18 
FOUNDERS OF THE AUDUBON SOCIETY 
ADVISORY BOARD 
GEORGE BIRD GRINNELL, NEW YORK, N. Y. 
CARL E. AKELEY, American Museum of Natural History, New York. 
EDMUND HELLER, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D. C. 
WILFRED H. OSGOOD, Field Museum of Natural History, Chicago, Ill. 
JOHN M. PHILLIPS, Pennsylvania Game Commission, Pittsburgh, Pa. 
CHARLES SHELDON, Washington, D. C. 
GEORGE SHIRAS, 3d, Washington, D. C. 
JOHN T. NICHOLS. American Museum of Natural History, New York. 
T. GILBERT PEARSON, National Association of Audubon Societies. 
WILLIAM BRUETTE, Editor 
JOHN P. HOLMAN, Managing Editor 
T. H. MEARNS, Treasurer 
Nine East Fortieth Street, New York City * 
Member of Audit Bureau of Circulation 
THE OBJECT OF THIS JOURNAL WILL BE TO 
studiously promote a healthful interest in outdoor 
recreation, and a refined taste for natural objects. 
August 14, 1873. 
LOOKING BACK FIFTY YEARS 
F IFTY years ago—only a few years after Gettys¬ 
burg and Lincoln—when the eyes of the nation 
were turned forward and men began to think of 
building once more, there came Forest and Stream. 
During these fifty years those who have guided its 
growth, those who have been responsible for its distinct 
achievements had always before them the ever constant 
ideal of a magazine whose influence upon the nation 
would be inspiring. 
Today Forest and Stream takes a brief glance back 
upon the fifty milestones it has passed and reads upon each 
the inscription. It takes a modest pride in the definite, 
positive, realization of its work and feels the content¬ 
ment that comes to those who review a task well done. 
We seek no idle praise in these reminiscences. We 
are taking an inventory as rigid as that of a banker or 
a merchant. What have we done? 
Yellowstone Park was established and is the foundation 
of our National Park System. Whenever the hand of 
the spoiler was stretched forth, public sentiment was 
aroused and a battle fought to save this great play¬ 
ground from the ravages of commercial interests. 
The Audubon Society was founded in 1886 and from a 
modest beginning has now grown to world-wide im¬ 
portance with a permanent endowment fund of $675,- 
000, eighty-two nesting reservations in various sections 
of the country and 1,700,000 children enrolled in junior 
clubs, who are supplied with educational literature. 
The Glacier National Park was created after a vigorous 
campaign of education extending over a period of 
twenty-five years—from 1885 to 1910. 
The Migratory Bird Law was originally outlined by the 
Honorable George Shiras 3rd, who published his re¬ 
markable brief in Forest and Stream, proving conclu¬ 
sively that the Federal Government had police control 
over the taking of migratory birds that passed through 
the states. It is recognized as the greatest piece of 
legislation ever passed in the interest of sportsmen. 
The Sale of Game Was Stopped through the untiring 
efforts of Forest and Stream. The announcement that 
the game of the country belonged as much to posterity 
as it did to the present generation, and should not be 
offered for sale in the market place came as a thunder¬ 
Forest and Stream 
bolt to pot hunters and men who wantonly destroyed 
wild life. It took many years to educate the people 
into seeing that only by judicious conservation could 
sport be assured for the coming generation of gunners. 
Pause a moment and think of the vastness of these 
and see what such achievements have meant in the 
growth of this America in which we live. 
Have more men left the workshop and the counting 
room and gone into the outdoors to know the joy of 
nature and, to learn her inspiring lessons? Are there 
more men who know the place of bird and fish in the 
great plan of life, and understand them with sympathy? 
Are there more open spaces, more trees, more grass and 
more flowers? Is there more room for the sun to shine 
and for the laughing waters to play and thus to gladden 
the heart of man? If there is, our accounting is a 
proper one and we have justified ourselves. 
And in looking back it is a good time to speak of 
temptations. Many have come to us with persuasions 
to deviate just a little bit from the positive gleam of 
the ideal we had set before us. To dress our magazine 
and put between its covers an atmosphere and an influ¬ 
ence which might have meant more in dollars and cents 
and less in the great results achieved! Yes, it would 
have meant more, but then it would not have been 
Forest and Stream and there would not have been these 
inscriptions on the milestones to record the achieve¬ 
ments that have been wrought for man and youth. 
The years of the future open before us like a broad 
vista. There is still much to be done. On every hand 
the enemies of open spaces and clear streams are plan¬ 
ning their continued assaults. 
Millions of young men—your boy and the other man’s 
boy—are growing into manhood; they are growing in 
the midst of conflicting influences. Some are good and 
some are bad. Among the good ones there is the ever 
constant one of Forest and Stream. These things call 
to us. They call to us to continue our work, to con¬ 
tinue our teachings, to continue our battling for those 
future generations—that they too may feel the thrill of 
nature and may know the wholesome joy of the out¬ 
doors. It is to this battle that we are dedicated. It is 
for this ideal that we are pledged to work as constantly 
as the sun shines in the heavens, for the preservation 
of wild life, and the open spaces for man and boy; for 
the building of a literature and a song of these, so that 
man may once more know youth, so that man may feel 
the great kindred spirit that exists between him and the 
beast in the forest and the fish in the water. 
Forest and Stream has been the soul of the outdoors 
and it has kept that soul clean, wholesome and pure. 
To continue this work is our task for the future. To 
continue building these milestones and these traditions— 
and if at the end of another fifty years we can give an 
accounting as clean and as wholesome, as positive and 
as inspiring as the one we are now making, then our 
work shall not have been in vain and the good that 
comes from it shall have been wrought in the heart and 
memory of man. 
THE BURSUM BILL 
I F THE Bursum Bill, which passed the Senate in Sep¬ 
tember and is now recalled, should become law, the 
Pueblo Indians of New Mexico would be wiped out 
and another act of injustice would be added to the already 
long list of crimes against the Indian. The bill is an 
insidious piece of legislation in that it was seemingly 
framed to settle the disputed titles of non-Indian claims 
to Indian patented lands; but is in fact an encroachment 
on these lands since it takes as proof of boundaries the 
