INVESTIGATION OF THE FUR-SEAL INDUSTRY OF ALASKA. 809 



skin brings just as much as a properly salted "blubbered" skin, and 

 vice versa. 



This telegram of March 13, 1914, to Mr. McGuire is not the first 

 appearance of Funsten Bros. & Co. as being busy in trying to deceive 

 Congressmen. 



On the 4th of January, 1912, Hon. Richard Bartholdt, during a 

 session of the House Committee on Foreign Affairs, said 



Mr. Stephens (interposing). Is that in a printed hearing? 



Mr. Elliott. Yes. See page 147, hearings on H. R. 16571, Jan- 

 uary 3 and 4, 1912, House Committee on Foreign Affairs, to wit: 



I desire to submit a statement prepared by an expert in the employ of Funsten Bros . 

 which I -would like to have incorporated in the record. The scientific opinions ex- 



Bressed in this statement coincide exactly with those presented by Mr. Lembkey and 

 >r. Evermann. 



This statement which Mr. Bartholdt describes, immediately fol- 

 lows his introduction, as above, on pages 147, 148, 149, 150 of that 

 hearing. 



It bears the earmarks of having been sketched out by Lembkey 

 and Evermann. On every page printed it carries the same untruths 

 and makes the same claims to kill seals on the basis of those untruths. 

 In short, it is a gross travesty on the facts, just as Lembkey and 

 Evermann have put it into the records of this committee; and, just 

 as Mr. Bartholdt says, it agrees precisely with their opinions. 



It shows, however, not only the apparent immediate connection 

 between Lembke} r and Evermann in stimulating the sending of this 

 deceitful and false telegram to Mr. McGuire, on March 13, as quoted 

 above, but it points to the Hon. Charles Nagel, too, for this expert 

 of Funsten Bros, has the following to say on page 148, to wit: 



Secretary Nagel has made a personal study of seal life and great credit is due him 

 and his department for the intelligent, fearless, and correct work that has been done 

 in handling the killing of seals. 



On the occasion of the submission of the above statement of this 

 "expert" of Funsten Bros, to the committee, by Mr. Bartholdt, Janu- 

 ary 4, 1912, Lembkey and Evermann had been busy January 3 and 4, 

 1912, in telling the committee what an outrage upon the fur-seal herd 

 would be committed if a close time of even five years was ordered for 

 it — "that thousands of young seals" would be "trampled under foot 

 and their mothers torn to pieces by the bulls" in the mad struggles 

 "that would ensue between those bulls for control of the harems." 



On the 20th of January following, in an executive session of this 

 House Committee on Foreign Affairs, between 4 o'clock p. m. and 7 

 p. m., Charles Nagel, Secretary of Commerce, appeared and gave his 

 full indorsement to this biological falsehood of his own agent's in- 

 vention; he, too, had "personal knowledge" of it, he said; he "had 

 been on the islands," "observed the seals," and "talked with the 

 natives." 



Mr. Charles Nagel was on the islands just four hours in August, 

 1911, and there then for the first time in his life, and has never been 

 there since. 



Furthermore, on page 149, this expert of Funsten Bros, has this 

 to say: 



Secretary Nagel himself is a great believer in protecting American commerce, and 

 it is known that his views are favorable to a policy of having the sealskins sold in an 

 American market by an American house, in preference to consigning them to an Eng- 

 lish house in an English market. 



