230 INVESTIGATION" OF THE FUR-SEAL INDUSTRY OF ALASKA. 



Now, what is it that you are really going to do? 



You propose to use the bloody club on the seals themselves forthwith; and you 

 propose to pay good Government money for a lot of old junk with which to carry on 

 the seal-slaughtering business. 



I tell you, Mr. Secretary, that the records of the last 15 years of fur-seal history are 

 black with official blunders, and some other things even more serious. The records are 

 all accessible for publication, if necessary. I had hoped that through President Taft's 

 wise, prompt, and very statesmanlike initiative a new era had dawned . I know that the 

 United States Senate intends that there shall be a change for the better, and I know 

 that in the Senate my views regarding the stoppage of seal killing just now are accepted. 

 If you doubt it, we can very easily have that question decided in the Senate Chamber. 

 I warn you that if you permit any seals to be killed on those islands during your term 

 of office it will be a breach of the fa'th that has been reposed in you by the Senate 

 Committee on the Conservation of National Resources. As to the consequences of 

 this course, it is not necessary for me to make any predictions just now. 

 Yours, very truly, 



W. T. Hornaday, 

 Chairman Committee on Game Protective Legislation and Preserves. 

 Approved by — 



Julius H. Seymour, 

 Council for the Camp Fire Club. 

 May 18, 1910. 



This vigorous, square, truth-telling letter, as above quoted, of Dr. 

 Hornaday, stung Secretary Nagel into the following answer, which at 

 once squarely puts him in the light of having full knowledge of what 

 the nature of the illegal killing he was about to perpetuate was, to wit: 



Exhibit D. 



letter from secretary nagel to the committee. 



Department op Commerce and Labor, 



Office of the Secretary, 



Washington, May 23, 1910. 



Dear Sir: I have read your letter of the 18th instant. It is apparent that further 

 correspondence will not aid the situation. You are entitled, however, to know the 

 position of the department, and I shall endeavor to state it as briefly as possible. 



That pelagic sealing ought to be stopped is admitted by everyone, and every effort 

 is being made to put a stop to this brutal and uneconomic practice. So far nothing 

 positive has been accomplished. You are of the opinion that in the meantime the 

 preservation of the seal herds would be furthered by a closed season upon the islands 

 for a certain number of years. As to this there is, to say the least, a difference of 

 opinion. Those who have been charged with the responsibility to investigate these 

 conditions advise that a cessation to the killing will only play into the hands of pelagic 

 sealers. They are of the opinion that the killing of a large proportion of male seals 

 is not only safe, but conduces to the preservation of the herd. It is proposed, for the 

 present, to proceed upon this theory, as Congress is understood to have contemplated 

 when the new law was enacted. The President and the State Department are fully 

 advised of what it is proposed to do. I think it right to inform you because you seem 

 to contemplate steps to have the policy of this department reversed. Inasmuch as 

 the season is approaching, any action of that kind ought to be taken promptly. 



In your letter of the 10th instant you said that "because of his personal interests 

 in the killing of fur seals for commercial purposes it is to the interests of the Govern- 

 ment that Mr. Walter I. Lembkey be dropped from the fur-seal board." More es- 

 pecially because of the use of that language, I asked you whether you were writing 

 in your own person or as representative of the club. You now assure me that you 

 represent the club, and I must call on you to specify your complaint against Mr. 

 Lembkey. If your objection is based merely upon a difference of opinion between you 

 and Mr. Lembkey as to the wisdom of killing seals, it will serve no purpose to discuss 

 the matter further with me. If, however, you mean to say that Mr. Lembkey is 

 disqualified as an official because of personal or financial interests in the killing of fur 

 seals for commercial purposes, then it is fair that he should be notified of that charge, 

 and that the department should be advised at once in order that it may investigate. 

 If you are prepared to specify so that this matter may be made the subject of an 



