game in Massachusetts, but providing for the sale of game that has been reared in preserves and tagged by state officers.  This victory was achieved only after three months of hard fighting.  The coalition of sportsmen, zoologists and friends of wild life in general proved irresistible, just as a similar union of forces accomplished the Bayne law in New York in 1911.  The victory is highly instructive, as great victories usually are.  It proves once more that whenever the American people can be aroused from their normal apathy regarding wild life, any good conservation legislation can be enacted! The prime necessities to success are good measures, good management, a reasonable campaign fund, and tireless energy and persistence.  Massachusetts is to be roundly congratulated on having so thoroughly cleaned up her sale-of-game situation.

Incidentally, five bills for the repeal of the Massachusetts law against spring shooting were introduced, and each one went down to the defeat that it deserved. The repeal of a spring-shooting law, anywhere, is a step backward ten years!

Massachusetts needs a bag-limit law more in keeping with her small remnant of wild life; and that she will have ere long.  Very soon, also, her sportsmen will raise the standard of ethics in shotgun shooting, by barring out the automatic and pump shotguns so much beloved by the market shooters.  As matters stand at this date (1912) the Old Bay State needs the following new laws: 

  Low bag limits on all game.

  Five-year close seasons on all shore birds, snipe and woodcock.

  Expulsion of the automatic and pump shotguns, in hunting.