DUTY AND POWER OF THE CITIZEN 171 



United States Senate in spite of an opposing 

 majority in the dominant party. It was the zoolo- 

 gists of the University of California who in 1912 

 started the fight to save the birds of California, and 

 in 1913 won a substantial victory. 



It was the men of the Camp-Fire Club of 

 America who in 1910, as private citizens, went 

 before the United States Senate, demanding the 

 adoption of three rational, common-sense measures 

 for the preservation of our once valuable fur-seal 

 industry from total annihilation. It was the final 

 adoption of those three measures that did save to 

 this nation a national commercial asset, worth 

 millions of dollars. But for the action of that 

 Camp-Fire Club of private citizens it is absolutely 

 certain that by this time the fur-seal remnant would 

 have been practically annihilated. 



Assuming that the duty of the private citizen 

 toward wild life is conceded, how can that duty best 

 be discharged, and how can every unit of interest 

 be made effective? 



In the first place, the citizen must make up his 

 mind that a real performance of his duty will 

 involve some sacrifices on his part, either in effort or 

 in money, or both. There is no royal road to the 

 perfect protection of wild life. Results that are 

 of far-reaching importance, and that are worth 

 while, always involve hard thinking, hard labor and 

 the expenditure of money. 



