S06 INVESTIGATION OF THE FUR-SEAL INDUSTRY OF ALASKA. 



Under these circumstances it was unfortunate that Mr. Elliott should have been 

 appointed an agent to report on the condition of seals, etc., under a special act of 

 Congress which he drafted and caused to be passed and under instructions which he 

 wrote. 



It was also unfortunate that extending the time for taking seals on the islands should 

 have been left to the discretion of Mr. Goff , Treasury agent, because by not exercising 

 this dicretion wisely and extending the time beyond July 20 the United States lost 

 in taxes nearly $400,000 and the lessee one-half as much. 



Your attention is called to the fact that in the advertisement for bids to lease the 

 islands the Secretary of the Treasury expressly stated that for the year 1890 the lessee 

 should take 60,000 seals. It is also provided in the lease that the new company should 

 take this number, yet the Treasury agent saw fit, in the discretion given him, to arbi- 

 trarily forbid the new company from taking more than 20,995 seals, which was not 

 •only a great loss to both the Government and lessee, but in violation of the statements 

 ■contained in the advertisement and the terms of the lease. The record will show that 

 on the 20th day of July, the last day of the killing, 2,000 seals were taken, and the proof 

 is at hand both positive and abundant that if the time had been extended until the 

 10th of August the full quota of 60,000 killable seals could have been taken. The 

 'company states as a reason why the full quota was not taken by the 20th of July was 

 because the salmon, which largely constitute the food of the seals, were two or three 

 ■weeks later going north last season, which will account for the seals appearing two or 

 three weeks later on the islands than in former years. 



Secretary Windom regarded the failure to take 60,000 seals as a mistake, and one 

 3ie wished he could repair. Considering this, and for other reasons, he said to the 

 attorney of the N. A. C. Co., early in February, that it was his purpose to allow the 

 company to take 60.000 this year, and 100,000 in the discretion of the Treasury agent, 

 if the seals appeared on the islands. 



It is claimed by the company that granting a positive and definite order to take 

 60,000 killable seals this year of the kind named in the laws and regulations can not 

 work harm to the Government nor deplete the herd. If the killable seals do not 

 come upon the islands they can not be taken; and if they do, the company should be 

 allowed to take them. 



Mr. Elliott was on the islands in 1874, and did not return until 1890, a period of 15 

 years. Mr. Tingle, whose report and protest against Treasury Agent Goff's arbitrary 

 action is on file, was Treasury agent on the islands for 4 years — from 1885 to 1889 — 

 ■during which time he spent 18 months continuously on the islands. His opportunities 

 for observing the seals and seal life and understanding their habits, of recent years, 

 bas been much more extended than that of Mr. Elliott. As against Mr. Elliott's report 

 and those of the Treasury agents, which it is believed Mr. Elliott inspired, stands the 

 testimony of Mr. Tingle; the sworn statements now on file in your department of 

 Antoine Melovidoff, brother-in-law of Mr. Elliott, a native of the islands and governor 

 of St. Paul; that of Daniel Webster, the oldest sealer on the island; the letter of Dr. 

 "W. H. McTntyre, now World's Fair Commissioner from Vermont, who spent 17 years 

 on the islands; as also statements of J. C. Redpath, C. A. Fowler, Capt. * * * 

 TIealey, and Dr. L. A. Xoyes — all except Mr. Tingle disinterested parties. 



It is submitted that this mass of testimony and sworn statements is entitled to due 

 weight and consideration, and if not sufficient to overcome the reports of Mr. Elliott 

 and the Treasury agents, they are at least strong enough to raise a doubt, the benefil 

 of which should be given to the Government and lessee and be settled only by impartial 

 testimony and by persons who had no connection with the old company and no preju- 

 dices against the new. 



It is said that parties interested in the old company declared, on their failure to 

 obtain the new lease, that they would break up the new company in two years. It is 

 submitted that after the company has spent many hundred thousand dollars in pre- 

 paring to comply with the obligations under the new lease, and the losing of 40,000 

 skins out of 60,000 the first year, and the proposition of Mr. Elliott to take none this 

 year, would nearly reach the point of breaking up the company. 



It is claimed by the present lessee that the taking of killable seals under the rules 

 and regulations of the department does not deplete the seal herd. By the terms of 

 the lease it can not be terminated except for cause. If the Government can suspend 

 taking seals for one year, it may for any number of years, which would, in effect, 

 abrogate the lease. The Government is bound by the terms of the lease as well as 

 the lessee. It has for a valuable consideration leased the exclusive right to the North 

 American Commercial Co. for 20 years to take seals on the islands of St. Paul and 

 St. George. It may be said that the Secretary has the power under the law to limit 

 or designate the number of seals to be taken; the company claims this is to be rea- 



