556 INVESTIGATION OF THE FUR-SEAL INDUSTRY OF ALASKA. 



Mr. Stephens. Possibly that is the difficulty between Mr. Elliott 

 and Dr. Jordan. 



Mr. Clark. But the point I want to get clear before this commit- 

 tee is that Dr. Jordan is accused of taking this translation out of this 

 book [indicating book in witness's hand] by specific reference and 

 willfully mistranslating it or misstating it. 



Now, your committee has given honorable publication to that 

 slander against Dr. Jordan in three places in this record, and all I 

 want to do is to answer it. I have done so by Mr. Elliott's own refer- 

 ence, which I have read to you, and which supports Dr. Jordan abso- 

 lutely. 



The Chairman. The committee has not given any honorable pub- 

 lication to those reports. They were simply received and ordered to 

 be printed as part of the hearings. 



Mr. McGuire. Yes. 



The Chairman. Which leaves the matter open to explanation. 

 There was no intention of publishing anything against anybody. 

 The committee wants to clear the matter up and do justice to every- 

 body concerned — and we could do that if these scientists did not 

 confuse us too much. 



Mr. Clark. That is what I am here to explain. I call the attention 

 of the committee to the fact that this document comes to the presi- 

 dent of Stanford University, California, with the frank of the chair- 

 man upon it; it comes to the professor of Germanic literature, and 

 to the professor of zoology at the Stanford University, under the 

 frank of the chairman, and to the president of our board of trustees. 



The Chairman. Well, that was just to give them notice of it. 



Mr. Clark. It is, however, a pretty hard thing to tell a man that 

 he has falsified a record when the reference which the man who 

 makes the charge against him uses supports absolutely the man 

 against whom the charge is made. 



I would like to call attention to the fact of this. Here is a clipping 

 from the Minneapolis Journal, a newspaper of my own home city. 



Mr. McGuire. Of what date? 



Mr. Clark. Of January 25, 1914. The heading of it is: 



Seal scandal likely to lead to court action. House committee likely to begin suit 

 to recover $30,000,000 damages. Immense profit by illegal sealing. Federal officials 

 charged with permitting violations of law. Accounting called for. Men alleged to 

 have been responsible called upon for explanation. 



The Chairman. Well, you see these were only reports and state- 

 ments submitted; and the committee took official action that nothing 

 could be done except to receive the reports and print them as part of 

 the hearings. That left it open for explanation. Nobody intended to 

 charge anybody with anything so far as the committee is concerned. 



Mr. Clark. But there were four columns of this from the New York 

 Times, in which these charges were made, and the people of the coun- 

 try, as shown by these clippings [indicating papers in witness's hand] 

 have invariably taken it as a charge against Dr. Jordan, which Dr. 

 Jordan may have to meet, and may suffer court action for. 



The Chairman. But there has not been an intimation on the part of 

 the committee, that I know of, that anybody was to be arrested — 

 except that we filed a formal report of this committee, in which the 

 committee rcommended that civil proceedings ought to be started 



