EQUILIBRIUM MEANS COMMERCIAL RUIN. 159 



taking seals there, we may not expect that the more accessible haunts of the seals of 

 the North Pacific will be abandoned. 



THE EQUILIBRIUM COULD NOT BE MAINTAINED. 



In a theoretical sense there is a state of equilibrium of the herd which is com- 

 patible with a limited amount of pelagic sealing. The condition of this equilibrium 

 we have just discussed. We know it must be too low to leave any profit either in 

 pelagic sealing or in land sealing. Pelagic sealing, already unprofitable, must be 

 reduced to less than one-third its present extent before this state of equilibrium is 

 reached. No manner of protection could enforce the necessary limits to such pelagic 

 sealing and they are not self-adjustable. Furthermore, the herd under such conditions 

 would not be worth protecting on land. Any such protection must be maintained at 

 a loss to the United States. To remove it from the herd even for a short period of 

 time would leave the breeding haunts of the animals open to invasion, and the 

 destruction so vigorously begun at sea would be speedily completed on land. 



EQUILIBRIUM EXISTS ONLY FAR BELOW COMMERCIAL RUIN. 



Thus, while an equilibrium is possible, it must not be forgotten that it exists only 

 far below the point of commercial profit, and must prove unsatisfactory either to the 

 interests of the United States or to those of the pelagic sealer. 1 



'This equilibrium of the fur-seal her<l is a mere figure of speech, a juggling with words for 

 diplomatic purposes. In the conclusions of the recent conference of experts at Washington the 

 possibility of this theoretical equilibrium was acknowledged by both sides, because self-evident 

 whatever the conditions. But the fact was not considered in any way pertinent, as "equilibrium" in 

 this sense is only another name for commercial destruction. This admission that pelagic sealing 

 tends to cease as the herd dies out has however been used by the Canadian Government as a pretext 

 for declining t<> take immediate action in the fur-seal matter. (See Senate Doc. 40, Fifty-fifth 

 Congress, second session. 1897. p. 65.) 



This theory of equilibrium has received an attention wholly undeserved. In his report for 

 1896 Professor Thompson suggested that the equilibrium was then reached. He was forced in the 

 investigations of 1897 to admit that the herd had suffered a measurable decline since 1896. Not- 

 withstanding this fact we find the following statement in the concluding paragraph of his report 

 for 1897: "A remedy has already been automatically applied in the reduction of the pelagic fleet to 

 less than one-half its numbers of a year ago. The tendency is to equilibrium. The total pelagic 

 catch for this year is not likely to exceed 20,000. against 36,000 last year, and it may be that with a 

 catch so greatly diminished the point of equilibrium has at length been attained." 



It is certainly remarkable that Professor Thompson should speak of commercial destruction as a 

 "remedy'' for zoological destruction. This is another way of saying that ''death cures all ills;" 

 but that mode of cure does not satisfy the friends of the patient. It is, moreover, not true that the 

 point of equilibrium is reached, nor can it be reached until the catch at sea falls to less than 

 one-twentieth of the actual number of breeding females. Pelagic sealing must therefore decline to 

 one-third its present catch before the equilibrium is reached. 



The British Government is not unaware of these facts, but to give them due recognition in 

 action would interfere with the national policy in this matter. This is to permit the Canadian 

 sealers to get out of the fur-seal herd everything they can before the failure of the herd forces the 

 alleged industry wholly out of existence. In other words, one chief function of British Imperialism 

 is to serve as a "fence" for greedy colonies over whose actions she has no control. We find no more 

 fitting words to characterixe the attitude of Great Britain toward this fur-seal question than the 

 words of Professor Nicholson, of Edinburgh : "There can be no question, in the light of history, 

 that the political instinct of the English people or to adopt the popular language of the moment, the 

 original sin of the nation is to covet everything of its neighbors worth coveting, and it is not 

 content until the sin is complete." 



