FOREST AND STREAM 547 
Senate May Lop Off Funds To Enforce,;, McLean Law 
Audubon Workers Protest—Minus Money Law Becomes A Farce 
That a half-dozen United States Senators on 
the senate agricultural committee now threaten 
to defeat the will of the whole American people 
by refusing any appropriation to enforce the Mc¬ 
Lean law for the protection of the nation’s migra¬ 
tory birds, is declared by officers of the National 
Association of Audubon Societies. After wiring 
warnings to the 200,000 representatives of his or¬ 
ganization all over the country, T. Gilbert Pear¬ 
son, secretary of the national Audubon body, 
rushed to Washington to protest to the members 
of the senate committee on agriculture against 
the adoption of the amendment to the agricultural 
appropriation bill, introduced by Robinson of Ar¬ 
kansas, cutting off all appropriations for this Fed¬ 
eral bird-law, and leaving it practically a dead 
letter. Mr. Pearson fears that unless the bird- 
lovers of the land at once protest to their senators 
against this cutting off of the $100,000 asked by 
the friends of the Biological Survey of the De¬ 
partment of Agriculture to supply wardens to 
guard American bird-life, the conditions of migra¬ 
tory-bird butchery, to remedy which the whole 
American people asked for the McLean bill, will 
continue. 
Backed by the market-butchers of game, and 
by greedy hunters in various sections of this coun¬ 
try, every effort to nullify the effect of the Mc¬ 
Lean law, giving Uncle Sam authority to guard 
his bird-flocks as they pass from State to State, 
has been made at Washington to the disgust of 
those who labored so faithfully to have this meas¬ 
ure put on the Federal statute books. Such selfish 
interests are now known to be rejoicing in the at¬ 
titude of the House of Representatives, which 
cut in half the required appropriation for the en¬ 
forcement of this law, and of the Senate, which 
is now inclined to leave it altogether without 
financial support. 
“Unless the people of the whole country imme¬ 
diately demand of their senators that the McLean 
measure, which they supported for its general 
protection of migratory birds, be enforced with 
adequate financial appropriation, our native birds 
will be butchered as of old, and the will of the 
people will be treated as a farce,” said T. Gilbert 
Pearson, secretary of the National Association of 
Audubon Societies, at its headquarters, 1974 
Broadway, to-day. “Without the $100,000 required 
to supply wardens to check the slaughter of mi¬ 
gratory birds forbidden under this law, the au¬ 
thority of the Federal Government in the matter 
will become a joke to the market-shooters, who 
otherwise cannot be made to respect it. Every 
man, woman, and child, of the millions that sup¬ 
ported this measure to save American bird-life, 
should at once protest to their senators against 
this bold attempt to render it a dead letter.” 
With the approach of the time for the spring 
flights of ducks and waterfowl in Michigan, the 
effect of the migratory bird law will be earnestly 
watched by sportsmen and especially true sports¬ 
men, who believe in the conservation of what 
game there is left, more than anything else. Some 
few hunters have been prone to attack the con¬ 
stitutionality of the law, but all objections, if any 
are made, will be on technical grounds only. In 
the meantime the law will be enforced in Michi¬ 
gan at least. The Federal authorities have prom¬ 
ised that any person who wishes to take a chance 
by violating the law will be summoned before the 
Federal grand jury. William R. Oates, state 
fish, game and forestry warden, has said that the 
law will “be enforced to the limit.” C. K. Hoyt, 
chief clerk of the state game warden’s depart¬ 
ment, at the annual meeting of Michigan Asso¬ 
ciation, declared that the law would be enforced. 
The Michigan Association, at that meeting, passed 
a resolution approving of the law and urging all 
persons interested in bird-life to give it their sup¬ 
port and to discourage by persuasive means all 
opposition to it. 
In regard to the enforcement of the law the 
state game warden has said: “Irrespective of the 
disputatious few who are desirous of seeing the 
law held unconstitutional, I want to say right here, 
as far as the Michigan department is concerned, 
we shall enforce the law to the limit until it is 
nullified by the United States Supreme Court.” 
In the face of this stand taken by the Federal 
and state authorities, it is not expected that there 
will be much shooting of ducks this spring. 
Sportsmen who have been interested in conser¬ 
vation of game contend that with spring shooting 
stopped ducks will again nest in Michigan where 
they used to before their slaughter became so 
general. Sportsmen going to Grand Rapids on 
the morning train for the annual meeting were 
given a practical demonstration of what protec¬ 
tion will do in the case of ducks, for in the open 
water in the river several flocks of ducks were 
seen from the car windows within a few hundred 
feet of the track and inside the city limits, as the 
train was backing into the depot. 
The following resolution was passed by the 
Michigan Association at its annual meeting: 
“Whereas, There is a disposition on the part of 
a few to dispute and contest the constitutionality 
of the Federal Migratory Bird Law; and. 
“Whereas, Any law passed by Congress and 
signed by the President is good and sound until 
determined otherwise by the Supreme Court of 
the United States; therefore be it 
“Resolved, that the Michigan Association, at 
its meeting, this eleventh day of March, 1914, at 
Grand Rapids, Michigan, does hereby take this 
opportunity to express its faith in said Federal 
Migratory Bird Protection law, and hereby ex¬ 
presses its cordial approval of its provisions, and 
earnestly commends it to sportsmen and bird 
lovers of the country, and urges all to give it 
loyal support, and discourage by persuasive means 
all opposition thereto; and be it further, 
“Resolved, that copies of this resolution be 
mailed to the head of the biological survey at 
Washington, D. C., furnished to the press and 
sportsmen’s magazines, and that a copy also be 
sent to Congressman Victor Murdock of Kansas.” 
FOREST SERVICE SEEKS NEW WOODS. 
In the National forests there are many woods 
considered inferior by lumbermen. Yet they are 
available for purchase at low rates, and many of 
the timber stands are readily accessible. The 
forest service, in its desire to utilize to the best 
advantage all of the resources of the Federal tim¬ 
ber holdings, has been seeking proper uses for 
these trees and has experimented in making pulp 
from them at its pulp laboratory at Wausau, 
Wisconsin, an auxiliary of the forest products 
laboratory at Madison. The Wausau laboratory 
is equipped with standard machinery and all ex¬ 
periments are carried out under conditions which 
duplicate commercial practice. 
As a final test of the value of some of these 
new woods under practical conditions, arrange¬ 
ments were made between the forest service and 
the Herald to print some part of its edition on 
paper made from various woods that showed 
promise as substitutes for spruce. These woods 
were ground at the Wausau laboratory; the pro¬ 
duct was then mixed with the usual proportion 
of chemical pulp and made into news print paper, 
rolls of which were sent to New York for the 
experimental run. 
One Way to Get Around It. 
Bill Bronk is the only Isaac Walton, who is known 
to be preparing to fish to-morrow, said the Gloversville 
(N. Y.) Leader recently. Bill expects to get around the 
fishing-through-the-ice section of the law by building a 
fire across one end of a small ice-oovered lake. Then 
Bill will get busy with some strips of beefsteak for bait. 
He figures that the trout won’t be very particular, as 
they have been on short rations for several months. He 
regrets that the law limits a man to ten trout a day, 
and claims that this is hardly worth the trouble he will 
have thawing out a lake. 
Money to Save the Fish. 
Representative Farson, of North Carolina, has intro¬ 
duced a bill into the House of Representatives providing 
for the establishment of fish-hatching stations in fifteen 
states. The measure calls for an appropriation of $750,000, 
and it is probably the first “omnibus fish bill” ever intro¬ 
duced into Congress. 
May Hunt Whales. 
Another whale hunting expedition to the Arctic seas 
is planned by John Borden, millionaire sportsman of 
Chicago, and Harry Scott, son of Henry Scott, of San 
Francisco. 
Another from the Fish Squad. 
For nearly two years the trout kept in a deep-walled 
spring at Highland Lake have been at odds, although 
both are so tame they will come to the surface when the 
lid is raised and almost beg for something to eat. Pete, 
the larger, weighs about one pound and a half, while the 
other, which was taken out of Taylor brook in the sum¬ 
mer of 1912, weighs about eleven ounces, said a corre¬ 
spondent to the New York Herald. 
When the trout were being fed a thin strip of beef 
about six inches long was thrown into the spring, where¬ 
upon Pete seized one end and the small trout the other 
end. Doth chewed away for nearly half an hour, or until 
the margin between the two was wiped out. The 
smaller trout, rather than release his grip, permitted him¬ 
self to be drawn into Pete’s mouth and partly down his 
throat. 
Pete was taken out of the water in a net, the trout 
was removed from his mouth unharmed, and both fish 
were as lively as ever in 'the spring, but still enemies. 
In view of tne fact that partridges are being exter¬ 
minated in Rhode Island, why not have a close season 
for two years and then permit hunting from October 15 
to December 1? 
—Providence (R. I.) Journal 
