ile less important
causes literally flounder in surplus wealth.

This regret is intensified by the knowledge that _in no other cause for
the conservation of the resources most valuable to mankind will a dollar
go so far, or bring back such good results, as in the preservation of
wild life!_ The promotion of "the Bayne bill" and the enactment of the
Bayne law is a fair example. That law is to-day on the statute books of
the State of New York because fifty men and women promptly subscribed
$5,000 to a fund formed with special reference to the expenses of the
campaign for that measure; and the uplift of that victory will be felt
for years to come, just as it already has been in Massachusetts.

At one time I was tempted to show the financial skeleton in the closet
of wild-life protection, by inserting here a statement of the funds
available to be expended by all the New York organizations during the
campaign year of 1911-1912. But I cannot do it. The showing is too
painful, too humiliating. From it our enemies would derive too much
comfort.

Even in New York State, in view of the great interests at stake, the
showing is pitiful. But what shall we say of Massachusetts,
Pennsylvania, Connecticut, New Jersey, and a dozen other states where
the situation is much worse? In the winter of 1912 a cry for help came
to us from a neighboring state, where a terrific fight was being made by
the forces of destruction against all reform measures, and in behalf of
retrogression on spring shooting. The appeal said: "The situation in our
legislature is the worst that it has been in years. Our enemies are very
strong, well organized, and they fight us at every step. We have _no
funds_, and we are expected to make bricks without straw! Is there not
_something_ that you can do to help us?"

There was!

Only one week previously, a good friend (who declines to be named) gave
us _two thousand dollars_, of real money, for just such emergencies.

Within thirty-six hours an entirely new fighting force had been
organized and equipped for service. Within one week, those
reinforcements had made a profound impression on the defenses of the
enemy, and in the end the great fight was won. Of our small campaign
fund it took away over one thousand dollars; but the victory was worth
it.

With money enough,--a reasonable sum,--the birds of North America, and
some of the small-mammal species also, can be saved. The big game that
is hunted and killed out