GO ARGUMENT OF THE UNITED STATES. 



would be nearly valueless. A few hundreds, or thousands at the most, 

 would suffice to supply all the needs of the scanty population living 

 on the islands where they are found, or along the shores of the seas 

 through which they pass in their migrations. Indeed, the Pribilof 

 Islands would never have been inhabited, or even visited, by man 

 except for the purpose of capturing seals in order to supply the 

 demands of distant peoples. The great blessing to mankind at 

 large capable of being afforded by this animal would have been wholly 

 unrealized. The sole condition upon which its value depends, even 

 to those who pursue and capture it, is that they are able, by exchang- 

 ing it for the products of other and distant nations, to furnish them- 

 selves with many blessings which they greatly desire. 



This truth that nature intends her bounties for those who need 

 them, wherever they may dwell, may be illustrated and made more 

 clear by inquiring upon whom the loss would fall if the gift were taken 

 away. Take, for instance, the widely used and almost necessary article 

 of India rubber. It is produced in but few and narrowly-limited areas, 

 and we may easily suppose that by some failure of nature, or miscon- 

 duct of man, the production is arrested. A loss would, no doubt, be 

 felt by those who had been engaged in gathering it and exchanging it 

 for other commodities; and a still more extensive one would fall upon 

 the largely greater number whose labor was applied in manufacturing 

 it into the various forms in which it is used; but the loss to both these 

 classes would be but temporary. The cultivators could raise other 

 products, and the manufacturers could employ their industry in other 

 fields. The opportunities which nature offers for the employment of 

 labor are infinite and inexhaustible, and the only effect of a cessation 

 of one industry is to turn the labor devoted to it into other channels. 

 But the loss to the consumers of the article, the loss of those who need 

 that particular thing, would be absolute and irreparable. 



If these views are well founded it follows that, by the law of nature, 

 every nation, so far as it possesses the fruits of the earth in a measure 

 more than sufficient to satisfy its . own needs, is, in the truest sense, a 



them through all nations, that so each needing another's help bo might thereby lead 

 men to society; and to this <'n<t lie discovered unto them the art of merchandising, 

 that so whatsoever any nation produced might be communicated unto others." 

 * * * So Theseus speaks very pertinently — 



" What to one nation nature doth deny, 

 That she, from others, doth by sea supply." 



(Orotins; TV Jure Belli ac Pacis, Bookn, Chap, n, § 13.) See also Pbillimore, inter- 

 national Law, vol. i, p. 261, 2G2. 



