THE LEAGUE DID IT. 



To All League Members: — 



Gentlemen: 



Again I congratulate you. 



And this time on a greater victory than 

 the last. 



The Lacey bird bill passed the Senate 

 May [8th unanimously and without 

 amendment. It has been signed by the 

 President, and is now a -law. 



AND THE, LEAGUE DID IT- 



I say this without any disparagement to 

 the Trojan hero of the house, the Hon. John 

 F. Lacey. He has done a magnificent work. 

 He is a great organizer and a born leader ; 

 but I seriously doubt if, with all his ability, 

 and all his influence; with his great corps 

 of personal friends in the House and in the 

 Senate, he could have secured the passage 

 of his bird bill against the opposition of the 

 millinery trade, without the aid of the 

 League. 



This is the greatest victory ever achieved 

 in the interest of game and song bird pro- 

 tection. We have captured the enemy's 

 stronghold and now have him on the run. 

 The rest will be comparatively easy. The 

 States can now enforce their laws, and 

 wherever they fail Uncle Sam will step in 

 and do the rest. Where State authority 

 fails to prevent the smuggling of game 

 out of its boundaries, the Interstate Com- 

 merce Commission, backed by the Lacey 

 law, will come to the rescue. 



No more shipping of prairie chickens 

 from Minnesota or other States to Chi- 

 cago or New York, labeled "poultry." No 

 more shipping of venison from Wisconsin 

 or Michigan to Chicago or New York la- 

 beled "veal, or "mutton." No more ship- 

 ping of quails from Kansas, Texas, Okla- 

 homa or the Indian Territory to Chicago, 

 New York, Boston or Philadelphia labeled 

 "eggs," or anything else. 



No more shipping of bird skins from 

 Florida, Alabama, Louisiana or any other 

 State, to New York or elsewhere, labeled 

 anything else than what they really are. 



No more contracting for 20,000 birds to 

 be slaughtered in Maryland and shipped to 

 New York. No more slaughtering of sea 

 gulls on the New England coast or else- 

 where, in violation of the law of the States. 

 and shipping them to the millinery bird 

 hoes in New York, no matter how labeled. 



No more slaughtering of bay birds on 

 the Carolina coast and shipping tne skins 

 to New York at 6 cents apiece. 



The Lacey law imposes a penalty of $200 

 on any sneak who undertakes to sn.uggle a 

 bird or part thereof, an animal or part 

 thereof, from one State to another, killed in 

 violation of the laws of any State. It im- 



poses a fine of $200 on any railway or ex- 

 press company which may knowingly re- 

 ceive for shipment any such plunder, so 

 killed in violation of law, or offered for 

 shipment in violation of law. 



No more importing of grouse, wood- 

 cock, quail, deer or other game from Eu- 

 rope, and exposing for sale in this country, 

 in close season, no matter if the importer 

 has paid duty on same. The Lacey law 

 provides expressly that foreign game, even 

 though imported in unbroken packages, 

 and even though duty may have been paid 

 on it, shall not be sold in any State of the 

 Union in violation of the laws thereof; 

 and it provides a penalty of $200 for each 

 offense. 



The League will hereafter have a strong 

 force of detectives at work in this city, 

 Boston, Philadelphia, and Chicago, watch- 

 ing for any infractions of the Lacey law. 

 A man may still succeed in smuggling 

 game out of a State, but it must land some- 

 where, and it is a time-honored principle 

 in law that the receiver is equally guilty 

 with the thief. We shall seize such game 

 wherever found, and if the man in whose 

 possession we find it can not show us the 

 shipper, it is up to him to go to court and 

 pay his fine. 



AND THE LEAGUE DID IT- 



From this time forward, if we all do 

 our duty, we may expect to see game of all 

 kinds, as well as song and insectivorous 

 birds, increase rapidly. When our forests 

 shall again be ome musical with the notes 

 of the feathered songsters; when our prai- 

 ries and coverts shall again become thickly 

 populated with quails and grouse; when 

 our Southern forests shall again resound 

 with the challenge of the wild turkey, we 

 can point to these returned feathered hosts 

 and say, 



"AND THE LEAGUE DID IT." 



When the farmer can sit down in the 

 shade of the great oak, look over his 

 bounteous fields of grain, his orchards, 

 bending under their burdens of fruit, and 

 his thrifty gardens, and say, "Thank God, 

 the bu^s and the worms have quit, because 

 the birds have returned," we can say to 

 him, 



"yes, and the league did it." 



There are plenty of people who will chal- 

 lenge this cla'm because they are not in 

 the League, and because they do not share 

 the glory with us; but let them show 

 cause. Let them tell us who else did it, or 

 could have done it. 



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