THE GAME BREEDER 



105 



A GREAT ECONOMIC QUESTION. 



By Charles Hallock. 



[The following article by the late Charles Hallock, dean of American sportsmen, was 



sent to the editor some time ago. We wished to consult him about a proposition to have a 



bureau of game created by Congress to replace the present bureau which is largely given to 

 game laws. — Editor.] 



For fifteen years or more, say from 

 1870 to 1885, the solution of the great 

 economic question of an abundant fish 

 supply, involving with it the continuance 



Charles Hallock. 



and enjoyment of the popular sport of 

 angling, was pushed with ardor by the 

 United States Fishery Commission, an 

 organization created by an especial act 

 of Congress for the specific purpose re- 

 ferred to. The precise words of the leg- 

 islative text defined its duties as follows : 

 "To prosecute investigations * * .* 

 with the view of ascertaining whether 

 any and what diminution in number of 

 food fishes of the coast and the lakes of 

 the United States has taken place ; and 

 if so, to what causes the same is due ; and 

 also whether any and what protective, 

 prohibitory or precautionary measures 

 should be adopted in the premises, and 

 to report upon the same to Congress." 



Readers of The Game Breeder will 

 please note that this Fishery Commission 

 had plenary powers, and that it had only 

 to suggest in order to procure enactment. 

 Its chief, Prof. Spencer F. Baird, was 

 selected for his wisdom, his diplomatic 

 ability and his comprehensive knowledge 

 and grasp of the whole subject. The 

 office was created for the only known 

 person who was specially qualified for 

 such an office. So fully did his proceed- 

 ings justify the confidence of the govern- 

 ment that millions of dollars were placed 

 at his disposal and appropriations were 

 renewed f roin year to year on an increas 

 ingly bountiful scale. As to the empha- 

 sis of highest foreign testimony and ap- 

 proval, Prof. Huxley declared before 

 the 'Tnternational Fisheries Convention" 

 at London in 1883 that "no nation at 

 present comprehends the whole question 

 as thoroughly as the United States," and 

 our people had fullest confidence of the 

 ultimate outcome. 



In consideration of these eminent of- 

 ficial endorsements, it is worthy of re- 

 mark that no legislative action was ever 

 recommended by the Fisheries Commis- 

 .sioner. Functions of such vital eco- 

 nomic consequence were not allowed in 

 the hands of incompetents, or of merce- 

 nary interests. Baird's policy was to 

 carry out the idea that it is wiser and 

 better to expend a certain amount of the 

 public money in making fish so abundant 

 that they can be caught without restric- 

 tion and serve as cheap food for the 

 people at large, rather than to expend a 

 much larger sum in "protecting" the 

 fish, and in preventing the people from 

 catching the fish which still remain after 

 a generation of improvidence. 



This I understand to be the conserva- 

 tive policy now of The Game Breeder, 

 iiof only as to fish but more emphatically 



