180 American Fisheries Society 



away from the committee table, and there is no time to 

 place before them long communications. The House Com- 

 mittee on Fisheries and the Senate Committee do all in 

 their power, but the House Committee is also the Com- 

 mittee on Merchant Marine, which is a very exacting 

 subject, so that the question of fisheries gets the small 

 end of it. It remains to take up the subject with the 

 individual chairmen, but they cannot give their whole 

 thought, nor even connected thought, for a long time; 

 or to take it up with individual congressmen or senators 

 and interest them in the matter, but they also have other 

 things to do. If our cabinet ministers had the privilege 

 of a place upon the floor, without a vote, and could 

 present their views and answer questions, we should 

 overcome, at a singe stroke, much of the difficulty that 

 stands in the way. If I could go before Congress on 

 behalf of the Bureau of Fisheries, and say that such 

 things should or should not be done for such and such 

 reasons, the knot which ties our hands would be cut, 

 but oftentimes the effort to get the facts before the 

 people who have to deal with them is a very real diffi- 

 culty. 



"Now, coming to other matters of practical effect, the 

 Bureau of Fisheries has not the apparatus to do the work 

 which it ought to have. Any private concern equipped 

 as is the Bureau of Fisheries, would go out of business 

 in a very short time. Through the kindness of an all- 

 seeing Providence the building in which the Bureau is 

 housed continues to stand! It is a makeshift; a second- 

 hand outfit ; not complete for the purpose ; not suited for 

 the purpose ; and that it gets along so well is largely due 

 to the splendid spirit of the men who operate it. They 

 work under a serious handicap. 



"We ought to have an aquarium. We have only the 

 beginnings of one. Some day we may get an aquarium 

 commensurate with the dignity, power and usefulness to 

 the United States of this great service and thus afford 

 the opportunity for study which such an aquarium would 

 make possible. 



"Do you realize that we do not get money enough to 



