29 



fall upon the President and Secretary again, or will 

 the committees which may be appointed for special 

 work do that work, conduct the correspondence, get 

 the results, and make the reports ? 



A member (facetiously, perhaps): They have 

 never been asked. 



Dr. Bean : " They have never been asked ? " There 

 it is in the transactions, and how many men have 

 acted on the instructions under which they were 

 appointed last year? I do not say it in a fault-finding- 

 spirit, but it is true, and we all know it is true ; and I 

 hope it will not be so hereafter. 



Mr. H. Whitaker: I would like to offer a substi- 

 tute for both of these resolutions. I do not think the 

 American Fisheries Society can do anything more 

 than act as an advisory body. Any laws that may be 

 drawn up, for general action b}^ the lake states or sea- 

 board states, must be agreed to by representatives of 

 this Society. Your President or Secretary cannot do 

 it. They can simply call a meeting, if it is your 

 desire. I am aware of the very thing Dr. Bean refers 

 to there, a resolution authorizing this thing to be done 

 last year. If it is the sense of the Society that this 

 thing should be done, the President will be glad to call 

 together the members of the different commissions and 

 of the fishermen of the lake states and seaboard states 

 to meet in some convenient hotel, where these things 

 can be done. The President and Secretary cannot 

 draw up a form of a law and sa\^ you must agree to 

 this. It would be arbitrary, and you can never make 

 an agreement of that kind ; but let the commission 

 come together and discuss this thing ; and if the Soci- 

 ety re-affirms what it did last year, and says that it is 

 the desire of the members that the President call a 

 meeting next fall to discuss this question, it will be 

 done. 



No two men, Secretary, President, Treasurer, or 



