BIRD PROTECTION 1 



Mankind are becoming aroused at last to the importance 

 of protecting what has been spared of the birds and game 

 once so plentiful. Even in darkest Africa the great pow- 

 ers of Europe, which have partitioned the wilderness 

 among them, have recently made rules and regulations to 

 prevent the indiscriminate slaughter of the remaining 

 creatures of the forest. In America the subject has 

 claimed consideration, but our people have been too busy 

 in the struggle for wealth for the individual to give ade- 

 quate attention to the preservation of our natural re- 

 sources. Our coal, gas, oil, forests, fishes, birds, and 

 game have been wasted and destroyed with a recklessness 

 utterly unworthy of so intelligent and progressive a peo- 

 ple. It is high time to call a halt. With a favorable and 

 enlightened public sentiment nothing can fail. Without 

 it nothing can succeed. 



When several years ago the writer attempted to attract 

 national attention to bird and game protection, the prop- 

 osition was received with mirthful raillery in Congress. A 

 distinguished representative, since then elected governor 

 of his state, said that "Congress could be in better busi- 

 ness than in discussing the question of raising goslings." 

 But persistent effort has won, and the work of the League 

 of American Sportsmen and the Audubon societies, sup- 

 ported by the farmers and fruit growers, created such a 

 sentiment as to make it possible to secure the enactment 

 of a federal law supplementing and making effective the 

 local laws of the various states. Even a majority of the 



i John F. Lacey in the World Review. 



