96 MAJOR JOHN F. LACEY 



and the birds of the air. People destroy them with a 

 wantonness that almost looks like malignity ; and all these 

 natural resources of the great United States of America 

 are involved, either directly or indirectly in the questions 

 that you are going to discuss. While preserving the for- 

 ests you will preserve the animals that roam therein; 

 while preserving the forests you will give shelter to the 

 birds of the air that make their nests therein. It is too 

 late to save the wild pigeon, perhaps. The countless mil- 

 lions that used to break down the woods by their weight 

 have disappeared, and the advent of a dozen wild pigeons 

 in the state of New York is taken up by the Associated 

 Press and published far and wide as a wonderful thing: 

 "A dozen wild pigeons were seen in western New York 

 day before yesterday." And yet, within the lifetime of 

 my young friend Pinchot, and I refer to him because I 

 look to him for the future of the forests, in the lifetime of 

 even the youngest members present here, this magnificent 

 bird has practically disappeared from the face of the 

 earth. I know my friend, the secretary of agriculture, 

 will not fully agree with me upon the importance of the 

 preservation of the buffalo, but I expect some day to get 

 him to entirely agree with me. 



This is a day of progress. It is not very long ago that 

 men rejoiced at the destruction of the buffalo, because it 

 opened the way for the white man in the West. We took 

 up the subject in Congress some years ago, while a few 

 remains of this magnificent animal were still upon the 

 earth. It was my good luck to secure a small appropria- 

 tion from our economical chairman of the committee on 

 appropriations — not a very sentimental man, but one of 

 the most practical men on earth — Uncle Joe Cannon — a 

 small appropriation of $15,000 to restore a herd of bison 

 to the Yellowstone Park. Four hundred of these crea- 

 tures were enclosed in the area that was reserved when 



