The Waterbury Democrat., 1931-09-03
Audubon Society
 Receives Praise
Critics AssaiIed in Report of Committee Named to
 Probe Charges Against Association

Endorsing the policies of the National Association of Audubon Societies, and praisifig the achieve ments of that organization in the field of wild-life conservation, Dr Thomas Barbour, director of the Museum of Comparative Zoology, cey J. Hamlin, president of the Buffalo Museum of science, in a report made public this week based upon nearly year of investiga. tion, seriously questioned the mo- tives of members of the so-called emergency conservation commit tee," which had circulated charges against the Audubon society and it's official personnel.
 At the annual meeting of the National Association of Audubon Societies in October, 1930, a com mittee was appointed upon motion of United States Senator Frederic c. Walcott, of Connecticut, a men1- Der of the association, to examine into certain charges which had been widely published in pamphlet form by the emergency conserva- tion committee" The charges al- legged acts and practices of the as- sociation which were asserted to be entirely foreign to the purpose for which 1t was formed. Besides pr Barbour and Mir Hamlin, Dr Alex ander Grant Ruthven, president of the University of Michigan, was on the committee appointed to in- vestigate these charges. Df Ruth ven was forced to withdraw from the committee because of press of official duties. In the report just made public Dr Ruthven states: II am entirely out of sympathy with the attacks being made on the National Association of Audubon Societies.
 Improvements can probably be made in this, as in any organjza- tion, but suggestions for such im- provements should be made the basis of study and debate within the organization itself rather than being presented to the public as an indication or improper manage ment. The sole reason I could not serve on the committee was tho press of duties as chief executive of 8 large university during a per- iod of adjustment"
 The charges against the Nation al Association, and Dr T. Gilbert Pearson, its president, were con- tained in pamphlets entitled, "A Crisis in Conservation" and Compromised Conservation" cir culated by the anonymous Elmer gency Conservation Committee" The first pamphlet was signed by W. De Witt Miller, Willard G. Van Name and Davis Quinn. The first two were at the time of publica- tion employees of the American Mu- scum of Natural History, while Quinn, says the committee report, "is completely unknown to fame, has never been conspicuous either as a bird lover or conservationtst, has not been a member of the Ma tional Association and, indeed, is person who when he visited the headquarters ap- peared under an assumed name and gave a false address"
 Commenting upon this phase or the charges against the associa- tion, pr Barbour and MT Hamlin o bserve that ''it does not seem worth while to 90 into the vari- ous details which show that this com mmlttee-SO- calleu 1S slInPy small, self-appointed group repre- senting nothing but certain per sonal interests; and there is little point in atten.ping to analyze the motives of the persons hostile to the association who have used this method of attack" The report dis misses the charge.
 Relative to the charge that the national association had failed to support bag-limit reduction bills. he committee suggests that the matter of bag-limits Is an admin 1 strative problem, not an executive ,ne, adding that such matters should no more clog the machin- sry of national government than | he state government" In this con- nection the committee recalls the words of former Governor Alfred E. Smith in his annual message to the. New York state Legislature in 1927:
 Year after year the legislature Is flooded with bills fixing by laws the size, condition. manner. method of, and the season for, the taking