Page 419 - Our Vanishing Wild Life

GREATEST NEEDS OF WILD-LIFE CAUSE 397
should give money to this cause; but at the same time, every good citizen should keep in touch with his lawmaking representatives, and in times of need ask for votes for whatever new laws are necessary.
With money enough to arouse the American people in certain ways, thewildlifeofNorthAmerica(northofMexico)canbesaved. Money can secure labor and publicity, and the People will do the rest. For this campaign work I want, and must have, a permanent fund of $10,000 per annum,—cashalwaysreadyforeveryemergencyinfieldwork. Igreatly need, and must have, immediately, an endowment Wild-Life Fund of at least$100,000,andeventually$250,000. Icannolonger"passthehat" eachyear. Thisisneededinadditiontotheseveralthousandsofdollars annually being expended by the Zoological Society in this work. The Society is already doing its utmost in wild-life protection, just as it is in several other fields of activity.
Outside of New York many wealthy men will say, "Let New York doit!" Thatoftenisthewaywhennationalcampaigningistobedone. In national wild-life protection work. New York is to-day bearing about nine-tenthsoftheburden. Itismybeliefthatin1912outsideofNew York City less than $10,000 was raised and expended in wild-life pro- tectionsavebystateandnationalappropriations. Weknowthatinthe year mentioned New York expended $221,000 in this cause, all from private sources.
In a very short time I shall call for the $100,000 that I now must have as an endowment fund for nation-wide work, to be placed at 5^2 per cent interest for the $5,500 annual income that it will yield. How muchofthiswillcomefromoutsidetheStateofNewYork? Someofit, I am sure, will come from Massachusetts and Pennsylvania; but will any of it come from Cleveland, Cincinnati, Chicago, St. Louis and San Francisco ?
The Duty of the Hour
I have now said my say in behalf of wild life. Surely the path of duty toward the remnant of wild life is plain enough. Will those who read this book pass along my message tiiat the hour for a revolution has struck? WillthemillionsofmencommandedbyGeneralApathynow arouse, before it is too late to act?
Will the true sportsmen rise up, and do their duty, bravely and un- selfishly ?
Will the people with wealth to give away do their duty toward wild life and humanity, fairly and generously?
Will the zoologists awake, leave their tables in their stone ])alaces of peace, and come out to the firing-line ?
Will the lawmakers heed the handwriting on the wall, and make laws that represent the full discharge of their duty toward wild life and humanity ? Will the editors beat the alarm-gong, early and late, in season and
out of season, until the people awake?
On the answers to these questions hang the fate of the wild creatures
of the world,—their prescrv^ation or their extermination.