110 Tzvcnty- sixth Annual Meeting 



concerned in some degree with the very thing that lias been done 

 here, Ijecanse you are interested in the results of fish planting and 

 wliat shall be done in the future. What we projiosed in the way 

 of legislation was in no way intended as a punishment to any- 

 body, and we have never proposed such a measure. We sav the 

 fish are for the public, and the fisherman is the medium through 

 which they should be taken. Nobody objects to the taking of 

 grown fish, but we say they are exercising a privilege and not 

 a right in fishing in the great lakes, and that that privilege should 

 be exercised with a due regard to the maintenance of the fisheries 

 ill the public interest. They belong to the people, and it is not 

 a question of fish food for this age alone, but it is a question that 

 affects the generations that follow us, and they will feel the influ- 

 ence of the present waste. Are you, gentlemen, prepared to say 

 that these great channels of navigation shall serve only the pur- 

 poses of floating ore from Escanaba, lumber from Saginaw, cop- 

 |)er from Keewenaw, and the prndncts of the prairies of the great 

 west? Are you willing to simjily make these lakes a channel of 

 navigation, or are you going to have these vast waters food 

 producing? Are you going to meekly consent that this may 

 be done without putting up your protest? You know you are en- 

 gaged in an undertaking that under piesent conditions can never 

 by an\- ])()ssibility succeed. That is the question that is 

 before us. T say it is an important question. I say no body of 

 men. I care not who they are, can ever deter me from doing what 

 I know is right. 



Now let me speak to you as to the attitude of these fishermen. 

 The state, in its wisdom, said we will attempt to stock these 

 waters, and what assistance have they received from the fiesher- 

 men.'' Tf Mm go on the spawning grounds for ova vou have to 

 ])a\- U)Y the ova you collect, and in addition to that somethijig 

 over. Tf you go to plant fish they will enjoy the privilege of tak- 

 ing, by pre-emption or some other way, you have got to pay from 

 five to thirty dollars to get those fish planted on the spawning 

 grounds. Now, what are you going to say to this? I speak to 

 you warmly, because it seems to me this is a matter of great 

 public concern. I say to you it is a cakamitv to destrov the 

 hatcheries for commercial fish such as "Michigan has, simply 

 because sordid men do not want to be interfered with; simply 

 because they say if we can only get rid of the Michigan Fish 

 Commission, we are at liberty to work" our pleasure on these 

 fisheries. That is the position, baldly stated, that we have to 



