THIRD BIENNIAL STATEMENT 105 



bring odium upon honest men. When the tariff law went 

 into effect in 1913 the feather importers of New York 

 promptly accepted the situation, and elected to be good citi- 

 zens by living up to both the letter and the spirit of the law. 

 Then the men who had fought us hardest while the feather 

 war was on, cordially and without rancor invited us to help 

 them get everything in line for the full observance of the law 

 without any unjust or unnecessary hardships to them. We 

 accepted the novel role of intermediary between the U. S. 

 Treasury Department and the millinery trade, and the re- 

 sults seem to have been rather satisfactory to both sides. 



Today the U. S. Millinery Chamber of Commerce is 

 strongly opposed to the sale by the government of any seized 

 plumage, and on two occasions there has been witnessed the 

 novel spectacle of the former importers of feathers being 

 joined by the bird defenders in appearing in Washington to 

 argue against certain "requested" sales of seized "paradise." 

 On both occasions the opposition made good, and the Treas- 

 ury Department refused to permit the sales that had been 

 urged upon it by parties who wished to buy the plumage 

 "for exportation." 



The United States Government, the Millinery Chamber of 

 Commerce and the bird protectors are working together in 

 perfect harmony; and the Chamber of Commerce recently 

 has issued to all its members a circular call, strongly exhort- 

 ing them to drop the sale of remnant forbidden plumage, 

 for the reputation of the trade. 



