THE NORTHEAST COAST FISHERIES 



ONE of the most perplexing problems which the Govern- 

 ment of the United States has been called upon to meet, in con- 

 nection with its foreign relations, is the northeastern fishery 

 question. It formerly concerned the rights of American citi- 

 zens to catch fish within the territorial waters of Canada and 

 Newfoundland, and to use the shores of these provinces either 

 for the purpose of drying and curing their fares or to pro- 

 cure bait. The consideration of these rights necessarily 

 involved a host of incidental legal questions such as the 

 nature of territorial jurisdiction over the ocean within the 

 three-mile limit of shore, the doctrine of headlands and 

 the rights of vessels under local laws of commerce and navi- 

 gation. It involved also the interpretation of numerous 

 treaty stipulations, some of them more or less ambiguous ; 

 and these interpretations, furthermore, were too often dis- 

 torted by the. exigencies of party politics. Since the begin- 

 ning of our national existence this question has brought 

 almost constant care and vexation to both American and 

 English statesmen, and thus far it seems to have defied all 

 efforts at permanent and satisfactory adjustment. Brief 

 respites have been found in the awards of arbitration tribu- 

 nals, while new conventions and treaties have sufficed tem- 

 porarily to allay irritation ; but after all, the old quarrel of 

 the fishermen constantly recurs in some form no less aggra- 

 vating and threatening than before. 



The circumstances which have given this question eminent 

 importance have been of a nature to render its solution pecul- 

 iarly difficult. The great economic value of the fisheries, 

 both in the matter of providing employment for thousands 

 of men and in the matter of furnishing to the world a 



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