Osburn. — Science and Practice in Fisheries Work 81 



And so in the autumn of 1908 at a small settlement called Herring 

 Neck, in Notre Dame Bay, a Mr. William F. Coaker, a man of the people, 

 organized some nineteen fishermen into a union with a view to protec- 

 tion, among other things, against such a recurrence in future. The 

 Fishermen's Protective Union, of which the nineteen were the nucleus, 

 and of which Mr. Coaker has ever been the president, now numbers 

 some 20,000 fishermen directly, and indirectly some forty or fifty thou- 

 sand. The policy of the Union is cooperation and its motto Cuique suum 

 or "To each one his own." And to this end, halls and cooperative stores 

 have been established in various settlements throughout the island where 

 matters of local and general concern regarding economics, trade and 

 commerce, and politics are discussed by the fishermen, while a supreme 

 council is annually held at Port Union, Mr. Coaker's headquarters. 

 Thus an opportunity is given to the fishermen for free self-expression 

 and self-realization, which means in turn education. 



Mr. Coaker advocates a better cure for codfish, fair and honest 

 marketing by the capitalist, and a good price for a good article from 

 the consumer. Owing to the lack of competition during the war and the 

 great demand for foodstuffs, the price of cod became supernormal while 

 the cure became subnormal. By reason of Mr. Coaker's cooperative 

 stores, his borrowings from the fishermen, the concentration and mobili- 

 zation of thought in the various local halls and at the annual Supreme 

 Council, he has become a powerful factor in the trade, commerce, and 

 politics of Newfoundland. In the autumn of 1920 he joined forces with 

 R. Anderson Squires, a rising and able lawyer, in a political campaign 

 which defeated the late government. Mr. Coaker thus became a very 

 able lieutenant to Mr. Squires, who gave him a seat in his cabinet with 

 the portfolio of Minister of Marine and Fisheries, a post which gives 

 Mr. Coaker ample scope for his great energies to carry on his forward 

 policy. 



And so last year he visited the various countries of Europe to ascer- 

 tain the quantity, quality, and grades of cure desired by each country; 

 and on his return he introduced such legislation, on the assembling of 

 Parliament, as would seem to meet the situation all around. This legislation 

 has met with considerable opposition from certain local capitalists, the 

 opposition press, and buyers in Italy; but the Minister is making sub- 

 stantial, if slow progress, maintaining good prices, obtaining a good cure, 

 and keeping faith with the fishermen. What Mr. Coaker has accom- 

 plished in such a short time in his vast undertakings commercially, eco- 

 nomically, and politically, is so extraordinary that it had better be ex- 

 pressed in the language of Lord Morris, ex-Prime Minister and prede- 

 cessor of Mr. Squires, "Coaker is a mystery." 



Such is our practical man, and should there be anyone among the 

 present society who could help us in the securing of our scientific man, 

 we should feel exceedingly obliged, as great results would accrue thereby 

 — ^the scientific man with the practical — ^to Newfoundland. 



Mr. J. W. TiTCOMB, Albany, N. Y. : I hope that the scientists of the 



