Page 280 - Our Vanishing Wild Life

CHAPTER XXVII
HOW TO MAKE A NEW GAME LAW
The Line of Action.—In the face of a calamity, the saving of life and property and the check of fire and flood depends upon good judg- mentandquickactionatthecriticalmoment. Inemergencies,theslow andacademicmethodwillnotserve. Itistherun,thejump,theshort cut and the violent method that saves life. If a woman is drowning, the sensible man does not wait for an introduction to her; nor does he run to an acquaintance to borrow his boat, or stop to put on a collar and necktie. He seizes the first boat that he can find, and breaks its lock andchainifnecessary; or,failingthat,heplungesinwithoutone. When he reaches the imperiled party, he doesn't say, "Will you kindly let me save you?" He seizes her by the hair, and tries to keep her head above water, without ceremony.
That is to-day the condition and the treatment necessary regarding our remnant of wild life. We are compelled to act quickly, directly, and even violently at times, if we save anything worth while.
There is no time to depend upon the academic "education" of the public by the seductive illustrated lecture on birds, or the article about the habits of mammals. Those methods are all well enough in their places, but we must not depend upon them in emergencies like the present, fortheydonotpasslawsorarrestlawbreakers. Givethepublicallof that material that you can supply, and the more the better, but for heaven's sake do not depend upon the spread of bird-lore "education" to stop the work of the game-hogs! If you do, all the wild life will be destroyed while the educational work is going on.
Often you can educate a gunner, and make him a protectionist; but you never can do it by showing him pictures of birds. He needs strong reasoning and exhortation, not bird-lore. To-day it is necessary to employ the most direct, forceful and at times even rude methods. Where slaughtering cannot be stopped by moral suasion, it must be stopped with a hickory club. The thing to do is to get results, and get them quickly, before it is too late!
If the business section of a town is burning down, no one goes into the suburbs to lecture on architecture, or exhibit pictures of fire appa- ratus. Therushisforwater,fire-engines,red-bloodedmenanddynamite. When the birds all around you are being shot to death by poachers who fear not God nor regard man, and you need help to stop it on the instant, run to your neighbor's house, and ring his bell. If he fails to hear the bell, pound on his door until you jar the whole house.