48 AMERICAN FISHERIES SOCIETY. 



them — I would allow them to use canvas if they please to catch 

 them. How long would it be if you put in fish at one cent a 

 thousand in the waters — these small fish are comparatively 

 worthless — before they would increase the size of the mesh and 

 they would catch nothing but the big fish ? It would be only 

 four or five years before you would be willing to reduce the size 

 of the net. There are a few unscrupulous men, I am sorry to 

 say, belonging to the business I am connected with that would 

 use those small meshes, but they are few. If there is any way 

 you can reach them, you have my indorsement to do so. 

 Mr. BissELL. — They are all m Wisconsin. 



Mr. Booth. — Well, Wisconsin has not got so much territory 

 to fish in as the State of Michigan. We tried that on the Col- 

 umbia River. There was a law passed in the State of Oregan 

 licensing every boat at so much a piece, and every fisherman. 

 I think it was $io for a boat, and I5 for a fisherman, to the fisher- 

 men who fished with a boat. The law was passed and they 

 collected the license, and they agreed to spend the amount of 

 money thev collected to the propagation of salmon in that river, 

 and one of these foreign knights of labor or communists — or 

 other classical name, I don't know what they were — he discovered 

 in his great learning that it was unconstitutional. We were 

 getting along nicely and everybody was paying his little license, 

 and he thought it was unconstitutional. Well, he refused to pay 

 and we sued him and got a judgment against him and went up 

 to the last court, and it was declared unconstitutional. Now, 

 we may strike such a thing as that. I don't think the people 

 of the States of Illinois or Wisconsin or Michigan would resort 

 to such a course. I think they would be perfectly willing to 

 pay a license ; but I must say I think the cheapest way we can 

 reproduce our fish is by artificial propagation, and not with this 

 vast amount — I think you say it will take eight or ten thousand 

 a year — for policing, and it will be only a few years before you 

 accomplish all which you now seek to attain. 



Mr. Fairbank. — I want to say one word on the subject of the 

 general Government taking hold of the thing. I understand 

 Mr. Bissell to state the purport of the law as it exists, and also 



