Our Vanishing Wild Life Part 44

THE STATE AUDUBON SOCIETIES.--It is impossible to estimate the full value of the influence and work of the State Audubon Societies of the United States. Thus far these societies exist in thirty-nine states.

From the beginning, their efforts have tended especially toward the preservation of the non-game birds, and it is well that the song and other insectivorous birds have thus been specially championed.

Unfortunately, however, if that policy is pursued exclusively, it leaves 154 very important species of game birds practically at the mercy of the Army of Destruction! It would seem that the time has come when all Audubon Societies should take up, as a part of their work, active co-operation in helping to save the game birds from extermination.

THE NATIONAL ORGANIZATIONS OF NEW YORK CITY

On January 1, 1895, the United States of America contained, so far as I am aware, not one organization of national scope which was devoting any large amount of its resources and activities to the protection of wild life. At that time the former activities of the A.O.U. Committee on Bird Protection had lapsed. To-day the city of New York contains six national organizations, and it is now a great center of nation-wide activities in behalf of preservation. Furthermore, these activities are steadily growing, and securing practical results.

THE NEW YORK ZOOLOGICAL SOCIETY.--In 1895 there was born into the world a scientific organization having for its second declared object "the preservation of our native animals." It was the first scientific society or corporation ever formed, so far as I am aware, having a specifically declared object of that kind. It owes its existence and its presence in the field of wild-life conservation to the initiative and persistence of Mr. Madison Grant and Prof. Henry Fairfield Osborn. For sixteen years these two officers have worked together virtually as one man. It is not strange to find a sportsman like Mr. Grant promoting the wild-life cause, but it is a fact well worthy of note that of all the zoologists of the world, Professor Osborn is the only one of real renown who has actively and vigorously engaged in this cause, and taken a place in the front rank of the Defenders.

Mr. Grant's influence on the protection cause has been strong and far-reaching,--far more so than the majority of his own friends are aware. He has promoted important protectionist causes from Alaska to Louisiana and Newfoundland, and helped to win many important victories.

THE BOONE AND CROCKETT CLUB.--This organization of big game sportsmen was founded in 1885, and is the oldest of its kind in the United States. Its members always have supported the cause of protection, by law and by the making of game preserves. In all this work Mr. George Bird Grinnell, for twenty-five years editor of _Forest and Stream_, has been an important factor. As stated elsewhere, the club's written and unwritten code of ethics in big-game hunting is very strict. In course of time a Committee on Game Protection was formed, and it actively entered that field.

[Ill.u.s.tration: NOTABLE PROTECTORS OF WILD LIFE (III) JOSEPH KALBFUS Chief Game Protector and Secretary, Pennsylvania Board of Game Commissioners

JOHN M. PHILLIPS Member, Pennsylvania Board of Game Commissioners

EDWARD A. McILHENNY Founder of Wild-Fowl Preserves in Louisiana

CHARLES WILLIS WARD Founder of Wild-Fowl preserves in Louisiana]

THE NATIONAL a.s.sOCIATION OF AUDUBON SOCIETIES.--This organization was founded by William Dutcher, in 1902, and in 1906 it was endowed to the extent of $322,000 by the bequest of Albert Wilc.o.x. Subsequent endowments, together with the annual contributions of members and friends, now give the a.s.sociation an annual income of $60,000. It maintains eight widely-separated field agents and lecturers and forty special game wardens of bird refuges. It maintains Secretary T. Gilbert Pearson and a number of other good men constantly on the firing-line; and these forces have achieved many valuable results. After years of stress and struggle, it now seems almost certain that this organization will save the two white egrets,--producers of "the white badge of cruelty,"--to the bird fauna of the United States, as in a similar manner it has saved the gulls, terns and other sea birds of our lakes and coast line.

This splendid organization is one of the monuments to William Dutcher.

More than two years ago he was stricken with paralysis, and now sits in an invalid's chair at his home in Plainfield, New Jersey. His mind is clear and his interest in wild-life protection is keen, but he is unable to speak or to write. While he was active, he was one of the most resourceful and fearless champions of the cause of the vanis.h.i.+ng birds.

To him the farmers of America owe ten times more than they ever will know, and a thousand times more than they ever will repay, either to him or to his cause.

THE CAMP-FIRE CLUB OF AMERICA.--Although founded in 1897, this organization did not, as an organization, actively enter the field of protection until 1909. Since that time its work has covered a wide field, and enlisted the activities of many of its members. In order to provide a permanent fund for its work, each year the club members pay special annual dues that are devoted solely to the wild-life cause. The Committee on Game Protective Legislation and Preserves is a strong, hard-working body, and it has rendered good service in the lines of activity named in its t.i.tle.

THE AMERICAN GAME PROTECTIVE AND PROPAGATION a.s.sOCIATION.--This is the youngest protective organization of national scope, having been organized in 1911. Its activities are directed by John B. Burnham, for five years Chief Game Protector of the State of New York, and a man thoroughly conversant with the business of protection. The organization is financed chiefly by means of a large annual fund contributed by several of the largest companies engaged in manufacturing firearms and ammunition, whose directors feel that the time has come when it is both wise and necessary to take practical measures to preserve the remnant of American game. Already the activities of this organization cover a wide range, and it has been particularly active in enlisting support for the Weeks bill for the federal protection of migratory birds.

THE WILD LIFE PROTECTIVE a.s.sOCIATION came into existence in 1910, rather suddenly, for the purpose of promoting the cause of the Bayne no-sale-of-game bill, and other measures. It raised the fund that met the chief expenses of that campaign. Since that time it has taken an important part in three other hotly contested campaigns in other states, two of which were successful.

At the present moment, and throughout the future, these New York organizations need _large sums of money_ with which to meet the legitimate expenses of active campaigns for great measures. They need _some_ money from outside the state of New York! _Too much of the burden of national campaigning has been and is being left to be borne by the people of New York City_. This policy is growing monotonous. There is every reason why Chicago, St. Louis, Cincinnati, Pittsburgh, Cleveland, Philadelphia, Baltimore and Boston should each year turn $100,000 into the hands of these well-equipped and well managed national organizations whose officers know _how to get results_, all over our country.

Such organizations as these do not exist in other cities; and this is very unfortunate. New Orleans should be a center of protectionist activity for the South, San Francisco for the Pacific slope, and Chicago for the Middle West. Will they not become so?

TWO INDEPENDENT WORKERS.--At the western edge of the delta of the Mississippi there have arisen two men who loom up into prominence at an outpost of the Army of Defense which they themselves have established.

For what they already have done in the creation of wild-fowl preserves in Louisiana, Edward A. McIlhenny and Charles Willis Ward deserve the thanks of the American People-at-large. An account of their splendid activities, and the practical results already secured, will be found in Chapter x.x.xVIII, on "Private Game Preserves," and in the story of Marsh Island. Already the home of these gentlemen, Avery Island, Louisiana, has become an important center of activity in wild-life protection.

CHAPTER XXVII

HOW TO MAKE A NEW GAME LAW

THE LINE OF ACTION.--In the face of a calamity, the saving of life and property and the check of fire and flood depends upon good judgment and quick action at the critical moment. In emergencies, the slow and academic method will not serve. It is the run, the jump, the short cut and the violent method that saves life. If a woman is drowning, the sensible man does not wait for an introduction to her; nor does he run to an acquaintance to borrow his boat, or stop to put on a collar and necktie. He seizes the first boat that he can find, and breaks its lock and chain if necessary; or, failing that, he plunges in without one.

When he reaches the imperiled party, he doesn't say, "Will you kindly let me save you?" He seizes her by the hair, and tries to keep her head above water, without ceremony.

That is to-day the condition and the treatment necessary regarding our remnant of wild life. We are compelled to act quickly, directly, and even violently at times, if we save anything worth while.

There is _no time_ to depend upon the academic "education" of the public by the seductive ill.u.s.trated lecture on birds, or the article about the habits of mammals. Those methods are all well enough in their places, but we must not depend upon them in emergencies like the present, for they do not pa.s.s laws or arrest lawbreakers. Give the public all of that material that you can supply, and the more the better, but for heaven's sake _do not_ depend upon the spread of bird-lore "education" to stop the work of the game-hogs! If you do, all the wild life will be destroyed while the educational work is going on.

Often you can educate a gunner, and make him a protectionist; but you never can do it by showing him pictures of birds. He needs strong reasoning and exhortation, not bird-lore. To-day it is necessary to employ the most direct, forceful and at times even rude methods. Where slaughtering cannot be stopped by moral suasion, it must be stopped with a hickory club. The thing to do is to _get results, and get them quickly, before it is too late_!

If the business section of a town is burning down, no one goes into the suburbs to lecture on architecture, or exhibit pictures of fire apparatus. The rush is for water, fire-engines, red-blooded men and dynamite. When the birds all around you are being shot to death by poachers who fear not G.o.d nor regard man, and you need help to stop it on the instant, run to your neighbor's house, and ring his bell. If he fails to hear the bell, pound on his door until you jar the whole house.

When he comes down half-dressed, blinking and rubbing his eyes, shout at him:

"Come out! Your birds are all being shot to pieces!"

"Are they?" he will say. "But what can _I_ do about it? I can't help it!

I'm no game warden."

"Put on your clothes, get your shot-gun and come out and drive off the killing gang."

"But what good will that do? They will come back again."

"Not if we do our duty. We must have them arrested, and appear against them in court."

"But," says the sleepy citizen, "That won't do much good. The laws are not strict enough; and besides, they are not well enforced, even as they are!"

"Then let's make it our business to see that the present laws are enforced, and go to our members of the legislature, and have them pa.s.s some stronger laws."

And this brings me to a very important subject:

HOW TO Pa.s.s A NEW LAW

We venture to say that the average citizen little realizes how possible it is to secure the pa.s.sage of a law that is clearly necessary for the better protection of wild life and forests. Because of this, and of the necessity for exact knowledge, I shall here set down specific instructions on this subject.

THE PERSONAL EQUATION.--One determined man can secure the pa.s.sage of a good law, provided he is reasonably intelligent and sufficiently determined. The man who starts a movement must make up his mind to follow it up, direct its fortunes, stay with it when the storms of opposition beat upon it, and never give up until it is signed by the governor. He must be willing to sacrifice his personal convenience, many of his pleasures, and work when his friends are asleep or pleasuring.

In working for the protection of wild life there is one mighty and unfailing source of consolation. It is this:

_Your cause always gains in strength, and the cause of the destroyers always loses strength!_

THE CHOICE OF A CAUSE.--Be broad-minded. Do not rush to the legislature with a demand for a law to permit the taking of bull-heads with June-bugs in the creeks of your towns.h.i.+p, or to give your county a specially early open season on quail in order that your boy may try his new gun before he goes back to college. _Don't propose any "local"

legislation_; for in progressive states, local game legislation is coming strongly into disfavor,--just as it should! Legislate for your whole state, and nothing less.

Do not bother your legislature with a trivial bill. Choose a cause that is worth while to grown men, and it shall be well with you. It takes no more time to pa.s.s a large bill than a small one; and big men prefer to be identified with big measures.

Before you have a bill drawn, advise with men whose opinions are worth having. If the end you have in mind is a great and good one, _go ahead_, whether you secure support in advance or not. If the needs of the hour clearly demand the measure, _go ahead_, even though you start absolutely alone. A good measure never goes far without attracting company.