192 WILD LIFE CONSERVATION 



conscience may be permitted to take his choice of 

 three kinds of tasks, three species of burdens. They 

 are labor, publicity or money; and he who chooses 

 one of these, and bears it like a man, may claim 

 immunity from the other two. 



It occurs to me to insert here a word of advice to 

 every forester and teacher of foresters. Many a 

 sportsman will say: "I have no occasion to aid your 

 cause. I contribute annually, in the form of a fee 

 for my hunting license." 



Now that plea is absolutely hollow. The sports- 

 man who pays annually the magnificent sum of $1, 

 or even $50, for a local license to hunt is merely 

 contributing to the pay of wardens to protect his 

 game from the other gunner until he himself can 

 reach it, and kill it ! That is all. That endless chain 

 of saving to-day and killing to-morrow does not 

 increase the wild life of a state ; not in the least. On 

 the contrary, that is the great American process of 

 extermination according to law! 



To the men of Yale, I repeat at the end what I 

 said at the beginning: Noblesse oblige! The nobil- 

 ity conferred by a university or college or high- 

 school education brings with it solemn obligations 

 which no high-minded citizen can ignore. Some of 

 these obligations trend toward distressed wild life. 

 Only personal effort can discharge them to the satis- 

 faction of a properly sensitized conscience. Do not 

 think to discharge any of your obligations to man 

 or to nature by telling some one else what to do. 



