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State Legislature, than by recourse to a distant and 
overburdened Congress. The speedy and continuous 
vindication of the law against the repeated assaults by 
reckless and unprincipled fishermen, who are spurred on 
by the hope of great present profits, can far better be 
entrusted to numerous and easily accessible local tribu- 
nals than to distant and leisurely Federal courts. While 
uniformity of rules and regulations, which seems to many 
the highest and almost the sole desideratum, undoubtedly 
has its merits, it is manifest that a discriminating and 
readily adapted legislation, vigorously enforced by local 
officers, prompt to respond to public interests, will be 
more effective than general ironclad regulations made by 
a National Fish Commission and enforced by United 
States officials, practically irresponsible to local senti- 
ment. Practical experience has demonstrated that any- 
thing in the nature of police regulation is, in the long 
run, better left to the control of local authorities, admin- 
istered by local officers before local tribunals. Local 
self-government has long been recognized as the strong- 
est bulwark of popular sovereignty and the surest gua- 
rantee of our free institutions. 
In strange contrast to the persistent advocacy here of 
Federal control and supervision of the fisheries, is the 
course of our neighbors over the border. In Canada a 
determined effort is now being made to have the control 
of the tocal fisheries taken out of the hands of the 
Dominion and given over to the Provinces. 
In conclusion we commend the sentiment expressed 
and the course recommended in the resolutions adopted 
at the Hamilton meeting, quoted above, and which were 
formulated by the. Michigan Commission and_ spread 
upon its records soon after the adjournment of the last 
meeting of this Society, as a refutation on the part of the 
members of that commission of the action of this society 
in passing the resolution mentioned at the beginning of 
this article. 
