ARGUMENT OF ELIHU ROOT. 1961 



capacity, they go back again, and to and fro for bait. Even if bait 

 were unlimited down on the Massachusetts coast, the long voyage for 

 a sailing vessel to get it and back again would exhaust the time 

 1187 which they should spend in catching cod-fish. The bank sea- 

 son ends along in the autumn, and the vessels which are em- 

 ployed in it must either lie up, and the men employed in it sit idle, 

 until the next spring, or some other occupation must be found. This 

 winter herring fishery affords occupation for vessels and men during 

 the off-season of the bank fishery, and so enables that fishery to be 

 prosecuted profitably : and it has been of very material effect in mak- 

 ing posible the profitable prosecution of the bank fishery. 



There have been, in regard to these fishing rights in Newfoundland, 

 two lines of action on the part of the Newfoundland Government, 

 both constituting the expressions of a single policy: A line of legis- 

 lation relating to the sale of bait, and a line of legislation regarding 

 the taking of fish, both constituting but expressions of a single policy, 

 which is the policy stated by Sir Robert Bond the control of the bait 

 supply, compelling competitors to recognize Newfoundland as " the 

 mistress of the northern seas" in respect of fishing. 



I shall ask the Tribunal to bear with me while I trace those two 

 lines of action, begging the members of the Tribunal to keep in 

 mind what I have said, that no one act is to be treated by itself; 

 that neither line of action is to be taken by itself, but that the whole 

 grand policy of Newfoundland is to be considered, and the separate 

 acts are to be relegated to their proper positions under that policy. 



The first consideration in tracing this policy is one which has fre- 

 quently been referred to here in respect of the purchase of bait. Our 

 fishermen would rather buy bait in Newfoundland than -take it, and 

 there are several reasons for that. The first natural reason is that 

 they could better use their time catching cod-fish than in catching 

 bait; and it is more convenient and inexpensive, either by purchase 

 or employment, to have the Newfoundlanders provide them with the 

 suppl} r of bait, and to go on to the fishing fields, where they can spend 

 their time taking cod-fish. And, as Sir James Winter tells us, they 

 have always bought bait, There never was any practical limitation 

 upon the buying of bait until the Bait Act of 1887, the first Bait Act, 

 which merely prescribed a license, evincing a purpose to take into 

 the hands of the Government control of the business of selling and 

 buying bait. But the licenses were issued until 1905. when they were 

 cut off. During all that long course of years a population grew up 

 along the western and southern coast a sterile coast, as you will see 

 before long, selected for the locus of the grant to the United States 

 in 1818 because it was sterile and afforded no invitation to popula- 

 tion. A population grew up on the basis of the business of catching 

 and selling bait to French and to Americans. It was their means of 

 92909 S. Doc. 870, 61-3, vol 11 25 



