BIOGRAPHICAL 7 



reference was made during their debates to the "dapper 

 little corporation attorney." 



But, after all, Major Lacey was preeminently a lawyer. 

 His career in Congress was one that reflected credit upon 

 him. He secured and retained the confidence of Presi- 

 dents Harrison, McKinley, Roosevelt, and Taft, the men 

 who were Presidents during the time he held office. 



His great work was on the public lands committee 

 and in the land and forest conservation — not conserva- 

 tion for political purposes, because at that time conser- 

 vation had not been urged as a political asset — but he 

 was a conservator of land of the nation when he stood 

 alone; he was a conservator of the natural resources of 

 the United States. He drafted and prepared the law 

 which set aside Yellowstone Park, and drafted the rules 

 for its government. He was peculiarly interested in the 

 preservation of all the great natural curiosities of the 

 country. He secured the legislation that made the petri- 

 fied forests of Arizona a national park. He was the 

 pioneer in the American Congress of the legislation for 

 the protection of bird life, and the Lacey bird law, which 

 was enacted into a law principally by his efforts, was the 

 forerunner of other national legislation for the protec- 

 tion of the wild birds of America from extermination. 

 At the time of his death, Major Lacey, by the appoint- 

 ment of Secretary of Agriculture Houston, was one of 

 the committee drafting the rules and regulations under 

 which migratory birds might be shot under the act of the 

 last Congress passed to protect the migratory birds. In 

 all these things, as President Roosevelt said, he worked 

 as a man, who, with no thought of his own advancement, 

 engaged in doing what ought to be done for the general 

 public, looking alone to the good results of his work for 

 his reward rather than personal advancement. 



