ILLINOIS AUDUBON SOCIETY 11 



The National Association of Audubon Societies 



There is a national conscience as well as a local conscience and along 

 with the local aspect of bird protection there is a national aspect of the 

 same question which is at all times of great importance. Because the 

 National Association of Audubon Societies has for so many years functioned 

 so 03 portunely and so forcefully in campaigns for state and national legisla 

 lion, and has all this time steadily widened and intensified its activities while 

 slate and local associations have passed through widely varying phases of 

 influence, it has become very natural for those engrossed in local or state- 

 wide campaigns to take the National Association for granted or forget it 

 altogether. Hut this service of the National Association, effective and 

 vigilant, has its claim upon us. It is a just claim for moral and financial 

 support, and it would seem that the Illinois Audubon Society might well 

 include among its most important working objectives the active support of 

 the National Association. 



The Fifteenth Annual Report of the National Association submitted 

 October 20th, 1919, shows the total receipts for the year of $137,386.84 

 and the total disbursements of $123,201.26. These statistics begin fairly 

 to talk to us when we note such summaries of expense as that of Educational 

 Effort at $33,212.52 and that of the Childrens' Educational Fund at $55.- 

 147.52. Tin's latter expenditure meant the organization of ■ hundreds of 

 thousands of children into classes for bird study. There were 6,204 such 

 ( lasses last year in the United States and Canada, two hundred fifty-nine of 

 them in Illinois alone, these latter enrolling 8,714 children. So strongly 

 has this work appealed to those familiar with it, that one "unnamed bene- 

 factor" alone contributed $20,000 to the Fund for the expenses of the year. 



The National Association has 100 different Educational Leaflets which 

 circulate everywhere in the United States and Canada disseminating 

 authentic and well-balanced information about bird life and its significance, 

 economic and aesthetic. Reprints of these leaflet units to the number of 

 3,524,500 were made last year. Nearly a half million circulars, announce- 

 ments to teachers, etc., were distributed. 



The Annual Report takes up 107 pages of the November-December 

 number of Bird-Lore. It includes the report of T. Gilbert Pearson, secre- 

 tary, the reports of Field Agents and those of State Societies and Bird 

 Clubs. A note of optimism pervades Mr. Pearson's report because of the 

 great advances that have been made in state and federal legislation for the 

 protection of America's wild birds and animals. No one can speak with 

 so much authority of the long years of struggle which have led up to this 

 accomplishment as can Mr. Pearson. As Executive Secretary of the 

 National Association he has directed in person many legislative campaigns 

 at Washington and appeared before the legislatures of various states as a 

 courageous and persistent advocate of the conservation of wild life. Today 

 he is pressing upon the attention of Audubon Societies the importance of 

 conducting an intense campaign in support of these bird laws and of 

 working for the creation and maintenance of greatly increased numbers of 

 bird-reservations. 



What happens at Mr. Pearson's office may appear in a typical cross-sec- 

 lion quoted from this report : 



