The 1916 Migratory Bird Treaty has been a powerful piece of American conservation legislation for 100 years, but few know about the important role a children’s author played in its passage.
Journalist
and Good Housekeeping editor Thornton
W. Burgess never expected to be a children’s author. But after his first book, Old Mother West Wind, was published by
Little Brown in 1910, other titles followed and soon attracted a voracious audience.
Combining a strong writing background with his deep love of nature, Burgess poured
out children’s books and daily newspaper stories that catapulted him, Jimmy
Skunk, Reddy Fox, Grandfather Frog and dozens of other characters into the
hearts and homes of readers throughout the country. In less than 10 years Thornton
Burgess was credited with reaching “millions of children” with his predominate theme
of respect and stewardship for nature.
At that time,
one of the most influential men in American conservation was Dr. William
Hornaday, director of the New York Zoological Park, now the Bronx Zoo. Hornaday
was a fiery, often abrasive wildlife activist, author, and lobbyist widely
credited with saving the American buffalo.
Burgess
lived in Springfield, Massachusetts, but often traveled to New York on business.
One day he decided to visit Hornaday at the zoo in hopes of getting an
endorsement for his bird sanctuaries program (see future post). He was swiftly dismissed
by the busy administrator. When another opportunity arose, however, Burgess
wrote to Hornaday, describing his massive following of readers and nature club
members. (A newly-formed Burgess “Bedtime Stories” club sponsored by the Kansas City Star attracted 50,000
members in three weeks.)
Hornaday was
impressed. He sent Burgess a warm, complimentary letter with a copy of one of
his recent articles and an invitation to meet for lunch at the Zoological Park.
The writer’s gift in touching children and parents with his nature stories
translated into a resource that Hornaday prized: “Truly you have in your hands
tremendous power,” he told Burgess.
That year,
1916, Hornaday and others were working hard to achieve passage of the Migratory
Bird Treaty. When Thornton Burgess asked how he could help with the effort, the
conservationist had a ready answer:
“I think you
can score a good point by describing ‘the Gauntlet of the Guns’ that a wild
duck runs when spring shooting is in vogue, all the way from the Gulf to
Canada. In the days of spring shooting, I often wonder how a duck could get
through alive, and how any duck could find feed and get a little rest on the
journey without being killed. The picture of Mrs. Duck running the ‘Gauntlet of
the Guns’ rather appeals to my imagination.” (Letter, WH to TB, Feb. 23, 1916)
This suggestion
became Burgess’ blueprint. Between March and May 1916 he wrote daily newspaper columns
that depicted with pathetic, heart-wrenching detail the plight of migrating
birds. Hornaday wrote to Burgess, saying, “I noted with great pleasure your
treatment of Mrs. Quack and her troubles; and I rejoice when I reflect upon the
amount of good work your stories are accomplishing for the maintenance of the
migratory bird law and the treaty” (Nature’s
Ambassador, p. 152). The columns were published the next year as a
collection titled The Adventures of Poor
Mrs. Quack.
The
Migratory Bird Treaty passed on August 16, 1916. A few months later, Hornaday wrote
Burgess with jubilant thanks and described the effort to pass the treaty.
“…the result
[of your work] was overwhelmingly manifested two months ago when we had a
show-down in the United States Senate with the enemies of the migratory law.
They put up a great fight. They spent a lot of money and a lot of effort in
lobbying in Washington and in their public campaigns, but we smote them hip and
thigh and gave them the worst licking any bunch of enemies of wildlife ever
received. They were beaten in the Senate with their efforts to destroy the
migratory bird law appropriations by a vote of 52 to 8…”
“But the
crowning triumph was the Senate’s treatment of the international treaty with
Canada for the protection of all the migratory birds north of Mexico, clear to
the Arctic Ocean. The attitude of the Senate was of course clearly foreshadowed
in the vote to sustain the migratory bird law; but even with all that that we
were not prepared for the lightning stroke of progress which sent the treaty
triumphantly through the Senate in four days! (NA, p. 152)
How
important is the 100-year-old Migratory Bird Treaty? “Its success in saving
birds and providing a basis for future action is still impressive,” wrote environmental
historian Kurkpatrick Dorsey in The Dawn
of Conservation Diplomacy. “It is still in force and environmentalists and
governmental agencies still use the enabling legislation as the basis for
action… Internationally, conservationists used the MBT as the starting point
for the 1936 Migratory Bird Treaty with Mexico, the 1940 agreement with Latin
American states, a 1971 world convention on wetlands protection, and other
treaties with Japan and the USSR (DCD,
p. 241).
An
interesting facet of the Migratory Bird Treaty, Dorsey says, is that it was “a
child of sentiment,” not the product of international dissention: it arose from
a desire to save birds. When William Hornaday profusely thanked Thornton Burgess’ for his “valuable
service to the migratory birds in the production of this [Mrs. Quack] series
for your great multitude of readers,” there is no question that he was
acknowledging the role a master story teller played in influencing public
opinion to secure passage of a cornerstone of American conservation legislation.
* * * *
Author Christie Lowrance is giving a talk on naturalist, children's author, and radio pioneer Thornton Burgess at the Arnold Arboretum in Boston on May 18, 2016 at 7 p.m. (see link). Her biography Nature's Ambassador: The Legacy of Thornton W. Burgess will be available.
https://my.arboretum.harvard.edu/Info.aspx?DayPlanner=1503&DayPlannerDate=5/18/2016
* * * *
Author Christie Lowrance is giving a talk on naturalist, children's author, and radio pioneer Thornton Burgess at the Arnold Arboretum in Boston on May 18, 2016 at 7 p.m. (see link). Her biography Nature's Ambassador: The Legacy of Thornton W. Burgess will be available.
https://my.arboretum.harvard.edu/Info.aspx?DayPlanner=1503&DayPlannerDate=5/18/2016
TO OBTAIN A CALENDAR OF EVENTS AND LEARN
MORE ABOUT THE MIGRATORY BIRD TREATY, EMAIL MBTREATY100@FWS.GOV
