There are men whose zoological ideals soar so high that they can not see the slaughter of wild creatures that is so furiously proceeding on the surface of this blood-stained earth. We don't want to hear about the "behavior" of protozoans while our best song birds are being exterminated by negroes and poor whites.
Cornell University should now awaken to the new situation. All the zoological Neros should not fiddle while Rome burns. For the sake of consistency, Cornell should devote the services of at least one member of its large and able faculty to the cause of wild-life protection. Cornell was a pioneer in forestry teaching; and why should she not lead off now in the new field?
Yale University, in Professor James W. Toumey, Director of the School of Forestry, possesses a natural, ready-made protector of wild life. From forestry to wild life is an easy step. We hopefully look forward to the development of Professor Toumey into a militant protectionist, fighting for the helpless creatures that must be protected by man or perish! If Yale is willing to set a new pace for the world's great universities, she has the Man ready at hand.
The University of Chicago should become the center of a great new protectionist movement which should cover the whole Middle West area, from the plains to Pittsburgh. This is the inflexible, logical necessity of the hour. Either protect zoology, or else for very shame give up teaching it!
Every higher institution of learning in America now has a duty in this matter. Times have changed. Things are not as they were thirty years ago. To allow a great and valuable wild fauna to be destroyed and wasted is a crime, against both the present and the future. If we mean to be good citizens we cannot shirk the duty to conserve. We are trustees of the inheritance of future generations, and we have no right to squander that inheritance. If we fail of our plain duty, the scorn of future generations surely will be our portion.
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.