154 BOARD OF AGllICULTUllE. [Pu)). Doc. 



appealed to the supreme court of the United States, and 

 asked for the protection that we supposed that license gave 

 us ; but the United States supreme court said that, in the 

 absence of any specific grant of that right to the government 

 of the United States, or somethins: to that effect, the ri«:ht 

 remained with the States to control that fishino;. The fisher- 

 men of the country have, I think, between thirty and forty 

 millions of dollars invested in their industry. Xow, if any 

 State can stop men from fishing, what is all that property' 

 worth? It is worth nothing. The great majority of our 

 fishermen are citizens of Massachusetts, and '}'et we are 

 dul)bed " foreisfners." Is that correct? Is that American 

 citizenship ? 



Mr. Russell. The gentleman need not ])e sensitive about 

 being called a "foreigner" in a legal sense. AVe speak of 

 " foreign insurance companies" and other corporations be- 

 cause they are located in other States. It is not a term of 

 reproach, it is merely a term of convenience. That has 

 nothing to do with this discussion. The trouble seems to be 

 that the gentleman is in conflict with the laws of the Com- 

 monwealth of Massachusetts. I would suii'oest that the 

 people of Massachusetts reform those laws, if they are not 

 what they should be ; but I do not want to have the argu- 

 ment made here that we are to q:o to the government of the 

 United States to overrule the Commonwealth of Massachu- 

 setts in her own waters. There is the point. The Connnon- 

 wealth of Massachusetts has certain rio:hts over her own ter- 

 ritory, and, if those rights have ever been in abeyance and 

 ever been taken possession of by the government of the 

 United States undisputed, under the law as it exists at the 

 present time the Commonwealth has resumed her rights and 

 her power. The ijentleman's conflict is with our leiiislation. 

 I have no o])jection, of course, to this matter being settled 

 by the Legislature of Massachusetts. The right way to get 

 a remedy for any evils that may exist is to go to the Legis- 

 lature. 



Mr. CusiiMAN. If you talk with the men who live on the 

 shores of our inland waters or who lixc on the shores of 

 Buzzard's Bay, you will find that those men have inherited 

 the idea that the fish in those waters l)elong to them, and 



