INVESTIGATION OF THE FUR-SEAL INDUSTRY OF ALASKA. 227 



care of the natives in removing from the skins every vestige of fatty tissue for food. 

 There were thus only 92 skins which, while taken in conformity with law, were under 

 the limit of 5 pounds prescribed by the department, and of these between 70 and 75 

 per cent were taken for food purposes by the natives after the close of the regular 

 killing season. 



When the possibilities of error in judgment as to weight of pelts not yet removed 

 from the seals and of unavoidable accidents incident to the killing of thousands of 

 animals are considered, the wonder is that there are so few undersized animals killed. 

 The results indicate careful supervision by the agents and also accuracy on the part 

 of the clubbers. 



The law forbids the killing of seals less than 1 year old except when necessary to 

 secure food for the natives. This necessity did not arise in 1910, and, consequently, 

 no seals under 1 year old were killed in that year. 



Respectfully, Charles Nagel, Secretary. 



To heighten the meanness and deceit employed by Secretary 

 Nagel in the foregoing letter, he uses a retracted and self-confessed 

 slander uttered by " the governor of Alaska" (A. P. Swineford) . The 

 "governor" was haled before the House Committee on Merchant 

 Marine and Fisheries to answer for the libel above quoted by Nagel, 

 and then and there made a complete and full retraction of it. "I 

 have been misled and misinformed," he told the chairman. (See 

 H. Rep. 3883, 50th Cong., 2d sess, App. A, pp. XXV-XXVIII.) 



And furthermore, and in proof of the fact that Charles Nagel, 

 Secretary of Commerce and Labor, was specifically informed of the 

 illegal and improper killing being done on the Seal Islands of Alaska 

 under his authority and by his authority, the following additional 

 sworn proof of that guilty knowledge possessed by Mr. Nagel, is 

 offered, to wit: — 



Exhibit A. 



LETTER FROM THE COMMITTEE OP THE CAMP PIRE CLUB TO SECRETARY NAGEL. 



[Italics ours.] 



Bedford Park, 

 New York City, May 10, 1910. 

 Hon. Charles Nagel, 



Secretary of the Department of Commerce and Labor, 



Washington, D. C. 



Sir: I am sorry to be obliged to pursue the interests of the fur seal any further; but 

 a recent publication of news from Washington compels me to do so. 



Closely following the information that you have placed the seal islands in charge of 

 the Bureau of Fisheries, I am confronted by this alleged statement by Commissioner 

 Bowers, as published by Mr, Ashmun Brown, regular correspondent, in the Seattle 

 Post-Intelligencer, on Sunday, May 1: 



Commissioner Bowers said to-day: 



" Certainly there will be no wholesale killing; but some seals in the herd ought to be 

 killed from time to time, and that is all that is intended." 



To all those who know that the situation demands, for at leas't five years, a complete 

 cessation of all seal killing on the Pribilof Islands, coupled with the knowledge that 

 Commissioner Bowers and his advisers on the fur seal hold to the view that a certain 

 percentage of fur seals should be killed each year — "for the good of the herd" — the 

 publication quoted above is rather startling. I would be glad to know whether Com- 

 missioner Bowers has been correctly quoted, and also whether it really is his intention 

 to kill seals "from time to time." 



At the hearing before the Senate Committee on Conservation, on March 22, I 

 became painfully conscious of the fact that Mr. Lembkey, who is one of Commis- 

 sioner Bowers's chief advisers, earnestly desires that the killing of seals shall go on, 

 and that evidently it was through his advice that a very large appropriation was 

 asked for, for the purchase of a plant which would facilitate such operations. It 

 seemed to me perfectly evident that Mr. Lembkey is anxious to have the job of super- 

 intending the killing of the seals on the islands; and therefore I regard his presence 

 on the fur-seal board of the Fisheries Bureau, and as an adviser to Fish Commissioner 

 Bowers, as dangerous to the interests of the fur seal. 



