AMERICAN MANAGEMENT. 139 



States. It did not require the testimony of wit- Working by Gov- 

 ernment impracti- 



iiesses to convince the committee that the Gov- cable. 

 ernment itself could not successfully manage this 

 business."^ It is evident from the nature of the 

 industry that in case the sealing on the islands 

 should be managed directly by the Government 

 the opportunities for fraud and theft are very 

 great on the part of the agents, who under the 

 act of 1870 are prohibited from being in anyway 

 connected or interested in the industry ; as it is 

 now the lessees and agents are restraints upon 

 each other. Further, the business requires ex- 

 pert knowledge of seal habits, the market, and 

 the transactions pertaining to the sale of the 

 skins, necessitating the presence of agents, not 

 only on the islands, but in San Francisco and 

 London, who are thoroughly conversant with 

 these points. Immediate Government manage- 

 ment is at once seen to be impracticable imder 

 these circumstances and the present method 

 employed to be the only feasible one. 



The careful investigations made by the Gon-j^^Sof i'#o''^*^''' 

 gressional committees showed that the Alaska 

 Commercial Company had fulfilled the terms of 

 the lease in all respects according to the require- 



' Report No. 3883, Honse of Representcatives, Fiftietb Congress, 

 second session, p. xxiii. 



