The Chronicle Star Combined With The Moss Point Advertiser

One of Mississippi's major industries, the natural resources of game and fish in our fields and streams, will be struck a crippling blow if House Bill No 126, which directs the state treasurer to transfer to the state's general fund $500,000 from the game and fish protection fund, is passed by the state legislature. There is neither merit or justice in the bill.

The fund which the state is attempting to take away from the fish commission has been accumulated over a period of time through revenue from the purchase of hunting and fishing licenses, payment of fines for violations of the game and fish laws and in other ways directly stemming from the operation of the tax commission and the use of the state's natural resources of game and fish.

In the first place, we believe the State Game and Fish Commission lax in accumulating such a fund in the face of the need for more game and fish protection. Just what the commission planned, we don't know. Perhaps they were working towards a program of some sort, but if so it had never been publicly announced. Violation of the game and fish laws are commonplace and little can be done about it without a considerable increase in the number of game wardens. Certainly the funds have been used in making this vital service effective. Then, too, fish hatcheries could have been enlarged, and much needed restocking program launched for both streams and field.

Another bill introduced at the present session also calls for the consolidation of all departments of conservation including game, fish, seafood, timber, and forestry resources, as well as the departments of geological survey, state parks and monuments, under one department of conservation. The consolidation would be made, ostensibly, to save money in a unified operation of the various agencies. Sportsmen generally throughout the state are opposing the bill on the ground that it would make the game and fish commission even more ineffective than it has been in the past.

We are inclined to disagree with this assumption on some points. We believe that such a move would make more economical the operation of the various departments, and a strong commissioner of conservation, divorced from political pressure and the dictation of those industries who wish to exploit the natural and human resources of our state without assuming any of the obligations of citizenship, would be a healthy state of affairs. However, a commissioner of conservation appointed on the bases of political worthiness would simply center the ineffectiveness of all departments. The present game and fish commission has certainly not made any concerted or vigorous effort to clean up the pollution of streams in our state by cracking down and enforcing anti-pollution laws.

We of Jackson county know the condition that existed for many years at the Masonite plant at Laurel, and the condition is far from solved at this writing despite all of the hullabaloo. Then the Pearl river faces ruination along its entire length through pollution originating largely at Jackson, headquarters for the game and fish commission. Then there is the problem of pollution by sewage from virtually every city and community in the state.

The one danger faced by the present bill is that it is just another political move, and the creation of another job for a worthy politician. We would like to see the bill expanded and include a hard and fast and intelligent approach to the problem. We would also like to see the commissioner of conservation elected by the people of the state, instead of being appointed. In that way he would be responsible to the people, and not to the politician who handed out, or secured the appointment for him.

A commissioner of conservation, elected by the people, would have to make his bid for that office on a platform of specific action. We know platform promises are frequently forgotten about when election returns are in, but at least a commissioner elected by the people will have to carry the merits of his past actions in office before the people in order to be returned. Perhaps in that way some approach to basic problems could be made. Certainly little or nothing is being accomplished under the present system.