up the Wisconsin River and Fox River, because they are Wisconsin streams 

 from source to mouth. Along the water sheds of those rivers there are at 

 least 150 plants throwing their waste matter into them. If we go to those 

 companies and say that they must stop polluting the streams, that the fine 

 is from $2,500 to $5,000 they are going to clean house. There is no question 

 about it. There are canneries in our State which are pouring the most 

 putrid, putrescent nastiness that you can imagine into a stream with 

 residences across the street. Can we expect Congress to go In there and 

 do a job that is purely a State job? I am morally certain that our legisla- 

 ture will pass a law at the next session that will force those men to stop 

 polluting the streams. 



We want to cooperate with Mr. Hoover as to the Mississippi River, 

 which is an interstate water. It is perfectly proper that the Federal Gov- 

 ernment should take hold of that stream, but these other streams are ours, 

 and we are abundantly able to take care of them. We know of a lot of 

 rivers that are boundary rivers, and I am sure that the States bordering 

 on those rivers will help Mr. Hoover to clean them up. The people of our 

 State and the States all over the Union are sick and tired of the con- 

 ditions that have been imposed through pollution of streams of their re- 

 spective States. If a resolution is offered here endorsing Mr. Hoover's plan, 

 I shall vote for it, but I want also to vote for a resolution urging every 

 State to clean up its own streams. I think it is up to us to clean up our 

 respective States, and the way to do it is through stringent laws passed 

 by our legislatures. 



Mb. J. W. TiTCOMB, Albany, N. Y. : I want to refer to a phase of the 

 question which has not been brought out in discussion, namely, the study 

 of a basis or standard of pollution. In many places there is no question 

 as to what pollution is. In New York there is a law against emptying into 

 streams anything that kills fish but you have to prove it will kill fish, that 

 they cannot live in the water. The minnow test heretofore employed con- 

 sists of putting a catch of minnows into the alleged polluted water, and 

 another catch into what is called pure water. Today the Empire State has 

 an annual appropriation of $10,000 for the study of pollution problems. A 

 chemist is making a gas analysis and a biologist a study of the forage of 

 the streams and the foods of the fish. A new line of evidence in pollution 

 has been established in the State through this study of what produces the 

 food which feeds the fishes. Without the oxygen and the vegetation the 

 fish cannot live, and the vegetation in the waters is the best food for the 

 small fishes. The same kind of a study has to be made, to a certain extent, 

 along our coasts, where the salt waters become polluted. We have found 

 out the conditions under which the forage can be retained, this being the 

 basis for all fish life. 



I think the side of this question I am presenting is entirely new in this 

 country ; I do not know that it has been taken up before, but it appears to 

 me that the information thus obtained is for the benefit of every citizen 

 of the United States. The investigations in New York are being made in a 

 small way and it will take years to work them out properly ; they should be 

 made under the direction of the United States Government, so as to have a 

 basis or standard of pollution, in order to enforce the law. There is no 

 question of the fact of pollution, but when the manufacturer is required to 



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