HOW TO SAVE OUR BIRDS AND MAMMALS x 



Mr. Toastmaster and Gentlemen: 



I am delighted to meet so many of the lovers of wild 

 American birds, beasts, and fishes from so many states 

 and territories here tonight. The attempt to preserve 

 any of our native resources of this character comes very 

 late, but I hope not too late. It is proposed to lock the 

 stable door before the horses are all stolen. During my 

 own service in Congress it has been my fortune, on tb^ 

 committee on public lands, to do what I could to aid in the 

 saving of our remaining forests from utter destruction, 

 and the good work done in that line is already bearing 

 fruit. Let the forests be wholly destroyed and the cli- 

 mate becomes entirely changed. The streams dry up 

 and agriculture, the foundation of all our wealth, suffers 

 irreparable injury. The streams are the children of the 

 forests, and the fish are the children of the streams. In 

 my childhood the brooks of my native state, West Vir- 

 ginia, and her sister state, Ohio, were full of pools, and 

 the hillside gushed with living springs. The forests have 

 been destroyed and all this is changed. 



The deadly hand of man is committing the same crime 

 in the Far West. On my first visit to Oregon thirteen 

 years ago I got off the cars at The Dalles to take the boat 

 down the Columbia. As I walked out on the pier some- 

 one shouted to me with great excitement : 



"Run this way quick and you will see Mt. Hood!" 



i At Aldine Club, New York City, February 14, 1900. Speech of John 

 F. Laeey, M. C, at the dinner of the League of American Sportsmen. 



