THE NORTHEAST COAST FISHERIES 453 



for building or shipping as New England, nor any compara- 

 tively so qualified for the breeding of seamen, principally 

 by reason of their cod and mackerel fisheries, and, in my 

 opinion, there is nothing more prejudicial, and in prospect 

 more dangerous, to any mother kingdom, than the increase 

 of shipping in her colonies, plantations, or provinces." Sir 

 Joshua Child's utterance proved prophetic. Thus were the 

 governments of England and of the United States stimulated 

 to nurture with greatest care the industry that furnished 

 their best naval reserves. 



The chief difficulty in the way of a permanent and satis- 

 factory settlement of this question has been to discover some 

 suitable return to the Canadians for the privileges asked by 

 American fishermen, to wit: the right (should the necessity 

 demand), to fish in Canadian territorial waters, and unmo- 

 lested to secure bait and supplies ashore. No compensation 

 yet devised for such privileges has remained mutually satis- 

 factory for more than a few years. The partial reduction of 

 tariff duties or the total omission to tax specified articles in 

 favor of Canadian trade has been tried with but indifferent 

 success. The American producers of articles whenever 

 brought thus into active competition with Canadian prod- 

 ucts, have invariably raised their voices in angry disap- 

 proval, chiefly upon the ground that they were being 

 sacrificed for the benefit of fishermen in whose success or 

 failure they had no interest whatever. Congress has always 

 been compelled sooner or later to abandon this scheme of 

 settlement as impracticable. The admission of Canadian 

 fish free of duty into United States ports has always been 

 regarded by Canada as the proper price for her fishery con- 

 cessions to the United States, but this seemingly rational 

 method of adjustment has been at all times most vigorously 

 opposed by our own fishermen. They insist that the bene- 

 fits to the nation of a free fishery are general, and that the 

 burdens of its maintenance should be equally so ; moreover, 

 they stoutly maintain that they cannot successfully compete 

 with their Canadian brethren in the United States markets 

 without the same tariff protection accorded to other indus- 



