128 WILD LIFE PROTECTION FUND 



the law was weak, that its provisions sometimes could be 

 defied, and that something must be done about it, even if it 

 is ever so constitutional. 



NECESSITY FOR A TREATY POINTED OUT EARLY. 



The ink on the President's signature to the McLean law 

 was not more than dry when Senator Elihu Root sug- 

 gested that the most complete way to protect the migratory 

 birds would be through an international treaty with Can- 

 ada. On Jan. 14, 1913, he introduced a Senate resolution 

 to that end. That resolution was very brief, but to the point. 

 It merely called for the making of a treaty. In April, that 

 resolution, slightly changed, was reintroduced by Senator 

 George P. McLean, and the Root resolution disappeared. 



I have seen a copy of a strong letter, written immediately 

 after the adoption of that resolution, by President Wilson 

 to Secretary Bryan, calling his attention to the Senator's 

 call for a treaty with Canada, and expressing the hope that 

 such a treaty could be negotiated without delay. 



A treaty was drafted and placed in the hands of the Brit- 

 ish Ambassador for transmission to Canada. It provided 

 practically the same measures for the protection of mi- 

 gratory birds that had been extended to the birds of the 

 United States and Alaska under the terms of our federal 

 migratory bird law. 



In the winter of 1914, Mr. John B. Burnham and Mr. 

 W. S. Haskell, respectively President and Counsel of the 

 American Game Protective and Propagation Association, 

 went to Ottawa to urge the desirability of the treaty upon 

 the attention of the Canadian government officers most able 

 to promote its progress. Other persons interested in the 

 progress of the treaty refrained from personal campaigning 

 in Canada, in order not to interrupt or conflict with the 

 work being done by Messrs. Burnham and Haskell. At the 

 same time, efforts were made by correspondence to supple- 

 ment the work being done on the spot at Ottawa by the 

 American representatives. 



