248 INVESTIGATION OF THE FUR-SEAL INDUSTRY OF ALASKA. 



5 small. 

 21 large pups. 

 48 middling pups. 

 94 small pups. 

 18 ex. small pups. 

 2 faulty. 



188 average based on December, 1909, prices 120/. 



12,920 



Subject to recount. 



(Hearing No. 6, p. 291, July 27, 1911, Ho. Com. Exp. Dept. Com. 

 and Labor.) 



Mr. Patton. You mean it is a report that is sworn to by the people who do the sell- 

 ing in London? 



Mr. Bowers. No, sir; it is the classification of the London merchants who sell the 

 skins for the United States Government. 



Mr. Patton. And they pay on that weight? 



Mr. Bowers. They sell on those weights. Their classification is made on those 

 weights. 



Mr. Elliott. Right there I want to interpose the statement that they do not weigh 

 those skins to classify them. They measure them. (Hearing No. 9, pp. 374-375.) 



Mr. Lembkey. These skins which were sent to London, during the years 1909 and 

 1910, were weighed by the factors after their arrival in London and the weights found 

 to correspond with those taken on the island. As this factor, Lampson & Co., is essen- 

 tially a disinterested person, being concerned not the least with the question of weights 

 or regulations, but wholly with the sale of the skins and tne payments therefor, their 

 verification of these weights may be taken as conclusive of their accuracy. 



So far, therefore, as concerns compliance with the regulations and the law in the kill- 

 ing of male seals, no malfeasance can be proven, because not only the records of the de- 

 partment but the weights of the same skins in London, taken by an independent and 

 responsible body of experts, prove that the limits of weight laid down by the instruc- 

 tions of the department have been complied with as closely as it is possible for human 

 agency to do so. The weights of skins taken on the islands show this, and further- 

 more these weights have been verified in London by an independent and responsible 

 body of men. 



Here is the man who has been placed in full charge of this public 

 business, the commissioner himself, under oath, actually swearing to 

 a deliberate falsehood of his own invention. He swears that these 

 skins, which have been taken undo]- his orders, are sold in London 

 by weight. What was this man's object in so testifying ? x 



To conceal the fraud of taking yearling sealskins on the islands 

 which weigh only -H pounds each, clean skinned, as the work was 

 done by different men and at different times, this weight was raised 

 by blubber to 5, 5|, 6, 6^, 7, and 8 pounds. 



The committee has under its control a series of 400 sealskins taken 

 in 1913 just as these skius were taken and sold in 1910. Their 



1 That Mr. Bowers had full knowledge of the fact that he was deceiving the committee is given by his own 

 associate and subordinate, most unwillingly, to the committee, and goes completely to declare the proof 

 of Mr. Bowers's possession of guilty knowledge and use of it to deceive. Chief Special Agent Lembkey 

 swears: 



Mr. Young. Let me before you pass from that ask this: You weigh these green skins on the islands and 

 then measure them in the markets in London. What is your purpose in weighing, and what is their pur- 

 pose in measuring. 



Mr. Lembkey. Our purpose in weighing the skins on the island is to get them within the weights pre- 

 scribed by the regulations. Our regulations prescribe maximum and minimum weights. Those weights 

 are 5 poimds 



Mr. Young. Does that relate to the question of age. 



Mr. Lembkey. Five pounds and eight and one-half pounds. 



Mr. Young. Passing from the weight, in London what is the determining purpose in measuring. 



Mr. Lembkey. They measure them, I fancy 



Mr. Young. Are they trying to arrive at the question of age, too. 



Mr. Lembkey. They are trying to get the size of the skin or the amount of fur on the animal. 



Mr. Young. They care nothing about the question of age there. 



Mr. Lembkey. Nothing at all. 



Mr. Young. That is <-.U I care to ask. (Hearing No. 9, pp. 448, 449, Apr. 13, 1912, Ho. Com. Exp. Dept. 

 Com. and Labor.) 



