28 WILD LIFE CONSERVATION 



all been deplorably remiss in their treatment of bird 

 life, and grossly unfair to the states northward of 

 them. For example, Iowa had most obstinately 

 and selfishly refused to enact a law against spring 

 shooting, even after a great number of other states 

 had done so. Now the federal law has terminated 

 that irritating situation, as we believe, forever. 



A state or a nation can be uncivil, ungentle- 

 manly or mean, just the same as an individual. 

 The new bird law "shines like a good deed in a 

 naughty world," because it puts the screws of com- 

 pulsion upon a number of mean and greedy states 

 that toward wild life have manifested little sense of 

 honor or of decency. Those who have labored 

 longest in the vineyard of protection rejoice that 

 they have lived to see the day when states like 

 Maryland, the Carolinas and Iowa will be forced to 

 give the migratory birds of the United States and 

 Canada a square deal. 



From the very first inception of the idea of a 

 federal law for the benefit of the migratory birds, 

 its friends have feared that it would be attacked by 

 the professional champions of the states' rights 

 fetich, as an infringement on the prerogatives of 

 the so-called "sovereign states." It was particu- 

 larly feared that on this ancient ground much oppo- 

 sition to the bill would come from the southern 

 states. 



To the everlasting credit of all the southern 

 states let it be stated, that up to this hour no south- 



