1922 AWARD OF THE FISHERY COMMISSION. 



Q. Ami with a full knowledge that you were liable to seizure by so 

 doing? A. I knew that they would take me, if possible. 



Q. And though you ran the risk of seizure, still you went to this 

 miserable wretched fishery, the proceeds of which were only sufficient 

 to pay for wear and tear? A. I tell you that we did a fairly good busi 

 iicss up to that time, eight years ago. 



Q. You swear that this was the case ? A. Yes. I did what I call a 

 fair business. 



Q. And you made money at it? A. I made insurance and deprecia- 

 tion, which just about kept us along the same as we were before. 



Q. And do you call that a good business ? A. It was a good business 

 when we could do nothing else. 



Q. You did not make a dollar of money but only paid for wear and 

 tear and the insurance ? A. We ran our risk and got the insurance and 

 interest money, of course. 



Q. And that is all ? A. We did not take out any insurance. We took 

 our own risk. 



Q. You put the premium in your pocket, and that was all you made? 

 A. Yes. 



Q. And do you call that a business which any man in his senses would 

 pursue? A. A man would pursue it when he could do nothing better. 



Q. And you could not do anything better? A. No. 



Q. Your own coasts did not offer aily inducement to you for fishing ? 

 A. That was before we began to seine. 



Q. And you then saw other vessels on your own coast fishing and 

 doing first rate? A. They did so with hooks on George's Banks. 



Q. But not along the coast ? A. They would not do much along the 

 coast except in the fall of the year. I guess that they fished principally 

 on George's Bank. 



Q. If I understand you aright; you say that these gulf fisheries are 

 of no earthly use to the Americans at all ? A. They are not now ; they 

 are not so to me, anyway. 



Q. That is, they are not if you have a better business to go into ? A. 

 I have my business and I ani a fisherman; and these fisheries are of no 

 good to me. 



Q. Do you believe that the gulf fishery is in fact of no practical value 

 whatever to the United States fishermen, speaking generally and not 

 individually ? A. I cannot speak for the United States. 1 can only 

 speak for myself. This fishery is of no earthly use to me individually 

 as a fisherman, because our coast fishery is ten times as good. 



Q. And that is the only answer you will give ? A. That is all. 1 

 could not speak for everybody in the^Uuited States. It is a pretty large 

 place. 



Q. And you cannot speak for the body of American fishermen either ! 

 A. I do not know that 1 could speak for the fishermen at large. 



Q. And do you think that all these men have gone into the bay to do 

 just the kind of business you did ; that is to say, simply to pay the in- 

 terest on expenditure, and to enable them, as underwriters on their own 

 trips, to pocket the premiums ? A. I do not believe that there is a ves- 

 sel which, during the last six years, has done that in the bay, or aver- 

 aged that. 



Q. Or averaged it ? A. No, they could not begin to do so. 



Q. And still you will persist in going into this wretched place year 

 after year ? This is a most extraordinary thing. A. I tell you that we 

 used to do well enough there until we went to fishing on our own shore 



