56 American Fisheries Society. 



appropriations for their work in turn has been, and is, de- 

 pendent upon the support, approval and enthusiasm of the 

 people's representatives to the Federal and State legisla- 

 tures. These representatives again are influenced and 

 stimulated to support, or to cease to support, fishery ap- 

 propriations in accordance with the trend of public senti- 

 ment. Public sentiment finally is entirely based on the 

 factors of necessity for the service, public v/elfare or de- 

 sirability, and the practical results obtained. "The proof 

 of the pudding is in the eating." In other w^ords, if the 

 actual results of fishery production are not sufficiently ade- 

 quate, or can be demonstrated that they will be within a 

 reasonable period of time, then there always is the natural 

 prospect of greatly reduced appropriations, or, worse still, 

 an absolute discontinuance of the entire service. It natur- 

 ally stands to reason that appropriations will not be con- 

 tinued unless tangible results are forthcoming even though 

 the necessity for and the objects of the service are of the 

 most laudable character. Public interest and continued 

 support of the service, therefore, hinges upon the public 

 knowledge of the tangible results of the service. 



This public knowledge of tangible fishery results at the 

 present date has been almost wholly restricted to the numer- 

 ous and voluminous reports, bulletins, and other publications 

 of the Federal and individual State Governments, including 

 their respective departments (which although free for the 

 asking, are rarely obtained or read by even the mass of the 

 intelligent people) ; to the knowledge of citizens in scat- 

 tered local communities where hatcheries are situated (even 

 this local knowledge is often not only inadequate but negli- 

 gible as far as the mass of the country's citizenry is con- 

 cerned) and also to a less extent to the irregular, and com- 

 paratively fev/ circulars issued by conservation commissions. 

 It is, therefore, safe to say that the average citizen knows 

 practically nothing about the methods and actual results 

 of the fishery production service and the continued support 

 to the service is consequently left to the various state and 

 Federal legislators who may or may not inject petty poli- 

 tics into the system or decrease appropriations. 



For some time, there has been a public institution that 

 has a decided interest in matters that you are concerned in, 

 — that is, all matters that are connected with the necessity 

 for, the production of, the distribution, the proper legisla- 

 tion for, and the conservation of fish life. It is the public 

 natural history museum. Conditions have radically changed 

 in the last ten years or so in the policies and exhibition meth- 

 ods of museums. Only those persons that visit them fre- 

 quently or keep directly in touch with their work can realize 



