14 FUR SEALS OF ALASKA. 
Mr. Hitz. That is rather contrary to the experience of mankind— 
the scarcer you make a product ordinarily the more valuable it becomes. 
Mr. Fautxner. No; it is a question of fashion that controls all 
questions of this character. If it is the fashion then the article is in 
demand. 
Mr. Wiiwiams, of Mississippi. The more expensive a seal skin 
becomes the more it would be the fashion to wear it. ‘That is my 
experience. 
Mr. Faurtxner. I could not say. Fashion in this as in all other 
similar articles determines the demand. 
Mr. Swanson. I understand you insist that the killing of the male 
seals, which would be prohibited by this bill, instead of being a benetit 
to the herd would be a detriment? 
Mr. Favtenmr. Yes. 
Mr. Swanson. As I understand it this bill prohibits your company 
from killing male seals on the islands? 
Mr. Fautxner. We never have killed anything but males. 
Mr. Swanson. I understand; but your position is that the killing 
of male seals, under the provisions of the Secretary of the Treasury, 
is a benefit and not a detriment? ; 
Mr. Fautkner. Yes. : 
Mr. Tawney. What have you to say to this statement (5S. Rept. 
982, p. 23, 58th Cong., 2d sess.) of the committee that visited the 
Pribuof Islands: 
We are thus brought face to face with the fact that the killing of young seals on 
the islands since 1896 has been so close that no young male life has been permitted 
to. pass over the slaughter fields on to the breeding grounds. This occasions the 
rapid falling off in numbers—42 per cent in the last two years—of the breeding males 
from old age, their places not being filled by the accession of fresh male life. In 
order to prevent a total collapse of the birth rate in the next two or three years, it 
is imperative that all killing of all seal life on the islands be stopped next season. 
This will enable the choicest of the young males to grow up and reach the breeding 
grounds in the next four years and there take their places, which must be taken by 
them or the seal life will be extinguished. 
The committee therefore recommend that a suspension of all killing by the lessees of 
the seal islands be made at once and indefinitely, and that the Government of the 
United States shall attempt to reopen and conclude negotiations with the Govern- 
ment of Great Britain looking to a revision of existing rules and regulations which 
govern the taking of seals in the open waters of the North Pacific Ocean and Bering 
Sea, and to enter upin negotiations with the Governments of Russia and Japan to 
the end that all pelagic sealing may be stopped, and if, after a reasonable length of 
time, the Government fails to secure a proper revision and enforcement of such rules 
and to conclude such negotiations, then the Secretary of Commerce may, with the 
approval of the President, reduce the surplus female life of the herd on the Pribilof 
Islands to 10,000. 
With the herd so reduced in numbers pelagic sealing will not be profitable as an 
industry, and the herd will be permitted to increase an: multiply slowly at first, 
alterwards more rapidly, until again proper regulations may be adopted for killing. 
Mr. Fautxnger. That was a subcommittee of the Committee on 
Territories that visited Alaska. They were four hours on that island. 
Mr. Elliott has had the ear of that committee. You can see from the 
language used that either he has copied their language or else they 
have copied his language, for the language you have read is identical 
with the language he has used before the committee. 
Mr. Tawney. You have served in the Senate. Which is the rule 
in such cases—that the Senate committee adopts the language of some 
one who makes a statement, or that the language of the committee is 
adopted by the other man? 
