Monthly Bulletin 5 



port was accepted by both House and Senate so promptly that the matter 

 was killed for this year before those in favor of it knew what was happening. 

 This was a perfectly straightforward piece of legislation which ought to 

 have been enacted, and an earnest attempt will be made to see that it receives 

 more favorable consideration another year. It is possible that in the mean- 

 while the Federal Government will take charge of this situation, as the fol- 

 lowing Washington Dispatch indicates. 



WASHINGTON, Feb. 10.— At the tariff hearing before the Ways and 

 Means Committee today T, Gilbert Pearson, president of the National Asso- 

 ciation of Audubon Societies, and Dr. W. T. Hornaday, of the Permanent 

 Wild Life Protection Fund, of New York City, urged additional legislation 

 for the protection of wild birds. 



Mr. Pearson asked for the substitution of the bill recently introduced 

 in the House of Representatives by Congressman Mott of New York, for the 

 present provision of the law prohibiting the entry into the United States of 

 certain plumage. The former places the burden of proof upon the owner 

 of such plumage to show that it came into his possession or the United States 

 prior to October 3, 1913. The law now merely prohibits entry and to bring 

 a case it is virtually necessary to catch a smuggler in the act of bringing 

 the feathers in. This makes it almost impossible to secure a conviction when 

 the feathers get by the Custom House. 



Congressman Garner, of Texas, while announcing that he was in sym- 

 pathy with the suggestions of the witness, said he did not believe it possible 

 for this committee to write into the law any such provision, the matters to 

 be covered being within the jurisdiction of the House Judiciary Committee. 

 Mr. Pearson took a different view, however, on the ground that the present 

 provision was written into the law by the Ways and Means Committee in 

 1913. 



A proposal that a bill should be entered placing a two-year closed 

 season on ruffed grouse was later modified to one which would place the 

 authority to order such a closed season in the hands of the Commissioners 

 on Fisheries and Game, provided they on securing evidence felt that such a 

 season was necessary. At the hearing recently given representatives of the 

 Audubon Societies, Sportsmen's Associations and others spoke in favor of 

 this bill and there was no opposition, but the Conservation Committee re- 

 ported "leave to withdraw." 



All possible influence should be brought to bear on the Senate and 

 House of Representatives at Washington to see that the undesirable water- 

 power bills which give to private corporations the right to exploit large 

 regions in Yellowstone Park and others of our great National Parks are 

 defeated. The Smith bill, as it is called, House Resolution 12466, would 

 provide for the placing of a dam in the southwestern part of Yellowstone 

 National Park. This would wreck the wild beauty of a section of the Park 

 and ought to be most vigorously opposed, as it would open up opportunities 

 for untold disaster to all these important playground privileges. On the 

 other hand Senate Bill 4554 to amend the Federal Water Power Act so as to 

 prevent the construction of power plants, dams, etc., in the National Parks 

 would defeat these exploitation schemes and should be favored. 



