412 MISCELLANEOUS 



What are the existing circumstances that render it desirable and 

 expedient that foreign fishing vessels should be precluded the priv- 

 ileges contemplated by the foreign fishing vessels act of 1893? 



In the case of the French fishing vessels, the disadvantage at which 

 our fishermen are placed by reason of the bounty system which the 

 Government of France extends to her fishermen on our coasts, and 

 which enables them to undersell us in foreign markets. 



In the case of American fishermen, the almost prohibitive tax 

 which Congress continues to impose upon all our fishery products 

 that seek a market within the border of the United States, and the 

 pronounced hostility of those fishermen, whose interests have been 

 sustained by the supplies obtained from within our jurisdiction, to 

 that measure of reciprocity that the Administration of their country 

 has pronounced equitable and just. 



And the further circumstance that warrants the present policy of 

 the government in respect to all foreign fishing vessels is the shortage 

 of bait supplies that has confronted our own fishermen during the 

 past two years. 



That that shortage is but of a temporary character we have every 

 reason to believe. The herring, caplin, and squid, which comprise 

 our bait fishes, are most erratic in their habits. Scientists tell us so, 

 and experience has proved it. That those fish for some reason for- 

 sake long stretches of coast for a season, and, in some instances, for 

 years, and then return again to their former habitat we have had 

 demonstrated to us over and over again. But, while this is so, while 

 we know that the embarrassment in respect to the scarcity of bait on 

 certain sections of our coast is only temporary, it would be an act of 

 madness on our part to continue to supply to foreigners what we 

 require ourselves, unless we receive therefor a quid pro quo. 



The generous treatment that we have been extending to American 

 fishermen in this respect during the past fifteen years, while fully 

 appreciated and respected b^ the Administration of the United States, 

 is apparently not appreciated, and is certainly not respected, by the 

 fishermen of that country, who have so largely benefited by it; and 

 the best way to bring them to a realization of their position of depend- 

 ence upon our bait supplies is to withhold those supplies. We have 

 said to the fishermen of the United States, Provided our fishery 

 products are admitted into your markets upon the same footing as 

 your own, we will permit you to obtain from our supply all the bait 

 fishes you require for the conduct of your fisheries. The answer we 

 have received from those fishermen has been : " We don't thank you 

 for bait. We pay for it, and hundreds of your people are dependent 

 upon the dollars that we scatter in the purchase of that bait. They 

 go further, and by misrepresentation succeed in influencing the Sen- 

 ate to thwart the Administration of their country in consummating a 

 measure that, while dealing out justice to this country, would have 

 been mutally advantageous. 



Permit me to refer to proof of the correctness of my allegations. 



On the 4th of December, 1902, Senator Lodge presented to the 

 United States Senate certain papers and statistics in regard to 

 Gloucester and New England fisheries. These papers were referred 

 to the Committee on Foreign Delations to be printed, and I have been 

 favored with a copy of the said papers and statistics that I now have 

 before me. 



