THE AUDUBON BULLETIN 
Published Quarterly by the 
ILLINOIS AUDUBON SOCIETY 
Field Museum of Natural History, Chicago, {l1., 60605 
Haber 150 7 i 
oo 
mE 
mESIDENT'S 
AGE 
yy RAYMOND MOSTEK 
oe STiGme 1660 
% 
SOLLUTION AND THE PENTAGON: At the April convention of the Na- 
ional Audubon Society in St. Louis, 
[rain—a distinguished conservationist 
Undersecretary of Interior Russell 
and a former president of ‘the Con- 
ervation Foundation—declared that the United States is losing its battle 
ygainst water pollution and he scored the under-funding of the pollution 
abatement acts recently passed by Congress. 
US. Senator Henry Jackson 
(Dem., Wash.) who serves as chair- 
man of the Senate Interior Com- 
mittee, told the NAS audience a 
few things they wanted to hear 
and received polite applause. What 
he did not tell them was that as 
one of the strong supporters of the 
military establishment of this 
country, Senator Jackson is there- 
by under-cutting every conserva- 
tion program passed by Congress. 
It is now a well-known fact that 
eyery penny paid in personal in- 
come taxes is not sufficient to pay 
for the military budget of the 
Pentagon. The Vietnam War alone 
costs $28 billion annually. 
Senator Jackson once was con- 
sidered by President Nixon for 
the post of Secretary of Defense 
and is generally regarded as a 
strong supporter of the Anti-Bal- 
listie Missile system. The ABM 
could cost as much as $400 billion 
before the program 1s over, Nixon 
is asking for a mere 7 billion dol- 
lars to start it. Interestingly 
enough, most water pollution ex- 
perts feel it would cost over $120 
billion to contain our water pol- 
lution problems! We are spending 
only a few millions annually. Our 
weak program and under-funding 
is scandalous when one considers 
that water pollution is the number 
one natural resource problem of 
the nation. 
