706 



AMERICAN FORESTRY 



and urged all good citizens to write to 

 their representatives in the Senate and 

 the House to enact legislation which 

 would prevent its renewal, etc. 



Under the lead of Dr. W. T. Horna- 

 day (who came to Washington), the 

 Camp Fire Club so stirred the Senate 

 Committee on Conservation of National 

 Resources, that on February 26, 1910, it 

 notified Nagel that that lease must not 

 be renewed. It then pasesd a bill in the 

 Senate, March 20, 1910, which repealed 

 the leasing law and which it believed 

 paved the way to an immediate taking 

 up of the Hay-Elliott treaty plan of 

 March 7-17, 1905, and a close season of 

 at least five years to all commercial kill- 

 ing of seals on the Pribilof Islands. 



But Secretary Nagel did not respect 

 this understanding with the Senate 

 Committee, and resumed the killing of 

 seals in 1910, taking 12,920 that year, of 

 which 7,733 were so taken in violation 

 of his own rules and the law. This vio- 

 lation is now a matter of official record 

 and is indisputable. 



This stirred the Camp Fire Club to 

 renewed action and, on Jan. 9, 1911, 

 Senator Knute Nelson introduced a bill 

 (S. 9959) which peremptorily sus- 

 pended Nagel's work on the islands and 

 renewed the demand for a treaty to pre- 

 vent pelagic sealing. I sent to Senators 

 Nelson, Dillingham and Dixon the 

 proof of Canada's willingness to imme- 

 diately sign with the State Department 

 a fur seal treaty based on the Hay-El- 

 liott memorandum, and Senator Dixon 

 himself, on January 19, 1911, took this 

 proof to the Department of State. It 

 was not denied there, and the officials 

 concerned declared that this treaty 

 would be speedily taken up with Can- 

 ada; that it would be submitted to the 

 Senate "in a few days," etc. 



On February 2, 1911, having heard 

 that this treaty was not being taken up. 

 Senator Dixon called a meeting of his 

 Committee on Conservation of National 

 Resources for February 4, 1911, and 

 summoned Hornaday, Nagel and my- 

 self to appear and to be heard on the 

 Nelson bill (S. 9959), then pending be- 

 fore it. The Committee asembled and 

 ]\Iessrs. Hornaday, Nagel and his offi- 



cials and I appeared promptly at 10 a. 

 m., when a message from the Secretary 

 of State was given to the Committee, 

 asking that no action be taken on the bill 

 since the "fur seal treaty would be sent 

 to the Senate by next Wednesday," Feb. 

 8, etc., i. e., a treaty between Great Brit- 

 ain and the United States. A treaty 

 was submitted. It was referred to the 

 Senate Foreign Relations Committee, 

 and on Feb. 15, 1911, reported back to 

 the Senate zvithout avnendment, and 

 ratified zvithout a dissenting vote on that 

 same day. The terms of "mutual control 

 and concession" were kept secret until 

 Japan and Russia came into agreement 

 with them. This complete accord was 

 reached July 7, 1911, and the Senate 

 confirmed it July 24, 1911, two days 

 after it was received from the State 

 Department, zvithout a dissenting vote, 

 or a zvord spoken on the floor! 



This fur seal treaty now in efifect is 

 exactly as I drew its terms in 1905, and 

 as it was approved then by John Hay, 

 Sir Mortimer Durand, the British Am- 

 bassador, and the Alaskan Committee, 

 consisting of Senators Dillingham, Nel- 

 son and Burnham. This proof of its 

 origin was distinctly given to the Sen- 

 ate when the bill putting it into efifect 

 was passed by the Senate, August 15, 

 1912, by Senators Nelson and Dilling- 

 ham, and not disputed by a single soul 

 on that floor, but admittetd as such by 

 Senator Root. 



Why was this bill putting into efifect 

 that treaty of July 7, 1911, not passed 

 until August 15, 1912? Why was a bill 

 introduced December 21, 1911, not 

 acted upon until the late date just cited? 

 The reason is that its opponents delib- 

 erately drew a bill at the opening of the 

 session, in December last, which, if not 

 amended, zvonld have nullified the ex- 

 press terms of the treaty itself and de- 

 feated the attainment most desired by 

 file treaty makers — the restoration of 

 this pitiful remnant of the herd now 

 surviving, to its former fine form and 

 numbers ! 



It should be distinctly and firmly held 

 in mind that this killing "section 

 11" of that bill was drawn so that 

 the killing should be continued on 



