Hinrichs, Jr. — Federal Control Over Fish 131 



The average person engaged in fishing or handling of fish 

 will consider any measure tending" to regulate the fishing as 

 inimical to his interest and any candidate for office inclined 

 to favor regulations will not receive the interested one's 

 support at the polls. It can readily be seen that in a com- 

 munity where fishing is one of the leading industries no one 

 favoring the discontinuance of the present destructive 

 methods of fishing will be elected to represent the district 

 in the legislature. 



While this same condition confronting a candidate for the 

 state legislature confronts the candidate for Congress, nev- 

 ertheless the part of the constituency interested in fishing is 

 proportionally much smaller in a congressional district than 

 in a legislative division, therefore a candidate for Congress 

 would not be so apt to be pledged to fight against measures 

 for the benefit of conservation as the candidate for the leg- 

 islature would be. Furthermore, the federal authorities are 

 inclined to be more strict in the enforcement of the federal 

 laws than the state authorities seem to be with the laws of 

 the state. 



Authorities on constitutional law contend that the fed- 

 eral government has a right to regulate the fishing in the 

 boundary w r aters. In pursuance of such right, a commission 

 was appointed a few years ago for the purpose of investi- 

 gating and studying the fishing from the Atlantic to the Pa- 

 cific in order to be able to draft and submit to Congress 

 rules and regulations, the adoption of which would inure to 

 the benefit of both producer and consumer, (1 ) by prevent- 

 ing the continued indiscriminate destruction of immature 

 fish, and (2) by limiting the number of nets to be fished at 

 one time by any boat to cause the production of a fresher 

 and more wholesome article of food. These rules and regu- 

 lations, drafted after a thorough and unbiased investigation 

 by the International Commission, comprised of eminent 

 authorities on fish and fish life, have not become laws. 

 Those selfishly interested got the ear of the "near statesmen" 

 at Washington, and through them caused the emasculation 



