Page 279 - Our Vanishing Wild Life

THE ARMY OF THE DEFENSE 257
when it is both wise and necessary to take practical measures to preserve theremnantofAmericangame. Alreadytheactivitiesofthisorganiza- tion cover a wide range, and it has been particularly active in enlisting support for the Weeks bill for the federal protection of migratory birds.
The Wild Life Protective Association came into existence in 1910, rather suddenly, for the purpose of promoting the cause of the Bayneno-sale-of-gamebill,andothermeasures. Itraisedthefundthat met the chief expenses of that campaign. Since that time it has taken
an important part in three other hotly contested campaigns in other states, two of which were successful.
At the present moment, and throughout the future, these New York organizations need large sums of money with which to meet the legitimate expenses of active campaigns for great measures. They need some moneyfromoutsidethestateofNewYork! Toomuchoftheburdenof national campaigning has been and is being left to be borne by the people of New York City. This policy is growing monotonous. There is every reason why Chicago, St. Louis, Cincinnati, Pittsburgh, Cleveland, Philadelphia, Baltimore and Boston should each year turn $100,000 into the hands of these well-equipped and well managed national organi- zations whose officers know how to get results, all over our country.
Such organizations as these do not exist in other cities; and this is very unfortunate. New Orleans should be a center of protectionist activity for the South, San Francisco for the Pacific slope, and Chicago fortheMiddleWest. Willtheynotbecomeso?
Two Independent Workers.—At the western edge of the delta of the Mississippi there have arisen two men who loom up into promi- nence at an outpost of the Army of Defense which they themselves have established. For what they already have done in the creation of wild- fowl preserves in Louisiana, Edward A. Mcllhenny and Charles Willis Ward deserve the thanks of the American People-at-large. An account of their splendid activities, and the practical results already secured, will be found in Chapter XXXVIII, on "Private Game Preserves," and in the story of Marsh Island. Already the home of these gentlemen, Avery Island, Louisiana, has become an important center of activity in wild-life protection.