The Richmond palladium and sun-telegram. [volume] (Richmond, Ind.) 1907-1939, 1913-04-17
FEATHER TRAFFIC
CAN Be WIPED OUT
Support Is Given Section oil
Bill Prohibiting Importa-
ton of Heron Plumes.
(National News Association)

NEW YORK, April 17.-That ninety
million Americans have broken party
lines to support the single section of
the tariff bill prohibiting the importa-
ton of the plumes of butchered moth
er herons and all other wild birds, was
shown by reports received today from
every section of the country at the
headquarters Of the National Associa-
ton of Audubon Societies in this city.
In response to kilograms of congratu-
lation from many of the 100000 mem
bers affiliated under this association,
as well as from state game commits
sioners, grangers, women's clubs, mu-
seums of natural history, bird protec-
tive, scientific and sportsmen's organl-
cations all over the land, the Audubon
leaders, who presented this section
aimed at aigrette traffic to the franz
ers of this bill, are now urging all hui
name citizens to ask it's passage at
the hands of their representatives at
Washington. If the bloody scalps of
the birds for whose nuptial plumes the
whole globe has been secured for the
millinery market are barred from
clause, millions of brooding birds of
the most beautiful species will be saw
ed from slaughter and eventual ex-
tinction, it is declared.
Powerful opposition to the principle
OF protection of bird life, which was
voiced in this section of the tariff bill
in response to a countrywide demand
ri hr1r nY-ia a
today expected solely from the monied
interests that maintain armies to hunt
down the mother Egrets all over the
world and ship their scalps to millin-
ers here, leaving a brood of young to
starve for each plume captured in the
slaughter. IL the new tariff law bans
these bloody spoils, it Is admitted by
the milliners that the vogue of the al
grette, the maribou, the Bird of Para
disc and the Goura will yield to os-
trich plumes and feathers of domestic
fowls, and the cruel traffic in murder
ed mother birds will cease. In order
to defeat the selfish interests of the
new bird butchers who thrive on al
grette importation, the Federation of
Women's clubs, the New York Zoolog
ical Society and scores Of other organ
izations have promised to help the
National Association of Audubon Soci-
cites present to Congress the demand
of the whole American people for the
passage of this tariff provision.
Guarding 5000 egrets that still sur
vive the slaughter of plume hunters in
this country, the Audubon leaders
have just stationed force of wardens
over thirty colonies of these persecut-
ed birds in Florida, Georgia, South Car
DINA, North Carolina and Louisiana.
II the Importation of aigrettes is for
hidden by law, a representative of the
millinery interests has declared to the
trainers of the tariff bill that it will
not tend to stimulate the butchery of
these native members of the species.
With the abandonment of the aigrette
for millinery ornament, which is prom
ised If the bird protective clause be-
comes law, ornithologists predict that
the beautiful birds that bear these
plumes will be saved from extinction
here.
The greatest opportunity of the age
to wipe out cruel aigrette traffic alb
solutely is now presented to the Amer
lean people, said T. Gilbert Pearson,
secretary of the National Association
of Audubon Societies, at It's headquar-
tiers, 1874 Broadway, today. Every hui
name person, irrespective of political
principles or party, should at once
write representatives in congress in
support of this single provision in the
tariff bill that will save from slaugh-
ter and extinction the worlds most
beautiful bird species. We believe that
with the exception of a few feather
dealers, all of the people of our coun-
try are united in support of this Iegis-
lative reprieve for the butchered
BIRDS