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CHAPTER XLIV

THE GREATEST NEEDS OF THE WILD-LIFE CAUSE AND THE DUTY OF THE HOUR

The fate of wild life in North America hangs to-day by three very slender threads, the names of which you will hardly guess unaided.  They are Labor, Money and Publicity!  The threads are slender because there is so little raw material in them.

We do not need money with which to “buy votes” or “influence,” but money with which to pay workers; to publish things to arouse the American people; to sting sportsmen into action; to hire wardens; to prosecute game-hogs and buy refuges for wild life.  If a sufficient amount of money for these purposes cannot be procured, then as sure as the earth continues to revolve, our wild life will pass away, forever.

This is no cause for surprise, or wonder.  In this twentieth century money is essential to every great enterprise, whether it be for virtue or mischief.  The enemies of wild life, and the people who support them, are very powerful.  The man whose pocket or whose personal privilege is threatened by new legislation is prompted by business reasons to work against you, and spend money in protecting his interests.

Now, it happens that the men of ordinary means who have nothing personal at stake in the preservation of wild life save sentimental considerations, cannot afford to leave their business more than three or four days each year on protection affairs.  Yet many times services are demanded for many days, or even weeks together, in order to accomplish results.  Bad repeal bills must be fought until they are dead; and good protective bills must be supported until the breath of life is breathed into them by the executive signature.

With money in hand, good men aways can be found who will work in game protection for about one-half what they would demand in other pursuits.  With the men whom, you really desire, sentiment is always a controlling factor.  It is my inflexible rule, however, in asking for services, that men who give valuable time and strength to the cause shall not be allowed to take their expense money from their own pockets.  Soldiers on the firing line cannot provide the sinews of war that come from the paymaster’s chest!

Campaigns of publicity are matters of tremendous necessity and importance; but their successful promotion requires hundreds, or possibly thousands of dollars, for each state that is covered.

I believe that the wealthy men and women of America are the most liberal givers for the benefit of humanity that can be found in all the world.  New York especially contains a great number of men who year in and year out work hard for money—­in order to give it away!  The depth and breadth of the philanthropic spirit in New York City is to me the most surprising of all the strange impulses that sway the inhabitants of that seething mass of mixed humanity.  Every imaginable cause for the benefit of mankind,—­save one,—­has received, and still is receiving, millions of gift dollars.