COUNTER-CASE OF GREAT BRITAIN. 241 



You had to find out everything to be done from the Company- 

 people If the Government Agents, I repeat, would do 



their conscious duty and not place themselves under obligation to 

 the Company, by accepting free transportation, &c., and swearing 

 afterwards that they paid their way, they would be much help to 

 the poor natives. 



He further says : 



Mr. Morgan and the men under him were somewhat spoiled. The Ibid., p. 213. 

 great trouble, Mr. Chairman, there is that the Government officers 

 have not been doing their duty, and they have spoiled the Company, 

 so much so, that they seem to think they not only own the seals, but 

 that they own the whole island. 



# # * # » 



282 The officers have not doue their duty in showing them [the q^;, ?jj;^ Sess^ 



natives] that the Government owns and governs the islands. i;e))oi't"ifo. 3883* 



p. 214. 



MR. W. PALMER ON THE CHARACTER OF THE GOVERN- 

 MENT AG 

 COMPANY. 



MENT AGENTS, AND THEIR RELATIONS TO THE 



Eespecting the inefficient control by the United States 

 Government, Mr. W. Palmer, of the Smithsonian Institu- 

 tion in Washington, speaks as follows in a jjaper read by 

 him before the Biological Society in Washington in 1891: 



But these drives from Polavina and Zapadnie, and the decrease in British pom 

 seal life, seems to have been carefully concealed from the Government !^Jrrp°l89 

 and otbers interested in the welfare of the seals; in fact, it has been 

 strongly put forth in the Reports of the Treasury Agents in charge 

 and elsewhere that the seals have actually greatly increased in num- 

 bers; but a comparison of the sketches alone in Mr. Elliott's "Mono- 

 graph of the Seal Islands," made in 1873-74 and 1876, with the actual 

 condition of affairs at present on the islands, will convince any one 

 that the opinions and Reports of political appointees are almost 

 worthless when dealing with the fate of the fnr-seal. 



How can it be otherwise? Their tenure of office exists only with 

 that of the Secretary of the Treasury; with every change of that 

 office new men who know nothing of seals are sent up, and these men 

 are entirely dependent on the Seal Company even for their passage 

 and board while there. All visitors to the islands are regarded aa 

 interlopers and meddlers. 



***** 



On the Russian side, it is a settled fact that the islands and seals 

 belong to the Russian Government, and that the Company taking the 

 skins has only certain restricted rights for that purpose; but on the 

 American side it seems to be a settled fact, at least in the minds of 

 the Company's peojile, that they own the seals and the islands, while 

 the duty of the Government is to collect the tax and appoint Agents 

 to subserve the interests of the Company only. The natives are 

 utterly dependent on the Seal Company for their support, and while 

 having a very vague idea that somehow the Government is a big thing, 

 they naturahy look to the Company for everything affecting their 



interests. 



***** 



RESULTING DAXGER TO SEAL INTERESTS. 



I have only touched lightly upon several questions of the sealing 

 industry, and have by no means exhausted the subject; but enough 

 has been said, I think, to show that if an industry which eighteen 

 months ago was expected to pay the Government a net profit of over 

 2,000 per cent., and is, besides, a great natural exhibit, the only one of 

 the kind America can produce, is to be saved, reform is necessary. 

 For twenty years the fur-seal has been the spoil of politics, and the 

 victim of the poacher. Inexperience on the one hand, and avarice ou 

 the other, have well-nigh ruined the induptry in American waters. 



B S, PT VIII 16 



