INVESTIGATION OF THE FUR-SEAL INDUSTRY OF ALASKA. 563 



The Chairman. Yes. 



Mr. Clark. And this herd would be going down grade now. 



The Chairman. Yes. I am not going to get into any dispute with 

 you about matters of immateriality. The question here is simply 

 whether Dr. Jordan sent such a telegram, and now you say you 

 know all about Dr. Jordan's frame of mind when he sent the tele- 

 gram, but awhile ago you said you did not know whether you ever 

 talked with him upon the subject. 



Mr. Clark. About sending it ? 



The Chairman. About sending those telegrams. 



Mr. Clark. But your specific question was, whether I discussed 

 with Dr. Jordan the question whether Mr. Elliott was at the head 

 of the fur-seal lobby. 



The Chairman. I asked you whether you discussed that subject 

 with Dr. Jordan, and you said you did not think you did. 



Mr. Clark. I am not now saying that I discussed that subject 

 with Dr. Jordan, but I am trying to explain to you the point of 

 view 



Mr. Bruckner (interposing). Did you discuss it with him? 



Mr. Clark. No, I did not. I am trying to explain the point of 

 view 



Mr. Bruckner. But did you discuss it with him? 



Mr. Clark.- No, I did not. I am explaining Dr. Jordan's point 

 of view which was my own. I could not understand that resolution 

 or the action of the House and Senate in making a 10-year closed sea- 

 son, unless there was some influence working for pelagic sealing back 

 of it. 



The Chairman. That would cause a man to send a falsehood to 

 Congress, would it not ? 



Mr. Clark. Well, if it has been denied, I have not seen it. 



Mr. McGuire. I would like to have Mr. Clark go ahead with the 

 statement of Senator Burnham — the Senator's repudiation of the 

 frank. 



Mr. Clark. Last April, in conversation with Secretary Redfield, 

 it developed that he, too, had had letters from Amos Allen, and he 

 became interested. 



Mr. McGuire. Secretary Redfield has received letters, too, from 

 Amos Allen ? 



Mr. Clark. Yes ; and he became interested in my letters from 

 Amos Allen, and he asked the privilege of taking all these documents 

 that I had and using them for a time, and I put them in order and 

 turned them over to him. That is the end of my knowledge regard- 

 ing them. They are supposed to be in the hands of Secretary Red- 

 field. I told him that he might keep them until he was through 

 with them, but that then I wished them returned ultimately, be- 

 cause two of the letters were from the university files. 



Mr. McGuire. I want to ask you whether the Secretary asked you 

 for those letters while the question of the confirmation of the present 

 head of the Fisheries Bureau was up hi the Senate ? 



Mr. Clark. As I recall it, the nomination was under consideration; 

 and I remember that the confirmation was made, or notification of 

 it came to me, in the Minneapolis papers on my way to California, 

 so that it must have been while that matter was under consideration. 



