HSTVESTIGATION OF THE FUR-SEAL INDUSTRY OF ALASKA. 245 



seal contractors, and has been steadily in office as such ever since, up 

 to August 1, 1913. We will later have to consider Lembkey again. 



But this selection and appointment of these Government agents by 

 the lessees is not all that those contractors have had to do in the 

 premises ; it was not enough; so they have had that particular "back- 

 room" officialism in the Treasury Department, which is the direct and 

 immediate annex to the Secretary's office; also hi their control and 

 hire, because it was necessary that the reports and work of these res- 

 ident seal-island agents be insured of a friendly interpretation and 

 official reception in the United States Treasury Department, so that 

 whenever any "impertinent" or pertinent questions were asked of the 

 Secretary as to the conduct of the lessees or the public business on 

 the islands, either by citizens or by Congress, no "official" blunder as 

 to a proper answer would be made; it has been managed as follows: 



A standing order of the department put this seal island business, 

 reports, etc., all hi the care of the "chief special agent in charge of 

 the islands"; the then "assistant agents" were all ordered to report 

 to him; he then used his discretion as to how much or how little of 

 these reports he was to use or forward to the department; then, when 

 this report of the chief special agent in charge of the seal islands was 

 sent to the Treasury Department it was received and filed in the 

 "office of the chief special supervising agent"; to this man the Sec- 

 retary of the Treasury looked for all the official information and 

 advice he had at his command; and from this man the Secretary 

 always received the draft of that part of his annual report to Congress 

 which related to the seal islands of Alaska. 



Therefore, the importance to the lessees of having such a man in 

 their control is easy to understand ; they got him. When Special Agent 

 Elliott came down from his investigation into the condition of affairs 

 on the islands, September 7, 1890, he found that a man named A. K 

 Tingle was this "chief supervising special agent." He was a cousin 

 of George R. Tingle, the superintendent of the lessees, and "general 

 manager" on the islands. Of course Elliott found him "deeply 

 interested," but, in favor of the public interests? Not at all. 



Then when Cleveland came in, a "Democrat" was put in Tingle's 

 place, and he (Tingle) went into the hire of the Sugar Trust. When 

 Cleveland went out, of course, a "Republican" had to come back 

 into this "office" of "chief supervising special agent," and one W. S. 

 Chance, a docile tool of the lessees, took that place. Elliott calls him 

 a "tool," with all of the proof of that fact in his hands. 



With this official machinery in their hands, and in complete control 

 of it, the lessees have actually written every annual report of the Sec- 

 retary of the Treasury to Congress on the condition of this fur-seal 

 herd, and their own conduct, since 1890, up to the hour that this 

 business went to the Department of Commerce and Labor, July 1, 

 1903. 



XL We pass now from the "divided" control of the lessees to the 

 single control of the U. S. Bureau of Fisheries. Do we find any 

 improvement? No, if anything, it became quite as bad; fully as 

 much so. 



The moment the renewal of the lease was defeated, March, 1910, 

 and the lessees put out of business, these scientists of the Bureau of 

 Fisheries resolved to have the sealskin business continued just the 



