Correspondence.



347



' Many thousands of letters and telegrams have been sent to United States

Senators and Representatives, urging the passage of the Underwood clause in the

tariff bill, unchanged. The Underwood clause passed the House without

opposition, but one bird importer has said significantly: “ You never would have

got that through the House if I had known of it in time ! ’ ’


The Senate is resolutely carrying out the program of the feather importers

who “want the money.” The democratic caucus of the Senate, by a vote of 3

to 1, struck out of the tariff bill, except as to aigrettes, the lohole bird protecting

clause! The milliners’ lobby of five New York lawyers has done its work well.

It is reported that one of its workers in Washington has said : “ Those bird men

are not going to get another peep at the Senate ! ’ ’


Thus far not one good reason has been advanced by any senator, or

importer, for the striking out of our clause. The milliners’ lobby is making no

campaign of public education or appeal. Some Senators claim to believe that in

voting to strike out our clause they are protecting the birds of the United States !

The idea is totally erroneous. Now it is stated that 1 ‘ Germany ’ ’ has made a

strong protest against our clause, because it would interfere with the trade in

wild birds’ plumage that Germany has built up with our country; and it is

reliably reported that “ the protest which the Senate Finance Committee

received from abroad evidently caused great concern, and led them to take the

action ” which wiped out our clause at one stroke.


So then, while the Finance Committee obeys the behest of Germany and

the milliners’ lobby, the friends of the birds are totally ignored ! In response to

our appeals, we receive the mystic formulas, ‘' will-be-considered ” and “ will-

receive-attention.” The Senate is, and all along has been, in full possession of

a mass of facts and details that show the deadly nature of the traffic in wild

birds’ plumage for millinery. The Senators are not at all ignorant on this

subject. They have had the facts ever since last January.


Do you ask me why certain democratic Senators are against us in this

matter, and are deliberately and persistently defying the known wishes of the

American people? Frankly, I do not know. Ask them, and see if you can

secure a satisfactory answer.


The vote in the Senate as a whole is yet to be taken. Without the deadly

unit rule, I think that a majority of Senators would to-day sustain the cause of

the birds. This is now a world-wide fight. Two European nations are ready to

“clean house ” as soon as England does so ; and in England the bird bill has

passed the House of Commons by a large vote. The fight is to an absolute

finish. As for ourselves, we will accept no amendments, and make no com¬

promises of any kind with the enemy. We are going to insist upon our clause,

unchanged; and we hope that every friend of the birds will join in this fight.

Senators who are wrong are not invincible.



William T. Hornaday.



