(b) National Laws. These may deal with larger problems, as the preservation of certain widely distributed birds. Naturally, too, it is the National Government that must take the initiative in regard to the conservation of the great forests, waterways, waterfalls, and the features in the national parks and reserves.

Carefully drawn laws, both State and National, covering the foregoing will no doubt aid the cause of Conservation. Too much must not be attempted. More good will result from a constant vigilance with regard to the passage of bad laws which give away the heritage of the community, than from attempts now to formulate a general conservation code.

Respectfully submitted,

CHARLES E. BESSEY (Chairman),

DAVID STARR JORDAN,

EDWIN A. ALDERMAN,

E. T. FAIRCHILD,

EDWIN B. CRAIGHEAD,

Committee.

President WHITE--We have all been very much interested in this valuable contribution to Conservation, coming from such distinguished contributors as were on this committee, and I desire, for the officers of the Conservation Congress, to thank the committee for its admirable report. I feel that every delegate here would like to join in an expression of thanks for such an interesting and such a helpful paper, which will go forth to all sections of the country. All those who desire to so express thanks please rise to their feet. (The entire audience rose to its feet.)

you.

This is a very grateful and pleasant expression of thanks. I thank

We will now be entertained by an illustrated address by Dr. T. Gilbert Pearson, of New York City, Secretary of the National Association of Audubon Societies. The subject is "Bird Slaughter and the Cost of Living."

(Dr. Pearson's address, which, unfortunately, was not recorded by the official reporter, was heard with keenest interest by a large audience and was interrupted by frequent applause. The speaker prefaced his illustrated lecture with a vivid statement of wild life conditions, which was heard with closest attention.)

President WHITE-I am sure you have been entertained by the very excellent address we have just heard. And there is another interesting address to follow. I want every one of you to know we are having a

very interesting Congress and a very large attendance. This afternoon there have been three section meetings going on; one, I understand, with about one thousand people in attendance. All belong to the Conservation Congress.

We will now listen to a discussion of "Federal Protection of Migratory Birds," by Dr. W. T. Hornaday, Director of the New York Zoolog ical Park.

Dr. HORNADAY-Mr. President, Ladies and Gentlemen: The subject presented to this Congress by the Committee on Conservation of Wild Life is one of the most practical subjects that you could possibly imagine. It touches the market basket and the dinner pail, and I know of nothing that can come much closer home to a family than that. Within the last three months, in the City of New York, we have had riots in our streets on account of the high cost of certain articles of food.

Whenever I have an opportunity to stand before an audience and speak in behalf of wild life, "I would that my tongue could utter the thoughts that arise in me."

We have reached the period now when it is absolutely necessary for us to adjust our ideas according to new conditions. I am trying to place. before you conditions as they exist throughout the United States today, and I think when that has been done the facts will suggest to you the logical conclusion. The trouble is that our system of protecting wild life is nine-tenths absolutely wrong. We are confronted today by a slaughter of wild life throughout the whole United States, throughout the whole continent of North America, and throughout the world, that is absolutely appalling.

Now, in the City of New York there are several national organizations which make it their business to keep in touch with the conditions of wild life throughout the world. Unless a person takes pains to keep in touch with those conditions, as those national organizations do, you lose sight of the things that are actually going on and which ought to be of common knowledge. But our lives are so busy, there is so much to do, the days are so short, and we are so pressed for time that we grasp only the things that come close to us.

Now, take the slaughter of bird life, it is not like the cutting down. of a forest. When a forest is cut down the stumps are left to be constant reminders of the destruction for days, for weeks and for years. When your bird life is destroyed, it simply fades from view. It fails to return in the spring and you go about your day's business and you see the beauties of the forest and field, but you forget to what extent the birds have disappeared. It is a difficult thing to obtain an accurate estimate of the decrease in the general volume of wild bird life throughout a given year, but it is possible to cbtain such estimates. Now, there is in the United

States a tremendous force at work destroying wild life. The force that is preserving wild life is not nearly so large and not nearly so active. I will show you presently a picture especially designed to bring this home to you. Dr. Pearson has set before you many beautiful pictures showing bird life in protected areas. That points an important moral which I do not wish to forget. It means that if we are diligent, if we reform our system and our laws we can to a very large extent bring back the vanished bird life. There is hope for the future. Today we are confronted by the prospect of a country gameless and birdless everywhere except in the protected areas. We all know how important the game preserves and the protected bird areas are. We cannot have too many of them; they cannot be too large. But there is a vast volume of bird life that cannot be protected in the preserves, the migratory phase of bird life, which we cannot control except for short periods of the year.

I believe that the subject we are now bringing before you is one in which it is possible for the members of this Conservation Congress to achieve a practical result of the greatest magnitude and in the shortest. possible time and with the least effort of any subject that will be presented to this Congress. I know that is a large order, but I think that before I conclude you will agree with me that my proposition is not exaggerated.

When I was assured that I could have the honor and the privilege. of speaking to this Congress on the subject of wild life, the first thought that occurred to me was to endeavor to place before you some ocular proof of the slaughter of wild life that is now going on at so terrific a rate. I gathered from my side table a collection of pictures that had dropped into my hands from various portions of the United States and outside, and those pictures I wish you to see now. They will tell a story of their own with very few words from me, and after that we will come to the logical conclusion.

Dr. Hornaday here gave an illustrated lecture which was thoroughly enjoyed.

President WHITE-The Congress will now stand adjourned until 8:15 o'clock this evening, when Dr. Harvey W. Wiley will speak, at Tomlinson Hall.

A large reception was given by the officers of the Congress and the Local Board of Managers to the speakers, delegates and visitors, at 7:30 o'clock, Claypool Hotel.

THIRD SESSION.

The Congress was called to order by President White, in Tomlinson Hall, at 8:30 o'clock p. m.

President WHITE-We are a little late opening this meeting, because we are trying to do so much in different places, and we do not all get in one place at the same time. But I am glad to see such an enthusiastic meeting here tonight. The audience will rise while the Rev. Dr. Allan B. Philputt, of the Central Christian Church of this city, invokes the Divine blessing.

INVOCATION.

Lord, our God, we ask that Thy blessing may rest upon us in what we believe is work well-pleasing to Thee and for the upbuilding and welfare of our common humanity. We pray Thee, bless Thy servants who have gathered here to instruct and lead us on with the mighty host of those who are willing to follow in the good ways that shall be pointed out for the preservation, not only of our material resources, but for our moral, intellectual and spiritual well-being. We pray that strength may be given those who lead, and guidance and light, and the heartiest coöperation on the part of all our citizenship. May we be interested in these things which will add to our happiness, and wealth, and peace and plenty, and by which we may also come to a better knowledge of Thee and Thy laws. May Thy blessing rest upon all the sessions of this great Congress, especially upon those who have sacrificed time and means to come here and give themselves unreservedly to this great cause. May Thy favor rest upon those present, may Thy blessing be upon those who are strangers within our city, and may hospitality be unbounded, may sympathy and cordiality flow from heart to heart until we feel the strong ties that bind us, not only in one State, but with every State in our great Republic. This we as through Jesus Christ, our Lord. Amen.

President WHITE-I have a communication to read to this audience from an old, well-known and well-loved conservationist, one of the great leaders in conservation work. I do not think there is any politics in this. I will read it.

"Omaha, Neb., September 30, 1912.

Capt. J. B. White, National Conservation Congress, Indianapolis:

Please tell the Congress I am keenly sorry to be away. I should be with you, except that I believe I can do the cause of Conservation more good where I am. We are working to make this continent a better home for a better race. It is a great task. I wish you the best of meetings and complete success.

GIFFORD PINCHOT."

The speaker of this evening is well known to us all. He has impressed himself and his subject upon the people of this great country in the past

few years, and he needs no introduction from me. I have long wanted to know how old people managed to grow old and keep looking young. I do not mean to infer that the speaker of this evening is getting old, as I understand he has a boy only about a year old (applause); but I have found out his age, by persistent and tactful undertaking, and, being in pursuit of some way of living to a good old age myself, I inquired as to his habits. I will not give them to you now, except to say that he told me, briefly and epigrammatically, that he doesn't smoke, he doesn't drink (applause), he doesn't chew, and he says he doesn't swear (applause)-only occasionally. (Laughter.)

I now take great pleasure in introducing to you Dr. Harvey W. Wiley, who will speak on the subject "The Conservation of Man." (Applause.)

Dr. WILEY-The National Conservation Congress has at its previous meetings discussed in a most illuminating and helpful way the great problems of Conservation as applied to the soil, to the forests, to the mines, and to the running streams.

I do not suppose it is proper, with an audience of this kind, to refer to earlier papers, but I do believe I am the first person who ever made a public address in this country upon the subject of Conservation, and I am certain, as far as I know, that I am the last one that is making such an address. But as long ago as 1893-and being a very old man, as you have heard, I can remember that far back-I made an address on the conservation of the soil, so I am really the father of the conservation movement in this country-as well as of a very fine boy. (Applause.) I miss my dear friend, Gifford Pinchot, whom I love as a brother, but who has fallen into the patent medicine habit and is giving us "absent treatment"-I am not at all sure that he is doing a better work out there than he would be here. In the words of the Scotch poet, "I hae ma doots." But still we were glad to hear from him and know he has not lost interest because of the strenuous political life he is now compelled to lead.

With this great work, from its inception, I have been in deepest sympathy and have collaborated in such a manner as I could to further it. The work accomplished has produced benefits which are difficult to measure by any standard which can be properly appreciated. The American people have come to believe in the application of a single standard of value and this is a scientific principle with which, as a rule, I would have no quarrel, but unfortunately the single standard which Americans have been taught to value is that which pertains to the almighty dollar. The Conservation Congress, however, has not been blind. to the fact that the standards of ethics, health, morality and happiness are of even far greater value than that of money. Nevertheless, in order