106 



imaginary Associated Press dispatches, and that the 

 American Net and Twine Company representative 

 indnced them to have nets made of that size, and that 

 they were not to blame. In the meeting at the Rus- 

 sell House, where the Governor was present, these men 

 openl}^ and frankly admitted that they did order these 

 nets of the size they were fishing with, and the repre- 

 sentative of another net and twine company said that 

 he had informed some of those identical men that they 

 were fishing with nets Avliose meshes were of an illegal 

 size. 



That is the sort of thing we have to run up against 

 in Michigan, and I sa}^ to 3^ou that Grand Haven is 

 not a single instance. They are doing it all over the 

 state, and the returns we get from our statistical agent 

 last year show that nearly two thirds of the fish caught 

 in Michigan waters are No. 2, which never get to a 

 spawning age. 



It will be remembered that a year ago I suggested 

 that authority be given to have a meeting called of the 

 representatives of the Lake States, and it ought to be 

 enlarged to take in all other states, because a question 

 of uniformity in one direction is just as important in 

 another. I think that meeting would have been called 

 last year, but there are several Lake States which have 

 biennial sessions of the Legislature, and which do not 

 meet until the first of January, 1897. If it is possible 

 to do so, a meeting of that kind will undoubtedly be 

 called somewhere on the Great Lake S3'stem for con- 

 sultation this fall, and see if we cannot come to some 

 agreement that will, at least on the Great Lakes, give 

 us a uniform law. We cannot admit the weakness of 

 the state in this thing, because the state must be able 

 to enforce its laws in one direction equally as well as 

 the other. You have got to meet invested capital 

 everv time, and it is a hard thing to fight. It is not 

 the disposition of a single fish commission to injure a 



