82 The Fishery Qiicstion. 



useful unless it contains not only the promise 

 but the potency of a new treaty or an Inter- 

 national Commission. 



The importance of fairness in attempting 

 a solution becomes evident when it is remem- 

 bered that the relations of the rival interests 

 vary with every phase of development on the 

 North-east Coast ; with every new method of 

 catching fish ; with the fluctuations of markets 

 and the possibilities of speculation. The 

 fishermen are of the same race and have many 

 characteristics in common. A proportion of 

 them may be found under one flag or the 

 other, as the conditions favor the United 

 States or Canada. The unfriendliness of de- 

 priving a neighboring country of a natural 

 market for its products, and the right of a 

 nation to protect any or all of its industries, 

 provoke passionate discussion of purely eco- 

 nomic theories, wherein active politics often 

 denies facts and forces the interpretation of 

 treaties. The nature of the connection be- 

 tween England and her colony, w^ith its party 

 lines strongly defined on both sides of the 

 Atlantic, is germane to the subject, as well as 

 the necessity of reforming the present trian- 

 gular relations between the United States, 



