I believe that the wealthy men and women of America are the most liberal givers for the benefit of humanity that can be found in all the world.
New York especially contains a great number of men who year in and year out work hard for money--in order to give it away! The depth and breadth of the philanthropic spirit in New York City is to me the most surprising of all the strange impulses that sway the inhabitants of that seething ma.s.s of mixed humanity. Every imaginable cause for the benefit of mankind,--save one,--has received, and still is receiving, millions of gift dollars.
Some enterprises for the transcendant education of the people are at this moment hopelessly wallowing in the excess of wealth that has been thrust upon them. Men are being hired at high salaries to help spend wealth in high, higher, highest education and research. It is now fashionable to bequeath millions to certain causes that do not need them in the least! In education there is a mad scramble to educate every young man to the topmost notch, often far above his probable station in life, and into tastes and wants far beyond his powers to maintain.
In all this, however, there would be no cause for regret if the wild life of our continent were not in such a grievous state. If we felt no conscience burden for those who come after us, we would not care where the millions go; but since things are as they are, it is heartbreaking to see the cause of wild-life protection actually starving, or at the best subsisting only on financial husks and crumbs, while less important causes literally flounder in surplus wealth.
This regret is intensified by the knowledge that _in no other cause for the conservation of the resources most valuable to mankind will a dollar go so far, or bring back such good results, as in the preservation of wild life!_ The promotion of "the Bayne bill" and the enactment of the Bayne law is a fair example. That law is to-day on the statute books of the State of New York because fifty men and women promptly subscribed $5,000 to a fund formed with special reference to the expenses of the campaign for that measure; and the uplift of that victory will be felt for years to come, just as it already has been in Ma.s.sachusetts.
At one time I was tempted to show the financial skeleton in the closet of wild-life protection, by inserting here a statement of the funds available to be expended by all the New York organizations during the campaign year of 1911-1912. But I cannot do it. The showing is too painful, too humiliating. From it our enemies would derive too much comfort.
Even in New York State, in view of the great interests at stake, the showing is pitiful. But what shall we say of Ma.s.sachusetts, Pennsylvania, Connecticut, New Jersey, and a dozen other states where the situation is much worse? In the winter of 1912 a cry for help came to us from a neighboring state, where a terrific fight was being made by the forces of destruction against all reform measures, and in behalf of retrogression on spring shooting. The appeal said: "The situation in our legislature is the worst that it has been in years. Our enemies are very strong, well organized, and they fight us at every step. We have _no funds_, and we are expected to make bricks without straw! Is there not _something_ that you can do to help us?"
There was!
Only one week previously, a good friend (who declines to be named) gave us _two thousand dollars_, of real money, for just such emergencies.
Within thirty-six hours an entirely new fighting force had been organized and equipped for service. Within one week, those reinforcements had made a profound impression on the defenses of the enemy, and in the end the great fight was won. Of our small campaign fund it took away over one thousand dollars; but the victory was worth it.
With money enough,--a reasonable sum,--the birds of North America, and some of the small-mammal species also, can be saved. The big game that is hunted and killed outside the game preserves, and outside of such places as New Brunswick and the Adirondacks, can _not_ be saved--until _each species_ is given perpetual protection. Colorado is saving a small remnant of her mountain sheep, but Montana and Wyoming are wasting theirs, because they allow killing, and the killers are ten times too numerous for the sheep. They imagine that by permitting only the killing of rams they are saving the species; but that is an absolute fallacy, and soon it will have a fatal ending.
With an endowment fund of $2,000,000 (only double the price of the two old Velasquez paintings purchased recently by a gentleman of New York!) a very good remnant of the wild life of North America could be saved.
But who will give the fund, or even a quarter of it?
Thus far, the largest sums ever given in America for the cause of wild-life protection, so far as I know personally, have been the following:
Albert Wilc.o.x, to the National a.s.sociation of Audubon Societies, $322,000 Mary Butcher Fund, to the National a.s.sociation of Audubon Societies 12,000 Mrs. Russell Sage, for the purchase of Marsh Island 150,000 American Game Protective and Propagation a.s.sociation, from the manufacturers of firearms and ammunition, annually 25,000 Charles Willis Ward and E.A. McIlhenny, purchase of game preserve presented to Louisiana 39,000 Mrs. Russell Sage, miscellaneous gifts to the National Audubon Society 20,000 The American Bison Society for the Montana National Herd 10,526 New York Zoological Society, total about 20,000 John E. Thayer, purchase of game preserve 5,000 Caroline Phelps Stokes Bird Fund, N.Y. Zoological Society 5,000 Boone and Crockett Fund for Preservation 5,000 A Friend in Rochester 2,500 Henry C. Frick 1,500 Samuel Thorne 1,250
Of all the above, the only endowment funds yielding an annual income are those of the National a.s.sociation of Audubon Societies and the Caroline Phelps Stokes fund of $5,000 in the treasury of the Zoological Society.
A fund of $25,000 per year for five years has been guaranteed by the makers of shot-guns, rifles and ammunition, to the American Game Protective and Propagation a.s.sociation. This is like a limited endowment.
In the civilized world there are citizens of many kinds; but all of them can be placed in two groups: (1) those with a sense of duty toward mankind, and who will do their duty as good citizens; and (2) those who from the cradle to the grave meanly and sordidly study their own selfish interests, who never do aught save in expectation of a quick return benefit, and who recognize no such thing as duty toward mankind at large.
Men and women of the first cla.s.s are honored in life, mourned when dead, and gratefully remembered by posterity. They leave the world better than they found it, and their lives have been successful.
Men and women of the second cla.s.s are merely so many pieces of animated furniture; and when they pa.s.s out the world cares no more than when old chairs are thrown upon the sc.r.a.p-heap.
There are many men so selfish, so ignorant and mean of soul that even out of well-filled purses they would not give ten dollars to save the whole bird fauna of North America from annihilation. To all persons of that brand, it is useless to appeal. As soon as you find one, waste no time upon him. Get out of his neighborhood as quickly as you can, and look for help among real MEN.
The wild life of the world cannot be saved by a few persons, even though they work their hearts out in the effort. The cause needs two million more helpers; and they must be sought in Group No. 1. They are living, somewhere; but the great trouble is to find them, _before it is too late_.
There are times and causes in which the good citizen has no option but to render service. The most important of such causes are: the relief of suffering humanity, the conservation of the resources of nature, and the prevention of vandalism. If the American Nation had refused aid to stricken San Francisco, the callous hard-heartedness of it would have shocked the world. If the German army of 1871 had destroyed the art treasures and the libraries of Paris, it would have set the German nation back ten centuries, into the ranks of the lowest barbarians.
And yet, in America, and in the regions now being scourged by the feather trade, a wonderful FAUNA is being destroyed! It took _millions of years_ to develop that marvelous array of wild life; and when gone _it never can be replaced_! Yet the Army of Destruction is sweeping it away as joyously as a hired laborer cuts down a field of corn.
That wild life _can_ be saved! If done, it must be done by the men and women of Group No. 1. The means by which it can be saved are: _Money, labor_ and _publicity. Every man of_ ordinary means and intelligence can contribute either money or labor. The men on the firing line must not be expected to furnish their own food and ammunition. The Workers MUST be provided with the money that active campaign work imperatively demands!
Those who cannot conveniently or successfully labor 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, the wild life of North America (north of Mexico) can be saved. _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,--cash always ready for every emergency in field work. I greatly need, _and must have, immediately_, an endowment Wild-Life Fund of at least $100,000, and eventually $250,000. I can no longer "pa.s.s the hat"
each year. This is needed in addition to the several thousands of dollars 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 do it!"
That often is the way when national campaigning is to be done. In _national_ wild-life protection work, New York is to-day bearing about nine-tenths of the burden. It is my belief that in 1912 outside of New York City less than $10,000 was raised and expended in wild-life protection save by state and national appropriations. We know that in the 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 5-1/2 per cent interest for the $5,500 annual income that it will yield. How much of this will come from outside the State of New York? Some of it, I am sure, will come from Ma.s.sachusetts 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 pa.s.s along my message that the hour for a revolution has struck? Will the millions of men commanded by General Apathy now arouse, before it is too late to act?
Will the true sportsmen rise up, and do their duty, bravely and unselfishly?
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 palaces 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 preservation or their extermination.