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teruational law, or iu the judginciit of any court, a hint even that this 

 doctrine confers njion individuals or associations a right to enii)loy 

 methods for the taking of useful aiiiuinls found in the high seas which will 

 exterminate the race, when all know, or may easily know, that such 

 animals maybe readily taken at their breeding grounds, and not else- 

 where, by methods that regularly give their increase for man's ut^e 

 without at all imi)airiug or diminishing the stock. One method results 

 in the extermination of the race, whereby the object of its creation is 

 entirely defeated ; the other results in its preservation, whereby that 

 object is secured. It is inconceivable that the law of nations gives or 

 recognizes the right to employ the former. 



No civilized nation does or would permit, within its own territory, the 

 destruction or extermination of a race of useful animals by niethods at 

 once cruel and revolting. And yet it is said that such conduct, if 

 practiced on the high seas, tlio common highway of all peoples, is 

 protected by international law which rests, as jurists and courts agree, 

 primarily ui)on those principles of morality, justice, right, and humanity, 

 by which the conduct of individuals and states are, and ought to be, 

 guided. Tlius the law to which all civilized nations have assented 

 is made, by the contention in question, to cover and protect acts wliich 

 110 one oj those nations woidcl, for an instant, tolerate icithin its limits. 

 It is beyond all comprehension that an act which every civilized man 

 must condemn can be justified and sustained as having been done in 

 the exercise of a right given or secured by a law based upon the assent 

 of. nations. 



That I am correct in saying that no nation would permit, witliin its 

 territory, any methods for the taking of useful wild animals that would 

 result in the speedy exterminatioii of the race is shown by reference 

 to the legislative enactments and regulations in different countries for 

 the luotection of valuable animals, the basis of important industries, 

 against the reckless conduct of those who consult temporary gain for 

 themselves at the expense of the rights of the general public. 



But it is said: " Grant that the taking of these animals in the high 

 seas, by methods destructive of the race, is not a right under the law 

 of nations J grant that the employment of such methods is inhuman and 

 injurious to the best interests of mankind; grant that the fur seal 

 industry maintained at the Pribilof Islands depends absolutely upon 

 these animals not being killed while they are temporarily in the high 

 seas m search of food, or while they are on their way back to their 



