242 Bird -Lore 



A second matter of unusual, indeed, of pressing importance at this time, is 

 bird legislation. Scarcely a state is safe from the influence of various classes 

 of selfish or ignorant and wilful people who want laws sufl&ciently lax to enable 

 them to shoot, trap, or destroy birds and their eggs without penalty. Nowhere, 

 apparently is the feminine public as yet educated to the necessity and desira- 

 bility of eliminating the plumage of birds from hats. 



To destroy birds for the purpose of using their plumage as trimming for 

 hats, or neck-scarfs and capes, is becoming more and more a crime against 

 which every reasonable person should enter a protest. This spring, women 

 of all ages and classes are appearing in hats decorated with wings, quills and 

 elaborate feather-garlands ad nauseam, to say nothing of a superabundance of 

 ornaments in the similitude of aigrettes, which are too inartistic to adorn the. 

 hat of anyone who has regard to her appearance. 



There is a warning we should all heed now, in the terrible and apparently 

 unending destructiveness of war, and that is, that part of the depravity underly- 

 ing such appalling waste comes from the encouragement of cruelty and 

 UNLAWFUL PRACTICES in the economic world, of which every purchaser of a 

 bird's feather on a hat, as well as of garments made in sweat-shops or by 

 child-labor, is as much a part as the owners of stores or factories dealing in 

 these articles or conscienceless dealers who profit by the plunder of natural 

 resources at the ultimate expense of the public. 



The trade in bird's plumage is absolutely unjustifiable, involving, as it does, 

 not only the destruction of a valuable natural resource, but, also, cruel practices 

 which debase the ignorant or lawless creatures who are tempted to them for a 

 pittance. 



Far greater progress has been made in raising the standard of conditions in 

 factories than most people are aware of. It is easy to find practically ideal 

 conditions in such places, and it is not difficult to point to very fair conditions, 

 but in the matter of trafl&c in the plumage of birds, aside from that in ostrich 

 plumes, nothing in favor of it can be said. It is a lasting disgrace to every 

 woman that such a traffic exists. Will the girls of this coming generation put 

 the stamp of disapproval upon it and banish forever the plumage of wild birds 

 from their wardrobe? 



Why not at this critical juncture lend our influence toward finding a means 

 of support for the thousands upon thousands of refugees and crippled soldiers, 

 who from now on will be forced to a restricted livelihood, by offering to adorn 

 hats with simple but artistic ornaments which they could make? If we create 

 such a demand, we might relieve an unlimited number of cases of destitution 

 and assist materially in lightening the burden of the Red Cross and other 

 relief societies, and even of governments. Everyone must have a chance to 

 live, and we must learn to help more than ever before those who have been made 

 helpless. The decoration of a woman's hat might become an insignia of noble 

 service instead of a disgraceful badge of perverted vanity. Shall we redeem the 



