INVESTIGATION OF THE FUR-SEAL INDUSTRY OF ALASKA. 217 



"Mr. Elliott. Yes, sir; after they remove it for commercial purposes a certain 

 amount is left on . 



"Mr. Lembkey. I stated about 3 inches. 



"Mr. Elliott. Then that would leave a yearling skin to be 35 inches long. 



"Mr. Lembkey. No; if it was 39J inches long, it would leave it 36J inches. That 

 is, all the animal from the tip of the nose to the root of the tail would be 39£ inches 

 long. Three inches off that would leave 36J inches." 



On the 13th of April, 1912, while Special Agent Lembkey was 

 testifying, the following admission was made by him that he knew 

 that the London measurements of the skins taken by him on the 

 seal islands of Alaska, were the reliable and indisputable record of 

 their sizes, and that the weights of the same were not, to wit: 



Mr. Lembkey. You might make a yearling skin weigh 9 pounds by the adding of 

 blubber, yet when it got to London it would be only so long and so wide. 



Mr. Elliott. That is it. 



Mr. Lembkey. And of course it would develop in the classification when the skins 

 would be exposed for sale. 



(Hearing No. 9, p. 447, Apr. 13, 1912.) 



The Chairman. What is the question to this witness? 



Mr. Elliott. I asked if he does not know that the sizes are established by meas- 

 urements? 



The Chairman. Just answer that question. Do you know it? 



Mr. Lembkey. I have been so informed. 



Mr. Elliott. Do you doubt it? 



Mr. Lembkey. Oh, no. 



(Hearing No. 9, p. 441, Apr. 13, 1912; Ho. Com. Exp. Dept. Com. and Labor.) 



The fact that Charles Nagel, Secretary of Commerce and Labor, 

 had full prior knowledge of the falsifying of these skin weights into 

 the books of the department as the weights of 2-year-old male seals 

 when in truth they were not, is fully set forth in the following records 

 of his office, to wit, and also that he was confronted with the indis- 

 putable proof of the fraud by the lessees in giving their lease, viz; 



17 Grace Avenue, Lakewood, Ohio, 



December 19, 1906. 

 Hon. Oscar Straus, 



Secretary Department Commerce and Labor, Washington, D. C. 



Dear Sir: In the report of the Secretary of Commerce and Labor recently trans- 

 mitted by the President to Congress, a discussion of the condition of the fur-seal 

 herd of Alaska appears, and reference is made to the report of E. W. Sims, who made 

 an invesiiffarion into the status of this herd last summer. 



The Secretary repeats the words of Mr. Sims, and says that the fur-seal herd is 

 rapidly disappearing as the result of pelagic sealing; he also adds that in his judgment 

 the "destructive effect of this method of taking seals has not been fully realized" — 

 i. e., by anyone until this season. 



The "Secretary is right in saying that this herd is "rapidly disappearing," but is 

 entirely wrong in saying that the destructive effect of pelagic sealing has not been 

 fully realized; he does not seem to know that on the strength of my showing of the 

 full effect of pelagic sealing under existing law and regulations which I gave to the 

 Ways and Means Committee of the House December 21, 1894, that that committee and 

 the House took action February 22, 1895, to suppress and put the pelagic hunter out 

 of business; but this wise, sensible, and merciful action of the House was defeated 

 in the Senate by sworn agent? of the Government, who denied this danger and injury 

 incident to pelagic sealing, claiming that the rules of the Bering Sea tribunal were 

 sufficient to avert it. 



Again I brought this danger of pelagic sealing forward in 1898, after the Jordan- 

 Thompson agreement of November 16, 1897, had utterly denied it. Again my charges 

 of this real danger were officially denied by sworn agents of the United States Gov- 

 ernment in the service of the Treasury Department ?nd indorsed by the Secretary 

 of that department in a letter dated February 7, 1902, addressed to the chairman of 

 the Ways and Means Committee of the House. 



I answered this erroneous official statement of Secretary Shaw by making an exhibit 

 for the committee which declared that by the end of the season of 1907 the male 



