Vermin

The E. I. duPont de Nemours & Co., Inc., powder-makers, offered $2,500 in merchandise prizes to the individual or club which, at the end of a three months' season, has killed the most crows or other birds or animals termed "vermin" in the prospectus of their competition. To prove the verminosity of the crow, an expedition of the duPont company went to the islands off the Virginia coast, habitat of the "fish crow"--peculiarly vicious. Many notable men have sprung, indignant, to the crow's defense. To his people of the State of Maine, Governor Percival Proctor Baxter made proclamation as follows: It would seem that a great corporation like the one that controls the powder industry in America, with millions of assets, would find other ways of increasing its profits instead of by inciting the men and boys of this country to kill one of the farmers' friends, the crow.

I am indignant that such a prize has been offered, and hope that the people of Maine will not participate in the contest. The statement is made that 7,000 people, including women and children, are soon to begin the bird destruction.

Evidently the market for powder has fallen off, due to the fact that there is no active warfare going on in the world on a large scale, and so the poor crows must be used as an outlet for an unsalable product. Dr. Edward W. Nelson, chief of the U. S. Bureau of Biological Survey, not only refused to endorse the crow-killing, but denounced it as being based upon "false information as to the nature of the crow." Massachusetts officials telegraphed the Deleware corporation protesting.

The duPont answers to these charges had not yet been filed.