1644 AWARD OF THE FISHERY COMMISSION. 



the numerous Jersey houses, and it may be said that a new branch of industry would 

 much interfere with the cod-fishery, but so lucrative a trade as the herring and mack- 

 erel one would prove would enable higher wages to be given than are done for cod. 

 In fact, I believe that very small, if any, wages are given at all, the money due to the 

 tinhcrman for his summer labor being absorbed in food and clothing for himself and fam- 

 ilv n-itaire of boats and fishing-gear, almost always deeply in debt in the spring, or at 

 any rate sulhViently so to insure his labor for tho ensuing summer, and so more per- 

 w>ii8 would be induced to resort here the summer season. (Confidential Official Cor- 

 re8|x>ndence, PP- -1 and 5.) 



This is precisely the testimony of the Gaspe witnesses who were put 

 upon the stand. The great Jersey houses, which do represent the capi- 

 tal, enterprise, experience, and skill or' the country, do not touch the 

 mackerel fisheries. As they did a quarter of a century ago, so they do 

 to-day ; they abandon, neglect utterly what has been called the Califor- 

 nia of the coast, and make and maintain their fortunes by giving up 

 mackerel-fishing, and confining their attention exclusively to cod-fishing. 

 The other fact which strikes me is this: that whatever development 

 there has been and it has been chiefly, if not entirely, on Prince 

 Edward Island has come since 1854, and has grown larger and richer 

 under the Reciprocity Treaty. In 1852, the legislative council and as- 

 sembly of Prince Edward Island, in colonial parliament assembled, de- 

 clared that "the citizens of the United States have an advantage over 

 the subjects of Your Majesty on this island which prevents all sucess- 

 ful competition, as our own fish caught on our own shores by strangers 

 are carried into their ports by themselves, while we are excluded by 

 high protective tariff'." (Confidential Official Correspondence, page 5.) 

 From 1854, two years only after this declaration, there was a large 

 and prosperous development of the Prince Edward shore fishery. 

 This point has been insisted on and reiterated over and over again by 

 the British witnesses. And yet we are asked now to pay $15,000,000 

 for the twelve years' use of the very privileges given by that treaty un- 

 der which this prosperity was developed ; for, as far as the fishing arti- 

 cles and the fisheries are concerned, the provisions and privileges of the 

 Treaty of 1871 are almost identical with the treaty of 1854, the treaty 

 under which this fishery which now demands $15,000,000 compensation, 

 was, I may almost say, created. 



Passing by these topics, however, let me ask you to consider the dif- 

 ference in the character of the testimony upon which the two cases rest. 

 I do not mean to institute any comparison between the veracity of the 

 witnesses, or to imply that one has more than another deviated from 

 the truth. But I can best illustrate what I do mean by asking the 

 same question I did as to the herring-fishing. 



f you wished to invest in mackerel, would you trust the rambling 



tories of the most honest of skippers or the most industrious of boat- 



Ishera against the experience and the books of men like Proctor, Syl- 



vrtiuw Smith, Hall, Myrick, and Pew? Would you feel safe in buying 



they refused to buy ! Would you be disposed to hold when you 



saw them selling ! And here lies the whole difference between us. Ours 



timatc of the capitalist; theirs the estimate of the laborer. Let 



take another illustration. Suppose that, instead of estimating the 



value ol these fisheries, you were called on to estimate the rela- 



o of tho cotton crops of Georgia and Mississippi. Would it' 



r your minds to go into remote corners of these great States and 



r together S3 small tanners, planting on poor lands, without arti- 



nanare, without capital to hire labor, and draw your inference of 



prod ion from their experience, although every word of it were true? 



l you go to a few great planters and judge of the returns of cotton- 



