122 



and migratory birds. He first become interested in the protection of mi- 

 gratory birds, then fishes, and then in the larger question of all animal 

 life in the streams which cannot receive adequate protection from indi- 

 vidual States, and from that he has taken up the question of pollution of 

 streams, and it has been shown by him and by others that the Federal 

 government always had power to control interstate and international 

 waters in all matters of navigation and fisheries and public health, be- 

 cause these three questions are larger than the interests of individual po- 

 litical units. The Federal government has exercised that power in the 

 matter of navigation, but it has never exercised it in matters of fisheries 

 or public health — the pollution of streams. But that it has that power and 

 can exercise it whenever it wishes to do so, and that it is perfectly con- 

 stitutional. I have no doubt in my mind, and I think the time is coming 

 soon when it will be done. In this day when the question of public health 

 is being agitated and considered so seriously, and when we understand 

 more fully than we ever did before the sources of disease epidemics, when 

 we realize more and more that the question is broader than the bound- 

 aries of a single State, it is clear that this question is a question which 

 must be handled by the Federal government and cannot be handled by 

 the individual States. 



In the treaty between the United States and Great Britain, as you 

 doubtless know, President Jordan was appointed commissioner represent- 

 ing the United States, and Prof. Edward E. Prince to represent Canada, 

 and these two commissioners have gone over the boundary line from 

 St. Johns to Vancouver, and at the end of last May they submitted their 

 report to the respective governments, a report embracing a set of rec- 

 ommendations — some sixty-six in number — which they hope will control 

 in a satisfactory way the fishing in international waters. That report will 

 be made public, doubtless, soon after Congress meets. It will go to Con- 

 gress and to Parliament, where the necessary provisions for enforcing 

 these regulations will be provided. As it now stands, Canada already has 

 the machinery which is needed to enforce the regulations on her side 

 of the line. She has a very efficient system of patrol, facilities and men 

 and means to enforce her fisheries regulations far better than they are 

 enforced on this side of the line, particularly in Puget Sound. There is 

 no such machinery on this side of the line for enforcing any set of fish- 

 eries regulations, because the matter has been and is now in the hands 



