AWARD OF THE FISHERY COMMISSION. 1681 



The statistics of John H. Pew & Sons, put in by Charles H. Pew, p. 

 496, for the last seven years, from 1870 to 1876, inclusive, show that the 

 total, for that time, of bay mackerel that their own vessels canght, 

 amounted to $77,995.22, and the shore mackerel for the same period was 

 271,33 J.54. Your honors will recollect the statistics put in. which it is 

 not necessary for us to transfer to our briefs, showing the exact state of 

 the market on the subject of the proportion of American fish caught on 

 the shores and the proportion canght in the bay. 



We have introduced a large number of witnesses from Gloucester, and 

 I think I take nothing to myself in saying that the greater part of them, 

 those who profess to be engaged in the trade or business at all, were men 

 of eminent respectability, and commended themselves to the respect of 

 the tribunal before which they testified. You were struck, no doubt, 

 with the carefulness of their book-keeping, and the philosophical system 

 which they devised, by means of which each man could ascertain 

 whether he was making or losing in different branches of his business ; 

 and as the skipper was often part owner, and usually many dealers 

 managed for other persons, it became their duty to ascertain what was 

 the gain or loss of each branch of their business. They brought forward 

 and laid before you their statistics. They surprised a good many, and 

 I know that the counsel on the other side manifested their surprise with 

 some directness; but, may it please the court, when the matter came to 

 be examined into, it assumed a different aspect. We made the counsel 

 on the other side this offer. We said to them, " There is time enough, 

 there are weeks, if you wish it, before you are obliged to put in your 

 rebuttal ; we will give you all the time you wish ; send anybody to 

 Gloucester you please, to examine the books of any merchants iu Glou- 

 cester engaged in the fishing business, and ascertain for yourselves the 

 state of the bay and shore fishing as it appears there." You say that 

 bay fishing is as profitable as the shore fishing ; that it has made a great 

 and wealthy city of Gloucester, and you assume that it is owing to their 

 having had, for the greater part of the time, a right to fish inshore. It 

 would seem to follow from this reasoning that, whenever we lost the 

 right to fish inshore, Gloucester must have receded in its importance, 

 and come up again with the renewal of the privilege of inshore fishing. 

 Nothing of that sort appears in the slightest degree. But they say 

 "The bay fishing must be of great importance, because of the prosperity 

 of Gloucester." Now, the people of Gloucester have no disposition to 

 deny their prosperity, but it is of a different kind from what has been 

 represented. Gloucester is a place altogether sui generic. I never saw 

 a place like it. I think very few of your honors failed to form an opinion 

 that it was a place well deserving of study and consideration. There is 

 not a rich man idle, apparently, in the town of Gloucester. 



The business of Gloucester cannot be carried on as mercantile busi- 

 ness often is, by men who invest their capital in the business and 

 leave it in the hands of other people to manage. It cannot be carried 

 on as much of the mercantile business of the world is carried on, in a 

 leisurely way, by those who have arrived at something like wealth 

 who visit their counting-rooms at 10 o'clock in the morning* and stay 

 a few hours, and then go away to the club, return to their counting-rooms 

 for a short time and then drive out in the enticing drives in the vicin- 

 ity, and their day's work is over. It cannot be carried on as my friends 

 in New Bedford used to carry on the whale fishery, where the gentlemen 

 were at their counting-rooms a few months in the year, and when the 

 off-season came they were at Washington, Saratoga, or wherever else 

 they saw fit to go, and yet they were prosperous. No ; the Gloucester 

 106 F 



