2282 AWARD OF THE FISHERY COMMISSION. 



By Mr. Trescot : 



Q. From your knowledge of the business of Gloucester, do you con- 

 sider that your business, on an average, has done as well as other busi- 

 nesses of the sort ? A. I think so. 



Q. You think it has done a little better,, don't you? A. I have not 

 failed yet, and a good many have. 



Q. What percentage of profit on your investment, including all ex- 

 penses, do you think you have made ? On the money invested, what 

 percentage or profit have the people of -Gloucester made ? A. We don't 

 make any profit. My vessels have not made more than their running 

 expenses for five or six years hardly any more. Take an average of 

 eight years, my vessels have not paid their expenses. 



Q. How is it to be explained that some of the witnesses on the other 

 side have stated here, that Gloucester, which was the great center of 

 the fishing business, and an enormously rich town, had made all its 

 wealth in the fishing business? A. We don't live in any such town as 

 you have described. 



Q. The town of Gloucester has improved, has it not? A. It has in- 

 creased in population. 



Q. What has led to the increase of wealth, if there has been such, in 

 the last fifteen or twenty years ? Is your fishing business the chief sup- 

 port of Gloucester? A. It is the largest business we do, but it is not 

 all that is done in Gloucester to increase its valuation. If I understand 

 what you are driving at, it is this: if we have an increase in the valua- 

 tion on the assessors' books, from what cause has that increase come ? 



Q. Yes ? A. I have not looked at the valuation books, but I think 

 we have an increased valuation, although I have no figures with me. 

 If I recollect aright, the valuation is about $9,000,000, with 17,000 in- 

 habitants ; I remember when the valuation on the.books was $4,000,000. 

 That was in the fifties. I think the increased valuation has arisen from 

 the increased assessed value of the same property we had in the fifties 

 a large portion of it from the increased value of the same property. 

 We have also an increased valuation from the products of our granite 

 business ; we employ 1,000 men in the granite quarries. They have been 

 developed. 1,000 men, with all the officers of the company, require 

 places to live in ; that makes property and adds to the valuation. The 

 development of the quarries, with all the machinery employed, has 

 added very largely to the valuation of Gloucester. We have had quite 

 a large number of quarries developed within the last ten years, which 

 have increased the assessed value. Gloucester has become a large sum- 

 mer resort, and has a great many summer visitors ; they have to have 

 houses, and that has increased the valuation very largely. About ten 

 good sized public houses have been built within the last five or six 

 years, and tilled with summer boarders. A very large number of fami- 

 lies from Cambridge, Lowell, Boston, and other places have come down 

 there and spent $3,000 to $5,000 on a house for the summer in the out- 

 skirts of Gloucester. That has also added to the valuation. We have 

 also improved our ship-rail waj-s; we have now six railways in use in 

 Gloucester, and we draw in business from Newburyport, Portland, and 

 other ports ; and vessels come here for repairs, which makes work for 

 mechanics. We have the best mechanics, best sail-makers, calkers, 

 and ship carpenters which can be found. We are drawing business to 

 Gloucester, while other places have decreased. We have nearly held our 

 own in the fishing business, and we have grown in the business we have 

 obtained from other sources. 



Q. So Gloucester does not, as has been said by the other side, repre- 



