FUR-SEAL INDUSTRY. 107 
Islands and then in the possession of the Government should be 
sold. This resolution did not apply, of course, to skins taken after 
February 24, 1915. To meet the condition which arose in respect to 
skins taken after that date in such manner as to permit the depart- 
ment to sell them most advantageously for the Government, the fol- 
lowing resolution passed both Houses of Congress and was approved 
June 22, 1916: 
JOINT RESOLUTION Authorizing the Secretary of Commerce to sell skins taken from fur seals killed 
on the Pribilof Islands for food purposes. 
Resolved by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in 
Congress assembled, That the Secretary of Commerce be, and he is hereby, authorized 
to sell all skins taken from seals killed on the Pribilof Islands for food purposes under 
section eleven of the act of August twenty-fourth, nineteen hundred and twelve, in 
such market at such times and in such manner as he may deem most advantageous, 
and the proceeds of such sale or sales shall be paid into the Treasury of the United 
States, 
DRESSING AND DYEING OF FUR-SEAL SKINS. 
The first sale of Government fur-seal and fox skins in this country 
was held at St. Louis, Mo., on December 16, 1913. Previously the 
skins shipped from the Pribilof Islands by the Government had been 
sold in London. 
In 1915 the Department of Commerce entered into a contract with 
Funsten Bros. & Co., of St. Louis, Mo., for the sale by auction of the 
Government take of fur-seal and fox skins for a term of years which con- 
templated that there should be established promptly in this country 
the best-known process of dressing and dyeing sealskins. The estab- 
lishment of an industry of this character in this country is not only 
desirable in itself but it will also place the market for sealskins here 
upon a firmer basis. The actual treatment of raw sealskins was 
begun at St. Louis in December, 1915, and results subsequently 
obtamed indicate beyond doubt that the finished product will be 
equal, if not superior, to any which has been produced elsewhere. 
