Public Service

While the brook trout fishermen of other states were thinking up surprises for fish, a surprise for the 200,000 stream-whippers and worm-danglers of New York State was in preparation last week. Elaborating on President Hoover's public-spirited idea of shortening the interval between bites (TIME, Oct. 6), Conservation Commissioner Henry Morgenthau Jr. was training a platoon of public servants to assist unskilled fishermen to find fish and catch them. The State has 150 fish and game protectors. It was Commissioner Morgenthau's idea to put these individuals into uniforms--brown whipcord cut like the State Policemen's, with a blue band around their caps--and to send them all last fortnight to Captain Charles J. Broadfield of the State Police for instruction. Arresting anglers who lack licenses or who have taken trout too small or too many will be only part of their duty. This year they are to discover and tell what flies or bait the fish are taking, where are the good pools. They will advise fishermen what waters are "posted," which is the nearest short-cut through the woods. They are to try to encourage the use of barbless hooks and the nonuse of landing nets, "to give the fish a fighting chance." Game Commissioner Morgenthau's father was a diplomat: U. S. Ambassador to Turkey (1913-16).

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