The Republican journal. [volume] (Belfast, Me.) 1829-current, 1913-02-20
TO BAR BIRD BUTCHERY.
Americans Ask Congress to Stop Aigrette
Traffic. Harmless Herons Aid Farmer
and Fisherman-Women Working

NEW YORK, Feb. II: Thousands OF
letters, kilograms and personal appeals
to save the igrette-bearing herons from
extinction by prohibiting the importa,
ton of their bloody scalps have been
sent to the Ways and Means Committee
of Congress from the farmers, sports
men and club women of every section of
! the country, according to reports receiv-
ed at the headquarters of the National
Association of Audubon Societies in this
city today Following the hearing on
the feather schedule of the tariff at
Washington last month, forty State
game commissioners throughout this
continent have begun to add to the plea
OF the Audubon workers their influence
IN urging congress to bar from the
country the feathers plucked from butch
cred mother birds, traffic i which has
already been made illegal in many States.
In briefs submitted by pathological
experts to the Ways and Means Commit
mlttee at Washington today, it is shown
on behalf of the agricultural and fishing
interests of the whole country that the
herons, that have been massacred for
their plumes almost to the point of ex-
tinction. are of great economic value in
destroying farm pests and natural enc
mics of trout and other valuable fish. In
of ..la Al.
species it is proved by scientific investi-
cation that 553S grasshoppers, 257 cut
worms, Ala crayfsh and 81 suckers were
consumed, as we'll as 361 water n,occasins
and other snakes which are known to
destroy young fish. 1t is also demons
trated by these documents that the
worldwide war of extinction now con-
Quoted by the feather dealers against the
birds who bear aigrettes while brooding
is characterized by barbarous cruelty
and unnecessary, and that the loss of
tariff revenue on such trophies of bird
slaughter could readily be made up from
other sources.
That traffic in egret scalps would be
absolutely stopped by prohibiting their
importation, has been admitted before
the Ways and Means Committee of Con-
gress by representative of the CONNER
cial interests that are fighting at Wash
ington to continue the international traf
nc In algrettes that employs armies of
bird butchers to scour the globe for the
pumes of the murdered mother birds
whose young are left to starve. With
more than 1O0 900 Audubon workers
arrayed with the farmers, sportsmen,
club women and nature lovers of eyerv
section of the land against these few
feather dealers, it is hoped that Congress
Will decide to make the United States
lead the world in recognizing the humane
and economic need for shutting out this
cruel trade.
III every American man, woman and
child who hates cruelty and loves nature
Will write or wire Chairman Underwood
of the Ways and Means Committee of
Congress in Washington to stop heron
butchery by prohibiting the importation
of aigrettes, we know we shall win
against the powerful forces of the MILL
merry interests" said T. Gilbert Pearson,
secretary of the National Association of
Audubon Societies, at its headquarters,
1874 Broadway, today. "We want the
women and children to be heard in de-
Tense of these dumb bird broods. as we'll
as the farmers, ranchmen and sportsmen,
who are urging upon this congressional
committee the great economic need of
their preservation