SEALSKIN INDUSTRY IN GREAT BRITAIN. 563 



Deposition of Arthur Hirschel, member of the firm of Ilirschel tfc Meyer, 

 furriers, London. 



general sealskin industry. 



State of New York, 



City and County of New YorT\, ss : 



Arthur Hirscliel, being duly sworn, says: I am 39 years of age, a 

 British subject, and a resident of Loudon, England, ^ 

 I am and for the past twenty years have been a mem- ^penence. 

 ber of the lirm of Hirschel »& Meyer, which transacts a general fur 

 business at London, with branch establishments at Paris, Leipzig, 

 Moscow, Shanghai, and elsewhere. About one-tenth part of the firm's 

 business consists in dealing in fur-seal skins, of which about 15,000 are 

 aunually bought by it. I am familiar with the character and extent 

 of the fur-seal industry in London, and I believe that the following 

 data relating to it are correct. 



A large capital, the amount of which, however, it 

 would be difficult to estimate, is in vested in the busi- employed *°*^ ^^"^^ 

 ness of selling raw fur-seal skins. Two firms own large 

 warehouses, and one of them expensive cold-storage vaults, portions 

 of which are used exclusively for the purpose of storing fur-seal skins. 



About seven firms are engaged in the dressing and dyeing of seal 

 skins, of which a very much larger amount is done in London than in 

 any other city in the world. In this branch of the fur-seal industry 

 there are invested about £80,000 in permanent plant, which would 

 become entirely useless if the seal-skin industry were to come to au 

 end. 



About 12,000 dressed and dyed Alaska fur-seal skins, which may be 

 valued at £5 a skin, are annually manufactured into 

 garments in London, and a very much larger proi)or- gaments hi'Loudou" 

 tion of Copper and Northwest coast skins are so 

 consumed. 



The seal-skin industry furnishes occupation to workingmen in Lon- 

 don as follows: To about GOO dressers and dyers; to Workmen em lo ed 

 about 1,400 cutters, nailers, sewers, and other laborers "^ menempoje . 

 engaged in manufacturing seal-skin articles. Many of those employed 

 as above are skilled laborers, who, in any other employment, would be 

 but ordinary laborers. Some of them have been engaged in this in- 

 dustry from childhood. In the foregoing no account 

 is taken of the inimerous clerks, salesmen, and porters, forJe"'^'^^ ^^^ ^^^^^ 

 of whom large numbers owe their means of support to 

 the trade in fur-seal skins. 



I believe that in round numbers the capital invested in this industry 

 in London amounts to £1,000,000, and that when a 

 full Alaska catch came to market the weekly amount .^fgi^SdinlSn^ 

 expended in wages in connection with all the catches 

 was about £2,500 or £3,000 a Aveek. 



The business of dealing in fur-seal skins has of late entered into a 

 speculative stage, which is doing it much injury. The p^.^^^^^. ^^^.g^tain 

 trade can no longer know with certainty Avhen and condition of tho mar. 

 in what quantities seal skins will be placed upon the ^''*" 

 market. To remedy this I am of the opinion that here- rroiiibition uoces- 

 aft(}r skins should be taken only from animals of the ^'^'^^' 



