uents, and hold up to each one a mirror
that will reflect its shortcomings.

Naturally, we are most interested in our own contingent of the Army of
the Defense.

THE UNITED STATES GOVERNMENT.--To-day the feeling in Congress, toward
the conservation of wild life and forests is admirable. Both houses are
fully awake to the necessity of saving while there is yet something to
be saved. The people of the United States may be assured that the
national government is active and sympathetic in the prosecution of such
conservation measures as it might justly be expected to promote. For
example, during the past five years we have seen Congress take favorable
action on the following important causes, nearly every one of which cost
money:

The saving of the American bison, in four National ranges.

The creation of fifty-eight bird refuges.

The creation of five great game preserves.

The saving of the elk in Jackson Hole.

The protection of the fur seal.

The protection of the wild life of Alaska.

There are many active friends of wild life who confidently expect to see
this fine list gloriously rounded out by the passage in 1913 of an ideal
bill for the federal protection of all migratory birds. To name the
friends of wild life in Congress would require the printing of a list of
at least two hundred names, and a history of the rise and progress of
wild life conservation by the national government would fill a volume.
Such a volume would be highly desirable.

When the story of the national government's part in wild-life protection
is finally written, it will be found that while he was president,
THEODORE ROOSEVELT made a record in that field that is indeed enough to
make a reign illustrious. He aided every wild-life cause that lay within
the bounds of possibility, and he gave the vanishing birds and mammals
the benefit of every doubt. He helped to establish three national bison
herds, four national game preserves, fifty-three federal bird refuges,
and to enact the Alaska game laws of 1902 and 1907.

It was in 1904 that the national government elected to accept its share
of the white man's burden and enter actively into the practical business
of wild life protection. This special work, originally undertaken and
down to the present vigorously carried on by Dr. Theodore S. Palmer, has
considerably changed the working policy of the Biological Survey of the
Department of Agriculture, and greatly influenced game protection
t