THE LOSS OF A GREAT OPPORTUNITY 



NEVER since it knocked at our door until the present 

 hour have we found time to lodge in the annals of wild 

 life protection a history of the loss of our great oppor- 

 tunity. We are reminded of it now by our efforts to raise 

 our Permanent Fund to $100,000, and to secure for our 

 work a modest foundation of $5,000 per year. It is pleas- 

 ant to think that once we had an offer of annual wealth, 

 quite beyond our wildest dreams, for the protection cause. 



It was in the winter of 1911. There had been various 

 local disturbances, some of which may have affected the 

 financial seismograph that hangs in the office of the Win- 

 chester-U. M. C. -Remington, etc., Arms Company, at New 

 Haven. Perhaps the hyphenated corporation had grown 

 tired of fighting bills in state legislatures aimed at the 

 vitals of the automatic gun ; but I do not know. 



Mr. A. H. Fox, a Philadelphia maker of double-barrelled 

 shotguns such as gentlemen use, wrote to me requesting me 

 to fix a date for an interview with Mr. Leonard, the Vice- 

 President of the Winchester Arms Company, makers of an 

 automatic shotgun, and also a pump-gun. I declined, on 

 the ground that I could easily guess the object of the meet- 

 ing, which, even if held, was certain to produce no more 

 results than similar meetings had attained. 



A little later, Mr. Fox again pressed the matter, and re- 

 quested the meeting as a personal favor. Again assuring 

 him that it would end in nothing, I consented; and on the 

 date appointed Mr. Leonard appeared. 



It required several moments to convince Mr. Leonard 

 that the New York Zoological Society was fighting the ma- 

 chine guns of its own volition, as a matter of principle, and 

 not simply through excessive good nature to oblige Mr. G. 

 O. Shields. At last, however, our independent position 

 really was established. 



