The Bennington evening banner. (Bennington, Vt.) 19??-1961, 1913-05-03
BIRD SLAUGHTER FOR pLuMAee
Prohibition of Importation viii Help
Check the Evil.

This is call to action-urgent!
Immediate merely a helpless
wall, but a move to remedy a great
evil. Strike now while the iron is
hot!
Bird slaughter today is greater
than ever before in the history of
the world For centuries the Chris
tian nations have permitted the kill
ing of useful and beautiful wild birds
to 90 on almost unchecked in thinly
peopled or unsettled regions, that
feather dealers might line their
pocketbooks and that women might
adorn themselves.
Do you realize what the present
privileges of the importers mean to
our own birds? DR.. George w. Field
Chairman of the Massachusetts Com
missioners on Fisheries & Game,
stated before congressional com
mittee that during the past six years
the commission had been obliged to
prosecute more than seventy-five
prominent milliners for the sale of
plumage of native birds. He spoke
of many instances where wild birds,
from gulls down to swallows and
bluebirds, Matched in this country,
had been killed in quantities and the
| feathers shipped TO London and
Paris and there manufactured and
returned to the United States to be
sold.
The chief argument of milliners in
| justification of the trade was that it
was difficult, if not impossible, for
them to distinguish between native
plumage and imported, and that as
the national government had taken
the duties on these feathers they
were justified in Offering them for
sale
Within the last quarter century
| this trade has become serious men
ace to the birds of the world. 1t is
now so well organized that no coun-
| try, however remote and inaccessible
| is safe from the plume hunter, Max
ed savages in tropical jungles, half
savage Indians and negroes are en-
gagged in the work of destruction.
| Scores of species are menaced wit.
extinction No bird that the trade
| calls for can escape the destroyer.
| The United States now furnishes the
greatest market for plumage on this
planet. From the Great Condors,
Vultures, Eagles and Albatrosses-
| the largest birds that fiy-down to
the tiniest humming birds, no fine or
beautiful species that can be utiliz-
ed is spared, except where it is fully
| protected by law.
This repulsive and horrible slaugh-
ter leading quickly TO determination
must be stopped. Its victims are dis
appearing so fast that the matter can
be neglected no longer. No govern
ment has a right TO promote such I'M
| justifable destruction by maintain
| ing a market for the products. The
] duty of a Christian nation in such I.
case is as much greater and more
| imperative than that of the state or
| individual as the nation is greater
| than the individual or State. This
great wrong can be righted in only
| two ways, both of which are essen
tial. % By prohibitive laws stern
| ly enforced. (2) BY closing the
markets to the sale of the plumage of
| wild birds. The Mclean bill, re-
! Gently passed by Congress, provides
| for the first Let Congress now
| provide for the second.
! No argument can be advanced in
behalf of this feather business ex-
cept that the trade wants the money.
| The same plea can be made In behalf
| of every importer of opium and
every maker of counterfeit money, but
opium selling and conterfeiting are
forbidden, as the importation and
use of wild birds plumage must be
| A worldwide movement has begun.
! Let the United States be one of the
leaders, A year ago Australia for.
babe the Importation of plumage as
she already had forbidden export In
| response to the urgent personal ap-
peals made by representatives of the
National Association of Audubon So
| cieties and the New York Geological
| Society, there has been included in
the Tariff Bill. now pending in Con
| gress, a proviso to prohibit the i'm
| portation of the feathers >of wild
birds. The following is the wording
| Of this proviso in Schedule IN of
the proposed Tariff Act.
Provided the importation of aigret
| ties, egret plumes or so-called osprey
plumes and the feathers. quilts, heads
wings, tails. skins or parts of skins
of wild birds either raw or manufac-
tured and not for scientific or educa-
tional purposes is hereby prohibited,
| but this provision shall not apply to
, feathers or plumes of ostriches or to
the feathers or plumes of domestic
fowls of any kind"
If the United States stops feather
importation, England and Germany
will soon follow our lead and in
few years all Christian nations will
do the same.