NATIONAL FISHERY CONGRESS. 153 



INDIANAPOLIS, IND., January 19, 1898. 

 May the National Fishery Congress be a success is the wish of your Indiana friends. 



ALBERT LIE HER. 



CHICAGO, ILL., January 18, 1898. 



Regret exceedingly can not attend Fishery Congress. Sincerely hope meeting will result in 

 greater protection to one of our greatest industries. 



H. H. KOHLSAAT. 



CHICAGO, ILL., January 19, 1898. 

 Regret extremely inability to attend. Noble industrial enterprise. 



THOMAS B. BRYAN. 



CHICAGO, ILL., January 19, 1898. 



Please express to Governor Bloxham and to the Fisheries Congress my regret at being unable to 

 accept his and their very kind invitation, and be good enough to tender my best wishes for the success 

 of the Congress; also present my regards to my old and valued friend, H. B. Plant, whose hospitality 

 I am sure you are all enjoying. 



STUYVESANT FISH. 



Letters were read from President McKinley, expressing the sincere hope that the 

 Congress would accomplish all that it was assembled for, and from United States Fish 

 Commissioner Brice, conveying his best wishes for the success of the meeting. 



In response to calls from the audience Mr. H. B. Plant spoke in part as follows: 



I am not a public speaker, and am rarely called upon to make any address, and especially to such 

 an intelligent set of people as I see before me now. It is a pleasure, however, to be here, in the 

 presence of gentlemen who are devoting their time for the benefit of mankind in an effort to promote 

 the propagation and preservation of that excellent food for man fish. And I thank you, sir, Governor 

 Bloxham, for calling the attention of the American people not only the American people, but the 

 people of the world generally to the fact that fish must be protected. It is not an < asy matter to 

 protect the fishes of this country, whether it be the fish that swims in the water or the fish that is 

 hidden away in the sands. 



You have done well, sir, to call this convention. You have done better, perhaps, than you 

 thought to bring it to the attention of the whole country, as well as to the countries represented here, 

 and to whom invitations have been sent by the Secretary of State of the United States. It is to be 

 regretted that so few foreign delegates have been able to attend. I know, sir, that it was the intention 

 of the Emperor of Japan, through his cabinet, to have sent a delegate here, and I am informed that 

 the occasion for not sending is, as you have announced, a change in the official cabinet of the Emperor. 

 I had the assurance of the prime minister that there was no subject that could be brought to the 

 attention of the Emperor and the cabinet that they felt a greater interest in than that of preserving 

 the fish industry. The Japanese are a great fish-eating people. Fish is their principal article of diet, 

 together with rice, and I am sure that country will regret that it was not able to be represented here. 



In response to calls Col. A. A. Wiley, of Montgomery, Ala., made a stirring 

 address. 



Mr. W. E. Meehan, of Pennsylvania, from the committee on credentials and per- 

 manent organization, announced the list of delegates and made the following report, 

 which was adopted : 



We recommend that Mr. A. N. Cheney, of New York, be selected as president of this Congress, 

 and that Dr. H. M. Smith, of Washington, D. C., be selected as secretary of this Congress. 



We further recommend that five vice-presidents be hereafter appointed by the president, to 

 preside over the deliberations of this Congress at his invitation. 



We further recommend that a committee on resolutions, consisting of one from each State, shall 

 be appointed by the president of this Congress on the nomination of such delegates as may be selected 

 respectively by the representatives from said States. 



