INVESTIGATION OF THE PUE-SEAL INDUSTEY OF ALASKA. 221 



administration of the laws relating to the fur-seal fisheries of Alaska; that the agents 

 charged with the management of the seal fisheries of Alaska, together with such 

 other persons in the employ of the department as may hereafter be engaged in the 

 execution of the said laws, shall be subject to the immediate jurisdiction and control 

 of the Commissioner of Fisheries, and shall, in addition to the duties required of 

 them by law, perform such other duties as he may, with the approval of the Secre- 

 tary of Commerce and Labor, prescribe; that the appropriations for " Salaries, agents 

 at seal fisheries in Alaska," 190S and 1909, "Salaries and traveling expenses of agents 

 at seal fisheries in Alaska," 1908 and 1909. and "Supplies for native inhabitants, 

 Alaska," 1908 and 1909, shall be expended under the immediate direction of the 

 Commissioner of Fisheries, subject to the supervision of the Secretary; and that 

 all records, papers, files, printed documents and other property in the department 

 appertaining to the fur-seal fisheries of Alaska shall be transferred from their present 

 custody to the custody of the Bureau of Fisheries. 



Oscar S. Straus, Secretary. 



This relieved Oscar Straus from answering Elliott directly, and 

 threw it upon his successor, Charles Nagel, who appears on the scene 

 March 4, 1909. 



In the meantime Mr. Bowers, finding that the scent was growing 

 prett3 r strong out of this fraud in killing seals, persuaded Secretary 

 Straus to appoint a "high scientific advisory board" on fur-seal 

 service, so that troublesome questions of citizens like Elliott could 

 be "authoritatively" answered. Accordingly, on January 15, 1909, 

 he appointed "Dr. David Starr Jordan (chairman), Dr. Leonhard 

 Stejneger, Dr. C. Hart Merriam, Hon. Edwin W. Sims, Mr. Frederic 

 A. Lucas, and Mr. Charles H. Townsend" as "the advisory board, 

 fur-seal service." All the men named promptly accepted this appoint- 

 ment, and the board was formally commissioned February 6, 1909, 

 (See Appendix A, pp. 811-813, June 24, 1911, H. Com. Exp. Dept, 

 C. & L.) 



Mr. Elliott taking due notice of this shift, and waiting patiently 

 until the successor of Secretary Straus had been in office long enough 

 to get his hearings, addressed the Hon. Charles Nagel a letter covering 

 specifically the subject of fraud on the part of the lessees, as follows; 



Lakewood, Ohio, April 26, 1909. 

 Hon.-CHAS. R. Nagel, 



Secretary Commerce and Labor, Washington, D. C. 



Dear Sir: On the 8th of May, 1908, I addressed a letter to your immediate prede-* 

 cessor, inclosing a copy of a recent publication of facts over my own signature. In 

 this letter I urged him to shut down that work of the lessees on the seal islands of 

 Alaska, since it was being done in open and self-confessed violation of the regulations 

 of the Government. The published statements, which I took the trouble to arrange 

 and present in this responsible manner to him, demanded that action from him. But 

 he took none. And still more, he did not even acknowledge the receipt of my letter 

 aforesaid, which gave him this information, lacking on his part in the premises. 



However, I know that such silence is the common refuge of that particular official- 

 ism which is both unable and unwilling to dispute a statement of fact running counter 

 to its order. But I simply did my duty in the premises, as a good citizen should do. 



Now, it is both my duty and my pleasure to renew this request and address it to 

 you, and to inclose copies of the publications as sent to Mr. Straus last May. AlsOj 

 in this connection, I desire to add that on December, 7 1908, I again submitted addi* 

 tional figures and facts to Mr. Straus, in a letter of that date, which declared that the 

 lessees had again violated the specific terms of their contract during the season of 

 1908 by killing thousands of seals specifically prohibited from such killing by the 

 express order of the Hitchcock rules. To this letter and its indisputable serious 

 charge no acknowledgment has been made; no attempt to deny its statements has 

 been even hinted at. The reason for that silence is good. The truth of my charge 

 has been self-confessed by the lessees in London. 



I therefore, on the strength of those figures and facts which I have submitted to 

 the department, as above cited (May 18 and Dec. 7, 1908), respectfully renew 

 my request that this work of the lessees be wholly suspended, and at once. I do so 



