10 FUR SEALS OF ALASKA. 
taken from it by these jealous naturalists that have been over my trail 
since, and they do not attempt to do it. They only differ with me on 
the land question, and they have come to judgment now in these 
figures and facts that are piled up against them. 
STATEMENT OF HON. CHARLES J. FAULKNER. 
(See also p. 19.) 
Mr. Fauutkner. Mr. Chairman and gentlemen of the committee, I 
appreciate very highly the courtesy which you have extended to me ~ 
as the representative of the North American Commercial Company, 
the lessees of the Government, to express the views which it has in 
reference to the approval by you of this joint resolution. I shall not 
follow Mr. Elliott im his attacks on the officials of the Government. I 
do not feel it is necessary for me to justify the action of the Secretary 
of the Treasury in his regulations and control of this subject. He is 
sufficiently known to the members of this committee to assure them 
that if he had deemed it proper or necessary to make any special 
recommendations as to this matter, by reason of the official facts in 
the possession of the Department, that he would not have hesitated to 
do so in his report. 
There is no reason that I can conceive of why he should not. Per- 
mit me to briefly recall some facts to your memory that you gentle- 
men are more familiar with than I can possibly be. I will ask you, 
therefore, to pardon me if my statement simply recalls to your recol- 
lection facts which it is important to consider in passing on this 
subject. 
There has been an unrest in Congress for a number of years in ref- 
erence to pelagic sealing. The Government has realized, from the 
beginning of the negotiations with Great Britain in 1891, that this 
great industry, bringing us, as it has, revenue every year to the Treas- | 
ury, isa question that demands its most serious consideration. I think 
there has been some unjust criticism as to the interest and actions of 
this Government and of the Government of Great Britain, when the 
facts are properly known and understood, as to the efforts made by 
the two Governments to reach a satisfactory conclusion in the preser- 
vation of the seal herd. For example, gentlemen, as you well know, 
in 1891 the two Governments entered into an agreement which ulti- 
mately brought into existence the Paris tribunal of arbitration. The 
award was made in 1893, and although the Government of the United 
States by that decision lost all the questions of law presented to that 
tribunal of arbitration involving the right of the Government to con- 
trol the seal herd in its migrations or its right to control the waters of 
Bering Sea (the arbitrators deciding unanimously against us), but 
there was a provision in the treaty which seemed to anticipate this 
decision, and under which the arbitrators were authorized to provide 
such regulations as they deemed proper with the view to preserving 
the seal herd. This was as much in the interest of England as of the 
United States. This Government receives a revenue by reason of the 
annual killing of the male seals, and England receives the entire reve- 
nue which results in the preparing the raw skins asa manufactured 
article, which profit perhaps is greater than that received by the 
United States, even under its first lease, and greater than it is receiv- 
