American Fisheries Society. 41 
and I do not know whether it is exactly right or not. I offer a 
suggestion to you to see what you think about it. The legal 
phase of this question has been sharply before us in Michigan, 
as many of you are aware. A little friction sprang up between 
the state game warden and the federal department in which the 
warden undertook to seize the federal men and their nets while 
they were out fishing for whitefish and lake trout from which 
to take spawn. An application was made to the Federal Court at 
Grand Rapids for an injunction restraining the game warden 
from proceeding further, the game warden claiming he had a 
right to do this under the state law. The United States District 
Court granted an injunction against the state game warden and 
the case is now befort the Court of Appeals. The Michigan Fish 
Commission realizing the serious trouble and the serious injury 
that was being done to Michigan by this friction, appealed to the 
parties to let that case wait for a while and see if we could not get 
legislation that would end the trouble. Last winter the legisla- 
ture of the state of Michigan very promptly remedied the diffi- 
culty by giving the United States the power to take fish without 
the superintendence or interference of the state authorities. Now 
when we first talked with different members of our legislature, 
we found some of them had a serious prejudice against giving 
federal control, yet after looking the situation all over they 
readily came into line. And the thought that occurs to me now 
is whether we should not broaden this resolution sufficiently to 
memorialize each state legislature in regard to it and ask them 
voluntarily to cede the control and not leave the question open 
to future litigation which is sure to arise in some state if this 
congressional action is taken. 
Now I looked into the legal question quite a bit while I was 
up in Michigan. My own judgment is that congress has this 
power. In the case of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts vs. 
Manchester, which arose some years ago, a portion of this very 
question was before that court. But the court dodged the ques- 
tion and it went off on some other point, but expressly reserved 
the question which is before us now for future consideration. It 
stated that inasmuch as congress had not passed any legislation 
it was clear that the state authorities were supreme, leaving it 
open for the future to see what would happen after congress had 
