AMERICAN riSIIKKIES SOCIETY. 43 



herring 01* lake ti'ont for the closed season in XovenilxM-, in any 

 place except the Detroit river. For instance, our hatcheries 

 at Put-in-Ba.y; how would he sujjply it with e^ss with a closed 

 season in November? 



Mr. W'hitaker: I am glad that })oint has been raised, be- 

 <aiise tliere is something in connection with it that I had in- 

 tended to say. >\'lien the (juestion is mooted as to the enlarge- 

 ment of whitefish work on the lake. I want to say that on the 

 facts we had reached that limit, practically before that law was 

 passed. We have attempted in Michigan waters to supple- 

 ment the work on the Detroit Kiver by taking spawn else- 

 where, but found we had practically reached the limit of what 

 we could get. Now, to answer the (piestion directly I will 

 say this. All good law means the greatest good to the great- 

 est number, I do not agree at all with the remarks that have 

 been made by my friend, that it is the business of the Pish 

 Commission to let these men, if they want to^ fish out these 

 waters, and that it is their interests more than any other that 

 wants to be subserved, and it is they who are suffering more 

 than anybody else. I cannot agree with him, because the real 

 question is: Can we, as Commissions, maintain under 

 proper regulations a great food supply that practically grows 

 in the water without care or cost to the public, as interested in 

 this question as anybody else. The fisherman is directly in- 

 terested in it because of the amount he gets from the industry, 

 but after all this is the great question, how can we preserve the 

 fisheries and stop the waste, and no commission lives up to its 

 possibilities which does not consider it. and all other questions 

 are incidental to this. Here is a great food product that should 

 be maintained, and the people of this country are more in- 

 terested in that (juestion than all fishermen on earth can be. It 

 is a question of maintaining a cheaj) food for the people. It is 

 a food that grows without the hand of man from the time it is 

 put in until it comes to maturity. I tell you this is a great 

 public question, and no set of men, whether it be a fish trust or 

 the fishermen, have any right to prejudice the interests of the 

 public in a source of food supply because of their own selfish- 

 ness. 



So far as this particular (piestion of Mr. Stranahan's is con- 

 cerned, I will say that it is within the province of every leg- 

 islature to grant just the thing you desire and just the "thing 

 we all desiiH^, the right to Commissions to fish for seed in 

 spawning time. We have such a law in Michigan today. It 

 was not because we could not fish in the closed season that 

 we stopped, but it was because the fishermen had ])ower and 

 strength enough to go to the Legislature and say they would 

 punish the Fish Commission for presuming to hamper them 



