AND Stream. 
AW 
EEKLY 1 QURNAL OF THE 
R 
OD AND 
G 
UN. 
Copyright, 1904, by Forest and Stream Publishing Co. 
RMS, $4 A Year. 10 Cts. a Copy. ) 
Six Months, $S. j 
NEW YORK, SATURDAY, MARCH 18, 190B. 
VOL. LXIV.— No. 11. 
No. 348 Broadway, New York. 
FEDERAL CONTROL OF PUBLIC WATERS. 
In his discussion the other day of the question of 
bderal control of migratory game, Mr. Shiras suggested 
at the regulation of fishing also, in so far as it affected 
ifiadromous species and fish planted in public waters by 
te Bureau of Fisheries, might properly be exercised by 
e National Government. The subject has been con- 
llered further by Mr. Shiras in a speech on the River 
[id Harbor Appropriation Bill, in which he urges that 
je scope of Federal jurisdiction over public and naviga- 
te waters should be enlarged to prevent their pollution, 
|;d thereby secure the protection of public health and 
1 e valuable food fishes indigenous to them. The naviga- 
s>n interests are important, but the prevention of disease 
I incalculably more so. We venture to say that few per- 
i ns who have not given the subject special study have 
! y conception of the mortality caused by the pollution 
waters. As a deduction from the results of an investi- 
tion undertaken by Surgeon-General Wyman some 
ars ago, it was estimated that there are every year "no 
'Vev than 45,000 deaths caused by typhoid fever alone 
oughout the United States, not to speak of diarrhceal 
peases, which latter will augment the, number by half, 
based upon an estimated mortality of 10 per cent., it 
within reason to assume a yearly prevalence of 450,000 
[ses of this disease." Not all of this, of course, is due 
polluted water supplies; but "the carrying of the dis- 
Se from one city or town to^ another by means of water- 
urses has been definitely proved both abroad and in the 
aited States, and the presumption is strong that in the 
lio River, taken as an example, which is the sewer and 
the same time the source of water supply for nearly 
the cities located upon its banks, this and other dis- 
ses are annually disseminated thereby." 
That Congress possesses the constitutional power to 
otect public health under the regulatory rights the 
)vernment has over public waters, Mr. Shiras thinks 
1st be unquestioned when the matter is given due con- 
leration, "for it is manifestly impossible for the States 
rdering upon the same waters to enact either efficient 
uniform legislation or make the same enforcible 
ainst an offending State which may with impunity so 
intaminate the public waters passing beyond its borders 
to utterly destroy the purity and usefulness of the 
me." 
^With the increase of population and the growth of the 
j ies on the rivers of the continent, this question of pure 
j iter supply is one of ever-increasing magnitude. If, as 
jr. Shiras argues, the remedy of waterway pollution may 
if found in Federal control. Congress should act and act 
i^mptly. 
Mr. Shiras would also have the Government assume 
:ntrol of the fish in public and interstate waters. The 
■ ersity and conflict of State legislation governing the 
eat Lakes, the Columbia River and other waters, and 
unsatisfactory conditions which have resulted from 
are matters of common repute. Were Federal super- 
ion of the fisheries -substituted, it is estimated that 
; marketable value of the product might be increased 
' .000,000 a year. With such results in view, Mr. Shiras 
ads, the nation should assume its rightful control 
;r the public waters and assure the preservation and 
)wth of the great commercial fisheries. To this end 
introduced two measures in Congress in the closing 
of the session. H. R. 19164 provides, since ex- 
ience has demonstrated the inefficiency of laws passed 
the States to protect fish which are migratory in their 
)its, and which for the greater part of each year remain 
the high seas, beyond the jurisdiction of the United 
f:tes or of any State: 
hat all migratory fish of commercial value which frequent the 
sounds, estuaries, rivers and lakes of the United States 
if during the spawning period, shall, during such periods, be 
er the control and protection of the United States, and shall 
be taken or destroyed in the manner and at the time specified 
er the regulations established by the Commissioner of the 
eau of Fisheries of the United States, and any person or 
ons convicted of violating any of the said regulations shall 
each offense be liable to a fine not exceeding $200, or im- 
onment, or both. 
2. That the .^pawning period referred to in Section 1 shall 
(understood and construed to mean that period commencing 
[1 the migration of said fish from the ocean into said bays, 
[ads, estuaries, rivers and lakes of the United States and 
linating upon the completion of the act of spawning.. 
'he second bill, Resigned to protect food fishes in pub-. 
lie waters, provides that all varieties of fish which either 
pass through or do not remain permanently each year 
within the waters of any one State, shall be declared to 
be the property of the United States for the benefit and 
use of the people, and shall not be taken at any time or 
in any m.anner prohibited by the Commissioner of the 
Bureau of Fisheries. The Commissioner is empowered 
to provide fishways when necessary in public waters, and 
to investigate the pollution of public waters, when such 
pollution injures fish, and to provide regulations there- 
for. 
By the adjournment of Congress these measures lapse; 
if any legislation of this character shall be adopted.it 
must be introduced anew at another session. The pur- 
pose of Mr. Shiras in presenting the bills as he has done 
was to bring the subject to public attention for considera- 
tion and discussion of the principles involved. In our 
issue of next week we shall print the full text of the 
speech to which allusion has been made. The subject is 
one which demands and should have careful study, and 
concerning which there may well be a public awakening. 
FRESH AIR AND FUMES. 
The conflict between civilization and nature' is irre- 
pressible. We destroy nature by our civilization, and 
then as we become more civilized we try to restore it, 
with the result usually that we have an artificial nature; 
a poor one, indeed, but perhaps better than none at all. 
We exterminate the buffalo and other large game for 
their hides and fur, g-reat auks for the oil they yield, 
passenger pigeons for their flesh or for sport at traps. 
We pour intO' our streams waste from the factories, 
mineral oils, acids and other vile things, and so kill the 
fish that used to crowd their waters. We build factories 
for the manufacture of things that civilized man needs, 
and the smoke and fumes belched from their chimneys 
destroy the vegetation for miles around. What is to be 
the end of all this? 
Probably many of these things that are so destructive 
to natural life are actually necessary to our civilization, 
but the destruction which follows these necessary opera- 
tions is not necessary. It is simply the result of doing- 
things heedlessly in the easiest way — the neglect of the 
rights of others— in order that we ourselves may add a 
few dollars to those that we have already earned. The last 
thing the thoroughly right-minded man ought to do is to 
inflict injury on his fellowmen for the purpose of benefiting 
himself, and the many right-minded men who do inflict 
such injurjr, unquestionably inflict it without evil intent. 
Yet after they have been doing this thing for some time, 
it comes to seem the natural thing to do, and they cling 
to it in the face of every effort to make them change 
their ways. 
On the New Jersey shore of the Hudson River, op- 
posite New York, are great factories for the manufacture 
of chemicals of one sort and another, and when the wind 
is right the fumes from the great chimneys drift over 
New York city, and are said to- have killed or injured the 
trees along the Riverside Drive. The great mining city 
of Butte, Montana, lies' irt the midst of a desert. It is 
an arid country, but before mines were discovered and 
smelters were built, there were a few green things there, 
and for a month or two in spring, verdure and beautiful 
mountain flowers clothed the hillsides. They are all 
gone now — killed off by the poisonous fumes from the 
smelters. 
Near. Redding, in Shasta county, California, there is a 
large copper smelling plant, and over a considerable area 
surrounding it plant vegetation has been killed or very 
seriously injured. The injury done by this smelting 
plant is especially serious because it is situated in the 
farming country where many fruit trees are grown, and 
it is found that these fruit trees, in particular the peaches, 
are especially susceptible to these fumes. 
The ore used in these smelters contains much sulphur, 
which is burned off in a number of operations, with the 
result that practically all that was originally in the ore is 
given off to the air as sulphur dioxid. This chemical is 
present in the limbs and leaves of many trees, but in ex- 
tremely small proportion. Increased in amount it 
destroys the foliage, and after a little the life of the 
tree. A suit was recently brought by the United States , 
against the copper smelting company whose plant is at 
Redding., and the Department pf Justice aslced the Bureau 
of Chemistry of the Department of Agriculture tO' inves- 
tigate the injury done by the fumes coming from the 
smelters. A careful study of the subject by Mr. J. K. 
Haywood shows that an area about twelve miles from 
north to south by eight miles from east to west has been 
greatly injured by the.se fumes, and that the water of the 
Sacramento River is polluted by the waste material from 
the smelter. Thus in the neighborhood of this factory 
vegetable life and fish life alike are wiped out. Mr. 
Heywood's conclusions are that sulphur dioxid, when 
present in very small quantities in the air. kills vegeta- 
tion, and that this injury to vegetation is likely to con- 
tinue and even to increase its limits unless the fumes are 
condensed. The fumes can be condensed to form sul- 
phuric acid, for which a market could be found. 
• THE AUDUBON WORK. 
The changes in public opinion which take place from 
time to time in the direction of better things are very 
encouraging, and in few matters has there been more 
progress than in subjects to which Forest and Stream 
has long been devoted. A newspaper may keep hammer- 
ing away for years, striving to manufacture public senti- 
ment in behalf of some good object, and may be able to 
detect absolutely no sign of response from the public to 
which it appeals. But suddenly, and apparently without 
any reason, a change will come, converts will begin to be 
made, and before long the desired good is attained. One 
of the matters which has shown such a gratifying 
response to effort is the Audubon m.ovement, which was 
practically set on foot by Forest and Stre.-vm as far back 
as the year 1883. The matter is brought vividly to mind 
by the report of the recently organized association of 
Audubon Societies, together with the history of the 
Audubon movement by Mr. Wm. Dutcher, whose con- 
tinued, energy in this excellent work is so well known 
and so wholly praiseworthy. 
The Audubon movement was started in 1883 by Forest 
AND Stre.\m. . A year later the American Ornithologists' 
Union took up the matter, while soon after the first 
Audubon Society was founded. A few years later the 
tide of public interest in bird protection seemed to lessen, 
but in 1896 it revived again, and became, and still is, of 
very great interest to many people. At present more than 
two-thirds of the States have Audubon Societies, most of 
which are very active. The bird protective law modeled 
by the American Ornithologists' Union is in force in 
twenty-eight States, while the general Government, 
through many of its branches, is aiding the work in a 
number of ways. The work of bird protection is being 
well carried on in Mexico, while the Federal Government 
has extended its protective influence to the islands of the 
far Pacific. Meantime, President Roosevelt has set aside 
a number of islands to be used under the Agricultural 
Departm.ent as preserves and breeding grounds for birds. 
It is a well recognized fact that most people desire to 
do and to support what they believe to be right, but on 
many stibjects they are quite ignorant of what is right, 
and must be taught. This is the mission of the Audubon 
Societies — to educate the public, which as yet is ignorant 
of the economic value of our birds. To do this money is 
required, and not a little money. There are few objects 
to which persons interested in bird protection could bet- . 
ter contribute than to the work of the Audubon Society, 
Direct contributions in money are not asked, but it is 
earnestly desired that the list of members shall be en- 
larged. Of these there are several classes; the sustaining 
member pays an annual fee of $5, while the life member 
pays $100, which frees him from subsequent dues. The 
contribution of $1,000 constitutes a patron, and $S,ooo a 
founder. 
The National Committee of Audubon Societies wishes 
to raise an endowment fund of $1,000,000, and of this 
$100,000 has already been promised. Yet we may imagine 
that just at the beginning a number of persons, each will- 
irig to contribute a small sum, would be more welcome 
than a single person who would contribute a large 
amotmt. 
We heartily recommend all persons interested in our 
birds or interested in the progress of the country, 
whether they are interested in birds or not, to apply to 
Mr. Wm. Dutcher, 525 Manhattan avenue. New York 
city, for copies of the application blanks for membership 
to the Audubon Society, 
