226 INVESTIGATION - OF THE FUR-SEAL INDUSTRY OF ALASKA. 



The last effort made by Charles Nagel as Secretary of Commerce 

 and Labor to shield these guilty lessees and his own subordinates 

 from exposure and punishment is found fully made in the following 

 letter to Hon. Wesley L. Jones, chairman Senate Committee on 

 Fisheries. Mr. Nagel deliberately uses a series of " loaded" skin 

 weights to deceive Senator Jones, thus : 



February 23, 1911. 

 Hon. Wesley L. Jones, 



United States Senate, Washington, D . C. 



Sir: I have the honor to acknowledge receipt of your letter of the 10th instant, 

 inclosing a communication to you from Henry W. Elliott relative to the sealskins 

 taken on the Pribilof Islands during the season of 1910. Mr. Elliott sends you a 

 memorandum giving certain data which he wishes you to believe were taken from 

 the Fur Trade Review for February, 1911, showing that 8,000 skins out of the 12,920 

 sold in London in December last were taken in violation of the regulations of the 

 department. 



Mr. Elliott's statements relative to fur seals and the fur-seal question have for many 

 years been characterized by reckless extravagance. As long ago as 1886 the governor 

 of Alaska in his official report to the President of the United States for that year (p. 

 22) said: 



"The fact is either Mr. Elliott entertains a mistaken idea of the duty he owes to his 

 employers (the Alaska Commercial Co., by whom I am unwilling to believe him 

 prompted in his persistent misrepresentations of Alaska and her people), or else he 

 must be governed by a malicious hatred of the people of this Territory, among whom 

 he is chiefly noted on account of the colossal impediment with which his veracity 

 seems to be afflicted. It is incomprehensible why the statements of this man under 

 the circumstances should be accepted by committees of Congress in matters pertaining 

 to a Territory he has not seen for a dozen years in preference to those of officers of the 

 Government who are on the ground and sworn to faithfully and conscientiously guard 

 the interests committed to their care." 



The memorandum of Mr. Elliott states: 



" On pages 61 and 62 of the New York Fur Trade Review for February 1911, * * * 

 is the following official classification of the sale made December 16 last of the fur- 

 seal skins taken as above cited, to wit: 



78 "smalls," or 3-year-olds 1\ to 8 lb. skins 



793 large pups, or "short" 3-year-olds and "long" 2-year-olds 6^ to 7 lb. skins 



3,775 "middling pups" or "short" 2-year-olds and "long" yearlings. 5% to 6 lb. skins 



6,195 "small pups" or yearlings 4| to 5 lb. skins 



1,809 "ex. sm. pups" or "short" yearlings 3§ to 4 lb. skins 



270 (not well classified). 



It is believed that you will be interested in learning that the foregoing figures, sub- 

 mitted by Elliott as being contained in the issue of the Fur Trade Review, do not 

 appear therein but have been deliberately supplied for the purpose of influencing you 

 and the members of your committee. The Fur Trade Review article gives a detailed 

 statement of the sales of sealskins in London, but differs from the Elliott quotation 

 thereof in the following particulars, as you may readily ascertain by consulting the 

 publication: (1) The official record of the sales of the various sizes of sealskins shows a 

 material difference from Elliott's figures, of which not a single one is correctly given; 

 (2) The official statement contains no reference whatever to the ages of the seals, and 

 all the ages inserted in Elliott's alleged quotation are fictitious; and (3) the printed 

 record makes no mention whatever of the weights of the skins, all the figures given by 

 Elliott being supplied by him for his own purposes. 



As you are doubtless aware, the trade designations of the sealskins ("smalls," "large 

 pups," "small pups," etc.) have no reference to the actual ages of the seals. Thus, 

 the term "small pups" include seals 2 years old whose skins weigh over 5 pounds and 

 less than 6 pounds, while the term "large pups" is applied to skins that weigh over 6 J 

 pounds. t 



For your information, there is appended hereto a statement received from Messrs. 

 Lampson & Co., of London, dated November 9, 1910, by which firm these skins were 

 sold, showing the number, weights, and classification as to size of the skins to which 

 Elliott refers. These weights correspond with those taken on the islands before 

 shipment. The smallest weights reported by Lampson are 4 pounds 10 ounces, of which 

 weight there were only 11 skins. The next smallest weight thus reported was 4 pounds 

 15 ounces, or within 1 ounce of the size prescribed by the departmental regulations, 

 and these embrace only 81 skins; this immaterial underweight was due to the excessive 



