The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1914-01-14
FEAR HEATHER FRAME-UP
Audubon Agents Against Webb Amendment.-Wou Bore Hole In Tarin. PIumage Ban
 New Law Saving Many
 Mother Egrets. |
Mother Egrets

i New York, Jan. I.14s--Scenting a scheme to bore a IoophoIe in the law by which Uncle Sam has just been en- abled to protect wild bird life by pro- hibiting importation Of aigrettes and other p1urnage. officers of the Nation al Association of Audubon Societies have issued call to fight the Webb, l bill. recently fntroduced in Congress,
 which they declare will serve the in terests of the professional bird butch 1 CTS Of the millinery market. By tanaendfsag the tariff law to admit olu- mage held here before it's enactment and taken abroad by residents of this feountry, this measure is, sure to open Ito the feather hunters an easy way to defy the federaf ban which the people Iof all the. country demanded last year, Lit is asserted Millions of mother 1 egre4s and other wild birds are being saved from butchery for their plumes
 as a result of the successful operation l of the new law, it is shown by the Audubon agents, who have watched the millinery market and believe the proposed amendment would render its I further enforcement a farce.
 That scores of scouts for the great I feather interests could be dispatched abroad with bundles of aigrettes that might be swe11ed by thousands more on the return trip, is pointed out by 1 the men who know that the milliners ! are secretly rejofced over the quiet Hintroduction Of the Webb bill Though lthfs proposed 'sloopho1es' legislation l provides admitting such plumes upon I their Identity being established under tappropriate rules and regulations to be prescribed by the Secretary of the l Treasury 7 any adequate identification I of feather is pronounced absurd and impossible by ornitho1ogists who have just been consulted here With the T customs men helpless to prevent if,
 the Webb amendment would legitima- tize wholesale smuggling of plum Il age that would soon restore their old market to the men who massacre the
 birds of the whole globe to supply the costly millinery plumes, 1t is believed.
 With dainty "Audubon hats, ; trim I med with How CTS, ribbons and embroi- dery and labelled inside Save the Birds" now meeting a large demand
 fron the women in this. city; and os-
 trich and barnyard fowl feathers be- ] ing adopted by the Inilliners more and more, the Audubon agents declared ? to-day that the enforcement of the II feather clause in the tariff law had . l thus far proved a distinct success and had met with the approval of the press
 and public of the entire land. From
 their agents in Iiond onutIiey have just learned that in anticipation of the passage of a similar law now pending in the British parliament, the English n1illiners are already busted in design ing new styles that exclude wild bird pIumaEe. Though they regret the | inconvenience caused to the ladies in sthe process of the necessary customs
 house enforcement of the new law, the Audubon leaders point out that, E fbehind the thousand seizures 1 of p1umes already made, millions of mother birds are being spared from butchery by plume hunters to raise their broods that would otherwise be left to starve.
 While the successful carrying out of the provisions of the new Ameri- can feather law marks milestone in bird protection among the peoples ot
 the whole world, its amendment ac- lcordipg to the Webb bill would surely
 destroy much of it's beneficial effect, 2 said T. Gilbert Pearson, secretary o1 the National Association of Audubon Societies, 9Bacled by the same aentf-
 ment that supported our efforts tha-
 resulted in barring imported plum lage by the tariff law, we shall 6gil1
 any attempt such as this to nu1Iify : any of it's provisions, since we know
 that the American people are squarels : behind the law as it stands