LET US SAVE THE BIRDS. 



HON. JOHN F. LACEY, M. 

 In "i he World Review. 



C, 



Mankind is aroused at last to the im- 

 portance of protecting what have been 

 spared of the birds and game once so 

 plentiful. Even in darkest Africa the 

 great powers of Europe, which have 

 partitioned the wilderness among them, 

 have recently made rules and regulations 

 to prevent the indiscriminate slaughter of 

 the remaining creatures of the forest. In 

 America the subject has claimed* consider- 

 ation, but our people have been too busy- 

 in the struggle for wealth for the indivi- 

 dual to give adequate attention to the 

 preservation of our natural resources. 

 Our coal, gas, oil, forests, fishes, birds 

 and game have been wasted and destroyed 

 with a recklessness utterly unworthy of 

 so intelligent and progressive a people. It 

 is high time to call a halt. With a favor- 

 able and enlightened public sentiment 

 nothing can fail. Without it nothing can 

 succeed. 



When several years ago I attempted to 

 attract national attention to bird and 

 game protection, the proposition was re- 

 ceived with mirthful raillery in Congress. 

 A distinguished representative, since then 

 elected governor of his State, said that 

 "Congress could be in better business than 

 discussing the raising of goslings." But 

 persistent effort has, won, and the work of 

 the League of American Sportsmen and 

 the Audubon societies, supported by the 

 farmers and fruit growers, has created such 

 a sentiment as to make it possible to se- 

 cure the enactment of a federal law sup- 

 plementing and making effective the lo- 

 cal laws of the various States. Even a 

 majority of the members from the State 

 whose governor had seen only amusement 

 in the idea, voted for the bill. 



Local laws had been evaded by ship- 

 ping game and birds killed in their vio- 

 lation, placing them on the market 

 in other States. Under the new national 

 law, commonly known as the Lacey Act, 

 this can be prevented, because the inter- 

 state transportation of the birds and game 

 killed in violation of local law is made il- 

 legal and punishable in the federal courts. 



The violator of the State law meets with 

 no profit in the secret breaking of the law 

 of his own State, because when he ships 

 the fruits of his lawlessness to another 

 State for sale in the open market, he finds 

 that while he has escaped the sheriff at 

 home, he runs into the arms of the United 

 States marshal. 



The magnitude of this nefarious busi- 

 ness may be understood when it is 

 known that in a single seizure, recently 



made in Chicago, more than 20,000 birds 

 were confiscated. Thousands of pairs of 

 birds, migrating to their Northern summer 

 breeding grounds, had been killed and 

 sent to market in defiance of State laws 

 in that one instance. 



Before the enactment of the national 

 law, this, seizure would not have been 

 practicable, because the dealers would 

 have claimed that the killing had occurred 

 in another State, and would have shelter- 

 ed themselves under the cloak of com- 

 merce. The parties could not have been 

 punished in the State where the birds 

 were killed, -because they had committed 

 the offense secretly and concealed their 

 identity in making the shipment. By de- 

 stroying the market the temptation to 

 break the State laws is removed. It is 

 this feature of the federal law which makes 

 it effective. The various State game ward- 

 ens should now be able to watch the mar- 

 kets and prevent the unseasonable sale of 

 all kinds of game. It is of no avail to the 

 pot hunter to kill birds if he can not sell 

 them. He can not market them without 

 shipment, and when illegally shipped they 

 become subject to seizure. 



The legislatures of the various States 

 are now awake to the necessity of preserv- 

 ing our remaining birds and game from 

 extinction. The wild pigeon has been ex- 

 terminated; the prairie chicken has be- 

 come rare, and the waterfowl that form- 

 erly clouded the sky in the spring and fall 

 are only a reminiscence of their former 

 multitude. 



But a change is, rapidly being produced 

 in public sentiment. No law can be en- 

 forced which is not upheld by the judg- 

 ment of the people. Fortunately birds are 

 prolific, and well directed public senti- 

 ment may do much to atone for the mis- 

 takes of the past. The farmers have 

 learned that the birds are their best 

 friends. The horticulturist now knows 

 that while the birds destroy some fruit 

 they protect it from insect pests. 



American women have permitted fash- 

 ion's dictates to make them parties to 

 unnecessary bird slaughter. The mother 

 egret has been shot on her nest by the 

 plume hunters,, until the woods of Florida, 

 once so brilliant, know these birds no 

 more. The embalmed song bird and the 

 sea bird still stare with glass eyes from 

 the hats of tender hearted women; but 

 fortunately this barbarous custom is on 

 the wane. The Audubon societies are 

 making an impression. 



President Jordan, of Leland Stanford 



197 



