Kankakee Valley Post, Volume 2, Number 26, DeMotte, Jasper County, 19 January 1933 — Declares Bald Eagle Is Unjustly Given Bad Name [ARTICLE]

Declares Bald Eagle Is Unjustly Given Bad Name

Audubon Head Comes to Bat for National Emblem.

New York.--Condemning a recent widely circulated press release which in effect defamed the bald eagle, emblem of our national independence, Dr. T. Gilbert Pearson, president of the National Association of Audubon societies, stated: “It is unfortunate that recent publicity concerning the bald eagle has been calculated to detract from the character and reputation of this stately and picturesque bird which long has been the emblem of our country. While the story in question indulges in no deliberate misstatement of facts, yet the emphasis placed upon some of these is both unfair and misleading. The fact that Benjamin Franklin and John James Audubon questioned the wisdom of this choice of the bald eagle to be our country’s emblem should in no wise create any misgivings in the minds of patriotic, birdloving citizens. Even though we are reminded by them that the bald eagle's diet is not at all times admirable, and that he will rob the fish hawk on occasion, we would, on these same grounds be led to malign the character of many of our wild birds and mammals whose lives, for the most part, are ruled by the law of the jungle. “When a beautiful and accomplished actress captivates her audience with the grace and power of her perform-

ance, they are not curious to know what she has had for dinner: it may have been corned beef and cabbage! In like manner we admire the bald eagle when, in the beauty and majesty of his noble form and powerful flight, he soars aloft into the blue empyrean; or from his aerie on beetling crag or towering pine he surveys the world beneath, or sallies forth in quest of daily food. At such times he seems to rise above the menial things of earth and thus becomes a symbol of valor and of power which constitutes him no mean emblem of our country.”