558. 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XL. No. 1033 



Notwithstanding this well-known record, ■whieli 

 demonstrated Elliott to be actuated by motives 

 which rendered him wholly unreliable as a coun- 

 selor in matters pertaining to this question, it is 

 nevertheless the fact that this committee in 1911 

 took up these old Elliott charges — now repeated 

 with renewed vehemence, but with no more basis 

 of fact — erected Elliott in its midst as prosecuting 

 witness and amicus curiae, accepted his mere un- 

 supported assertions of fraud and illegality as 

 proof thereof, endeavored by every means in its 

 power to substantiate them, and strove by severe 

 cross examination to nullify as far as possible the 

 effect of testimony of witnesses appearing in 

 their own defense to answer charges. The hear- 

 ings have covered thousands of pages of printed 

 testimony. 



The minority report recommends that the 

 Department of Justice investigate Elliott vcith 

 a view to bringing charges for the misuse of 

 congressmen's franks by sending out under 

 them abusive and defamatory matter to vs^it- 

 nesses before the committee and for perjury 

 under various heads, and that a joint com- 

 mittee of Congress be appointed to investigate 

 " all proceedings in connection vrith the in- 

 vestigation as conducted by this committee." 



It is interesting to note that of the original 

 committee who presented the majority report, 

 Congressman McDermott was compelled to 

 resign from Congress owing to his connection 

 with the disgraceful Mulhall disclosures, while 

 Eothermel, the chairman of the committee, 

 who was particularly vindictive in the prosecu- 

 tion, failed to secure renomination in his home 

 district after charges had been made against 

 him on the floor of the House for improper and 

 illegal use of funds allotted to his committee. 



The Rothermel committee sent Elliott as an 

 investigator to the seal islands during the 

 summer of 1913, a proceeding which the 

 minority report brands as "nothing but a 

 farce " on the grounds that " if the object of 

 the committee had been the substantiation of 

 the Elliott charges, it could not have adopted 

 a more certain means of accomplishing this 

 result than by sending Elliott himself." How- 

 ever, it seems that the committee overstepped 

 its authority in doing this and Congress has 

 refused to refund the expenses of the trip. 



There is a verse concerning a mountain, 

 which after great labor, brought forth a mouse. 

 The work of the congressional committee 

 headed by Rothermel has produced similar 

 valuable results. The fiasco has been a very 

 expensive one, however. It has cost the coun- 

 try many thousands of dollars, it has further 

 endangered the existence of the seal herd al- 

 ready depleted by many years of pelagic seal- 

 ing, it has caused the loss to the Bureau of 

 Fisheries of the services of the eminent 

 ichthyologist Dr. Barton W. Evermann, who 

 has since become director of the museum of 

 the California Academy of Sciences, and has 

 inflicted needless expense, humiliation and 

 irritation upon the scientists who formed the 

 advisory board. As far as the scientific stand- 

 ing of these men is concerned, it is not neces- 

 sary to remark that it will not suffer in the 

 least on account of this political attempt to 

 discredit them. 



It should be mentioned that the Bureau of 

 Fisheries has had no part whatever in these 

 attacks on the scientists mentioned and that 

 whatever changes have been made in the plan 

 of conducting the seal work have been those 

 prescribed by law. Whatever may have been 

 the attitude in the past, of the Department of 

 Commerce, under which the Bureau of Fish- 

 eries is placed, it is evidently desirous of learn- 

 ing the truth in regard to the work on the 

 Pribilofs, for Secretary Eedfield this past 

 Slimmer sent a special committee of three 

 zoologists to the islands to investigate and 

 report upon conditions there. At his request, 

 one of these was nominated by the Department 

 of Agriculture, one by the Smithsonian Insti- 

 tution and one by the National Academy of 

 Sciences. While none of these men has had 

 any previous acquaintance with work on the 

 islands, they will at least be able to give an 

 entirely unprejudiced report, even if they are 

 unable to make any comparison with past con- 

 ditions. The Dominion of Canada and Japan 

 have also sent investigators to the seal islands. 

 The report of this committee is awaited with 

 interest. Raymond 0. Osbuen 



Columbia University, 

 September 12, 1914 



