Article from American Canary Magazine, July 1941 Issue

Note: An article appeared in then next monthly issue of this magazine to rebut this opinion.  That article is included below.

We talk of an American Singer, the wonderbird of the age, of a 100 per cent American bird.  Are not all birds born in this country by cross breeding of common stock American canaries?  We talk of Yorks and Norwich, Dutch frills and rollers.  We talk of progress of beauty of feather and excellence of song, we speak of things near and dear to the heart of a canary breeder.  Through fine words and pleasant dreamings we create a beautiful picture of something that does not exist.  We cover up sordid, vicious details that should be stamped out but are tolerated.  There are things that are not taken into consideration in establishing a breed of birds like the American singer.

Let us go back and take the Norwich or any of the others for example.  They were not bred over 10,000 square miles of territory or bred in million different places.  No, a thousand times no.  A compact little community whose pride and joy was to breed a bird that the neighboring community did not have, to compete against one another in a spirit of sportsmanship.  Once achieved they handed it down from one generation to the other.  They spent hundreds of years in the achievement.  Failure must have occurred time and time again, but from each hard knock rose a new determination and some place along the line they met with success.  But these were strong men who stood together through trial and tribulation and developed in their own laboratory what they knew was right, then the world beat a path to their door.

i say change your brainstorm from a mirage to a reality.  Determine your basic stock, check your birds not from the hundreds of decrepit birds I have seen entered in various shows, nut from high quality birds that will run true to form, from one generation to the next.  So, the die is cast and each bird is the same in size, texture and song.  In other words, create a laboratory at headquarters for the purpose of providing identical stock.  let's call a spade a spade.  All members paying a dollar a year know deep down in their minds that for less than one-third of a cent a day they are going to get just what they paid for.  Educate the public and get a better bird on the market, on what?  How?  Nothing from nothing equals nothing.  Surely not from the dollar per year!  Because that goes for wind, chin music, knick-knacks and stamps.  Advertising, printing, publicity, literature, marketing and laboratory or organizing work cost money and I mean real money.  Doe it right or not at all.

To be frank, there is not one outfit that can send a paid field instructor to the aid of a member in distress or a paid lecturer with complete paraphernalia for a tour of the various clubs in the U.S.A.  And in closing, no harm intended to the American Singer Club, where have you been grading, culling and sending to market the surplus birds raised each year by your members?  Where is your clearing house?  The answer is:  Sex undeterined 98¢.

"In Defense of the American Singer"

By L. Armitage

Article from American Canary Magazine, August 1941 Issue

When fanciers take time to write to their favorite magazine to express disapproval of certain objectives, it is but right to deduct that such persons have a personal interest in the matter.  Constructive criticism can be most helpful, for by such honest effort we actually gain knowledge for any project in the making.

I am now replying to Mr. Ross and others, not to cause their embarrassment nor to have their ill will, but to set certain remarks as wrong, unconnected, not quite understandable, but with it all, some progressive thought.  Some statements are weak but, as with most things done by man, some good advice was contained therein.  So with all friendliness to all conscientious objectors I must endeavor to protect the project which occupies the minds of steadily growing numbers of bird fanciers.

Yes, let us call all birds bred in America "American birds" but then too, we must call all birds bred in England "English birds" not however as they are known locally; that is Norwich, Yorkshire, Border, etc.  Any good type breeder can show visitors to our shows type classes which have unmistakable lines acquired thru crossing with other types (English) but we have for decades given such intermixtures the right to classification as named types.  Yes I know that we at times find it necessary, or should I say desireable, to bring n some other type for a purpose.

How many objectors know that the Norwich type was obtained, not from Norwich stock but through crossing of and with birds brought from foreign countries of the north.  Thru the intermixture of those refugee birds a new type was created.  From that intermixture of birds from distant lands, many square miles away, the type which we recognize now, was created.

the name Norwich (local) was accepted by those emigrants and the English home town fanciers for their dream bird, but the blood was not pure British.  It came from just common bird stock bred to common stock.  Thus by "fine words and pleasant dreaming" the working class of that day created a "beautiful picture of something that did not exist".  Today thru their pioneer efforts the city of Norwich has just reason for being proud of such an achievement.  As an additional thought for reflection fanciers should read up on how the Border Fancy (Wee Gem) was created, also as to what blood mixtures were required to construct the stately Yorkshire.

The Frills were not an exception.  Doe you know how that type came into being?  Surely some wide awake fanciers must have had time to devote to "pleasant dreaming" when they started breeding any of the types.  We are informed that the original canary was a small wild bird (brownish green).  Who dreamed of the possibilities for breeding with such material?

As for "sportsmanship", why decry the honest efforts of American Singer fanciers "to dream, use pleasant talk, and collect a paltry dollar" in their excellent intention to bring into being a new type of bird?

This type when set, and it generally takes five years to set a type, will conform to your suggestion of, changing what you designate as a "brainstorm" into a "reality" - BUT - not until, as you so truthfully state, "we determine our basic stock, etc."  Such basic stock foundation is the intention of our leaders in the organization.

"Nothing from nothing equals nothing" right, but in the American Singers, song from best rollers plus type from best type equals American Singers after the five year plan to set this new American cage bird of merit and will therefore be derived from accepted pure blood.

Today we have the counterpart of those "strong men" which you so pathetically bring back to life.  We also have strong men and women who will also "stand together through trial and tribulation to develop their own laboratory that which they know is right", and then will not have just "a path" but many paths which the fanciers in our bird world will beat to their doors.  You call our attention to their "trials and tribulations".  From where did such opposition come?  Possibly from the same class of fanciers as is now in opposition to American Singers.

We are not now able to send a paid instructor to our legions of followers but soon those dollars which you speak of will grow into sufficient strength so as to assist all worthy causes.

Sex undetermined 98¢ - where did you obtain such information?  Possibly in the near future I might "open wide" the doors which have shut out views covering the contact of well-known breeders of types and rollers and some of our bird importers.  I have not been completely blind to the business so enacted.

O.K., lets call a spade a spade, remembering that if all fanciers were so inclined and complied with your request then our fancy as well as other lines of endeavor would have to do some house cleaning too.  I have much sympathy with the "skeletons" in the fancy, every so often they are reawakened from their long sleep in the graveyard, dug up and then paraded, for the benefit of some of our companions; not as a help but rather as a detriment to some good cause.

Well, I have gone into this subject rather deeply but please Mr. Ross, do not blame me for backing up our efforts as against your remarks in the American Canary Magazine of July.  I have no axes to grind as I am not now an active breeder; however, I still believe in the pioneer and his cause if it has for its goal something better than is now produced of if it fills a void not now being filled.