196 INVESTIGATION OF THE FUR-SEAL INDUSTRY OF ALASKA. 



negotiations. I can not undertake to speak upon this phase of the question, but no 

 doubt that information can be readily obtained from the State Department. 



I am glad to say that the results of the first year's experience under the law enacted 

 la&t year are now at hand. Compared with the amounts received under the contract 

 system the showing is, I think, a very satisfactory one. At the same time I would 

 not be understood as saying that, a gain in the receipt of a few hundred thousand dollars 

 ought to be conclusive in determining the Government's policy. On the contrary, 

 I am of the opinion that the primary consideration to have in mind is one of conserva- 

 tion, namely, the preservation of the herds. If I could believe that the policy which 

 the Government now pursues in any sense endangers the herds I should advocate 

 a change. My recommendation with respect to the bill now pending is based upon 

 the opinion that the Government is now killing only such male seals as may be 

 regarded as surplus, and that the preservation of the herds is not in any degree affected 

 by this policy. 



If it is proposed to have a hearing upon this bill I respectfully ask that as much 

 notice as possible be given, so that I may make sure to have present those representa- 

 tives of the bureau and such members of the boards and commissions as are more 

 especially conversant with the question. 

 Very sincerely, yours, 



(Signed) Charles Nagel. 



Hon. Joseph M. Dixon, . 



United States Senate. 



(Hearing No. 14, pp. 914-918, July 25, 1912, H. Com. Exp. Dept. C. & L.) 



What did "those representatives of the bureau and such members 

 of the boards and commissions," when put under oath and duly 

 examined, say? 



Why, each and every one of them, save Lembkey, declared them- 

 selves totally ignorant of what the killing of a yearling seal meant; 

 they did not know what its size or its skin weight was; they did not 

 know what Bowers, Nagel, and Lembkey were doing. 



But Lembkey knew — and the truth was extorted from this most 

 unwilling and shifty and evasive witness under close, determined 

 cross-examination — Nagel was killing and had been killing yearling 

 seals, females and males alike, by thousands and tens of thousands 

 in 1909-10; yes, until checked by the law of August 24, 1912, from 

 further illegal and ruinous slaughter. 



Further proof of the guilty knowledge of the Bureau of Fisheries 

 and of the advisory board on fur-seal service of the real and proper 

 weights of sealskins when correctly removed from the bodies of 1, 

 2, 3, 4, 5, and 6 year old seals, is given in the following letter written 

 to the President of the United States by Dr. David Starr Jordan, 

 chairman of said board. 



Leland Stanford Junior University, 



Office of the President, 

 Stanford University, Cal., January 16, 1906. 

 Hon. Theodore Roosevelt, 



The White House, Washington, D. C. 

 Dear Sir: * * * If the memorandum referred to by Mr. Elliott as the Hitch- 

 cock rules of 1904 be enforced, as I suppose they have been, the matter will soon 

 regulate itself. * * * I note that Mr. Elliott states with reference to the "Hitch- 

 cock rules" that "the Department of Commerce and Labor engaged to order them" 

 at his instance. This may be true, but these rules were drawn up by myself in Mr. 

 Hitchcock's office in 1904. They seemed to me to represent a fair conservatism, and it 

 is gratifying to find that for once I was in agreement with Mr. Elliott in a matter in- 

 volving executive procedure. 



******* 



Very respectfully, yours, 



David Starr Jordan, 

 Former Commissioner in Charge Fur Seal Investigations. 



(Appendix A, p. 331, June 24, 1911, H. Com. Exp. Dept. C. & L.) 



