CjS 



season, that he need look no further for the causes of 

 decay of the lake fisheries, "A candle cannot last long 

 burning at each end." The owner of the goose that 

 laid the golden egg, discovered too late that he had 

 killed his goose to no avail, and so will the inhabitants 

 of the great lake region, unless they shall insist upon 

 prompt and reasonable legislation to protect their 

 fisheries, will find all to late that the)' have calmly 

 stood by and permitted the fisherman to gratify his 

 greed, with a full knowledge that the result must be to 

 rob the waters of their treasure. 



The attention of the legislature of Michigan has been 

 repeatedly called to the facts above recited, and to the 

 necessity for legislation. They have been interviewed 

 privately and addressed publicly on the need of legisla- 

 tion, which should arrest the practices now fast destroy- 

 ing the fisheries, and while now and then they will admit 

 privately the force of the argument, protective legisla- 

 tion has so far failed. Legislators of fair intellieence 

 admit privately that these practices are wrong and 

 vicious, but in the same breath assure you that their 

 constituents insist that they wz/.s/ ;^o^ be interfered 

 with 271 their vocation, and as the average legislator has 

 his personal ambitions for the future, he weakly 

 succumbs to the intiuence of a handful of fishermen in 

 his district, and subordinates the public interest to his 

 person,al ambition. If the effort to protect the fisheries 

 is to be pursued further, and we insist it should be, it 

 must be fought out on other lines. 



As honest men, charged with the responsibilit)' of 

 looking after the public interest in the fisheries, we 

 must admit that it is idle to put into the waters, year 

 after year, fish which will be captured before they are 

 fit for market or have had a chance to spawn. Nothing 

 can be gained by such work, not even credit for suc- 

 cessful work, which is the only compensation most of 



