15 



FISH WARDENS. 



The enforcenu'iit of the law by Fish Wardens has not been as sat- 

 isfactory in the main as we could have wished, although the Wardens 

 have not been altogether to blame. After spending time and money 

 to get cases ready for court, they have too frequently been unsuc- 

 cessful in the prosecution of such cases, and in some instances where 

 fines have been intlicted and collected, tliey have been witheld by the 

 officials having charge. As the payments of Wardens for their ser- 

 vices come solely from the fines collected, it can readily be seen how 

 unsatisfactory such a condition of affairs must prove. 



We have had a great deal of trouble in Chicago, and at times both 

 the Wardens and ourselves have been placed in a very peculiar posi- 

 tion, with positive evidence of violation of the law% and yet fully con- 

 vinced that no intent of such violation existed. For instance, a fish- 

 erman at some of the rivers or lakes makes a catch or purchases fish, 

 packs them in a box or barrel and ships them to the Chicago market. 

 Of this shipment some of the fish will probably be under the pre- 

 scribed size, and can. not lawfully be sold or offered for sale. The 

 commission merchant or wholesale dealer takes off the top of box or 

 barrel and exposes them for sale, the retail dealer buys them in bulk, 

 and removing them from their shipping case at his own jjlace of bus- 

 iness, openly offers them for sale, regardless of size. Now if a War- 

 den comes along and inspects the fish, he finds the small fish, and the 

 dealer is arrested and probably fined for offering undersized fish for 

 sale, when so far as knoweledge and intention is concerned he maybe 

 innocent. 



Your commissioners with their attorney have had several meetings 

 with the wholesale dealers of Chicago, and have canvassed the mat- 

 ter with them very thoroughly, and while a large proportion of them 

 seem to be perfectly willing, not only to obey the Jaw but to assist us 

 in enforcing it, there have been quite a number who have objected 

 and given us a great deal of trouble, by getting the retail dealers in- 

 to offering undersized fish for sale. 



This would seem easy to overcome by reaching the wholesale deal- 

 ers directl3% but unfortunately we have found that, in the majority of 

 cases, the retail dealer would rather fight a case against himself than 

 to risk the enmity of the wholesale dealers and the i^ossibility of cut- 

 ting off the supply by appearing against them. 



True, the class of wholesale dealers alluded to in such cases, is few 

 in numbers, but there are enough to give considerable trouble. As 

 before stated, the best known and responsible houses favor a vii^orous 

 enforcement of the law, and have assured the commissioners that they 

 will refuse to receive or pay for fish of unlawful size, and that they 

 will even have examination ofeacli package made, if necessary. The 

 argument has been used by some dealers that if they refused to t=^ke 

 and sell the small fish shipped them, they would lose shippers. Pos- 

 sibly this may be true to some extent but the main purpose of the 

 law is to destroy a market for fish under the lawful size, and thus 

 discourage the taking of such fish by the fishermen, for they certain- 



