FISHERIES OF ALASKA IN 1910. 49 



discussing this question it may suffice to point out that equality of 

 conditions in practice soon ceases to exist, as is the case with the 

 present herring fishery in Alaska. An established industry with 

 plants and special machinery might continue a less profitable use 

 on account of its possession of facilities and the loss involved in 

 change or abandonment, and make thereby serious inroads upon 

 a supply which would otherwise actually be taken for food uses. It 

 would then seem the part of justice to prohibit the lower use after 

 such time or under such conditions as would secure the interdicted 

 industry from serious loss. 



The practice evidently has been, with the approval of public 

 sentiment concerned, to make legislative choice as between material 

 conflicting uses on the general grounds of higher and lower uses, as 

 already discussed. In the concrete instance of the Alaska herring 

 fishery, although some demand an immediate ban on its manufacture 

 into fertilizer and oil, it is not clear that a material conflict of interests 

 exists. As a matter of fact, owing to distance from market, high 

 freights, and the necessity for competing with the British Columbia 

 and Puget Sound packers, the Alaskan herring has not made its way 

 to any great extent as a food fish. As bait for the halibut fishery it is 

 in great demand, but when most needed the herring run is usually 

 small, and the salted herring, while used, is inferior as bait. Both 

 the food and bait uses combined consumed only about 20 per cent 

 of the take in 1910, a season ot abundance of herring. The rest 

 was manufactured into fertilizer and oil. Certainly an exigent 

 demand for herring for other purposes could have been met to a larger 

 extent from the large run of the current season. 



It is for the future rather than the present that it is desirable to 

 take action looking toward the end of the use of herring as the raw 

 material for fertilizer and oil. It is safe to assume that all the uses 

 of the herring are destined to increase, and therefore at some future 

 time a conflict of uses is probably inevitable. There is but one 

 establishment engaged in the fertilizer and oil industry in Alaska. 

 To prevent extensions of the business and provide for its termina- 

 tion without injury to existing interests it is only necessary to pro- 

 hibit it by legislation effective at a future date, allowing ample time 

 for the present concern to wind up its affairs. The Bureau has already 

 through the Department recommended to Congress an early tenta- 

 tive date, in part for the sake of eliciting the facts on which to base 

 a reasonable interim. Evidence has been taken on both sides of the 

 question and a common ground reached for a settlement of the 

 question which is believed to be just for all concerned. It is main- 

 tained and conceded that the continuance of the herring fertilizer 

 and oil industry is likely to become inconsistent with public policy 



