INVESTIGATION OF THE FUR-SEAL INDUSTRY OF ALASKA. 569 



Mr. McGuire. All right; you may proceed. 



Mr. Clark. There was made in the House of Representatives, on 

 the basis of this letter, by Congressman Kendall, of Iowa, the charge 

 of deliberate plagiarism aginst Dr. Jordan, and it was amplified into 

 a speech on the basis of these letters. It arose over a chart which Mr. 

 Elliott claimed that Dr. Jordan had incorporated in his 1897 report 

 without giving Mr. Elliott credit. When we submitted our 1896 

 report to Assistant Secretary Charles S. Hamlin, he suggested that 

 we ought to have a map in the report giving some idea of the move- 

 ment of the seals. Dr. Jordan objected somewhat as we had not yet 

 got our data ready. Dr. Charles H. Townsend, was preparing a map 

 in which he was platting from the records of the pelagic sealers' logs 

 catches including about 120,000 animals, which was to give the exact 

 location of the animals in their winter migrations. This could not be 

 got ready for this 1896 report and Dr. Jordan thought it was useless to 

 put in a chart showing the position of the animals in November, De- 

 cember, and so on, when we did not know anything about it. Mr. 

 Hamlin said that he could get up such a-chart very quickly from data in 

 the department. Dr. Jordan acquiesced and left the making of the 

 chart and its printing to Mr. Hamlin. We did not see that chart until 

 the report was printed. No question was raised about that chart until 

 November, 1909, when Mr. Hornaday, of New York, made a com- 

 plaint to Dr. Jordan because he had been criticised for using what he 

 supposed was Dr. Jordan's chart in a natural history book of his. He 

 wrote to Dr. Jordan. Then followed the correspondence with Mr. 

 Elliott. Dr. Jordan expressed his regrets if he had allowed inad- 

 vertently to appear in his report without credit a chart, the author- 

 ship of which belonged to some one else. He had, however, to refer 

 the matter to Mr. Hamlin. Dr. Jordan wrote to the Secretary of the 

 Treasury and was informed that we were under no obligations to Mr. 

 Elliott for this map, and he said we were not. That should have 

 ended the matter, but the chart matter was brought up in the House 

 of Representatives and Dr. Jordan was charged with plagiarism. 



The Chairman. You only want to convey the idea that you do not 

 want to deny the authorship of anybody else but you got it from the 

 Secretary of the Treasury. 



Air. Clark. But Dr. Jordan was charged with plagiarism just the 

 same. 



Mr. McGuire. Then on your statement of fact, Dr. Jordan was not 

 guilty of plagiarism ? 



Mr. Clark. Not at all. 



Mr. McGuire. Who is Mr. Hamlin? 



Mr. Clark. He was the Assistant Secretary of the Treasury, the 

 man who appointed Dr. Jordan for the commission of 1896 and 1897; 

 he was the Assistant Secretary in the fur-seal matter at that time. 



Mr. McGuire. And he wrote to Dr. Jordan that Mr. Elliott was 

 not entitled to credit for the maps? 



Mr. Clark. He assured Dr. Jordan that we were under no obliga- 

 tion to Mr. Elliott for the chart; that it was compiled from records 

 which were the property of the Treasury Department by their own 

 draftsmen. 



Mr. McGuire. That would, anyhow, amount to a contention be- 

 tween individuals which had nothing to do with the treatment of 

 the seal or the governing of the seal islands. Is that a fact? 



