826 INVESTIGATION OF THE FUR-SEAL INDUSTRY OF ALASKA. 



is officially informed that nothing can be done in this fur-seal matter until Mr. Hay's 

 successor qualifies and takes charge of the same. 



1905: October 20. — Mr. Elliott places this unfinished business of the fur-seal settle- 

 ment, above cited, in the hands of Elihu Root, the new Secretary of State, who did 

 not take up these routine duties until the 3d of October, or appear himself at the 

 State Department. Mr. Root takes the papers from Mr. Elliott's hands; assures him 

 that he will proceed at once with the business. On the 21st of October, 1905, Mr. 

 Elliott assures First Assistant Secretary Bacon that this plan of mutual concession 

 and joint control, above cited, can be successfully negotiated in six weeks' time if it 

 is at once placed in Sir Mortimer Durand's hands for that purpose by Mr. Root. [Mr. 

 Elliott offered to give his expert services to the task and go himself to Ottawa.] 



Did Secretary Root do so? No; he has done nothing on that line of action, abso- 

 lutely nothing, up to Friday, February 21, 1908. Witness the following proof of this 

 nonaction: 



["Special dispatch to The Globe."] 



[1908:] "Ottawa, February 21. — The question of the protection of the seal fisheries 

 of the Pacific, now threatened with rapid extermination, was discussed at some length 

 in the senate to-day. Hon. Mr. Scott, secretary of state, made a strong pronounce- 

 ment on the subject, declaring that sealers were now acting like a band of pirates. 

 * * * He added that Canada was qxdte ready to enter into negotiations ivith the 

 United States with a view to the adoption of mutually protective regulations. * * * 



"Hon. Mr. Scott said that Canada was read- to take the matter up whenever there 

 was a proposition from the United States. There had been no such proposal up to the 

 present. His remarks were inspired by the existing condition of the sealeries, which 

 did not reflect favorably on the intelligence of the nations interested; * * *. 

 Canada was quite ready to do her share and be a party to any arrangement that will 

 protect seal life and preserve all the seals but males." [Toronto Globe, Feb. 22, 

 1908. j 



With this declaration in open session of the Canadian senate, quoted above, we 

 have the highest official authority — the secretary of state of the Dominion of Canada — • 

 publicly denying all blame fur this continuation of the loot and ruin of the fur-seal 

 herd of Alaska. We have him officially declaring that the Canadian Government 

 has been and is ready and willing to unite upon that plan of mutual concession and 

 joint control which John Hay and myself prepared in 1905, with this aid of the sena- 

 torial committee (Gov. Dillingham, chairman l and Sir Mortimer Durand, as above 

 cited. 



Why should ties treaty plan be longer delayed? Why should that infamous work 

 of the land and sea butchers <»f our fur-seal herd go thus unchecked; and that, too, 

 when the Canadian governmenl asks us to unite with it on a proper plan to suppressit? 



No quibbling or imiim-h-c about the necessity of "seeing" or sounding Japan or 

 Russia ,/irsf, will bear the light of honest discussion. Those Governments have both been 

 ready at any hour, sina 1897, to uniU with us on any plan to suppress pelagic fur sealing, 

 which wt could FIRS Tgei ( 'anada to a*s< ni to. 



We have to deal only with Canada in this business, seriously. Why is it not done, 

 and why not done /(0<c? 



Henry W. Elliott, 

 No. 17 Grace Avenue, Lakewood, Ohio. 



March 16, 1908. 



The Chairman. I want to ask Mr. Elliott a question that I forgot 

 to ask him before. I asked Mr. Clark whether he ever saw the 

 Carlisle rules that were on the records of the Pribilof Islands, and 

 he said no. Have you any testimony to show that he had such 

 knowledge 3 



Mr. Elliott. I have; I have the proof that he had sucli knowledge. 



The Chairman. You may submit it. 



Mr. Elliott. The evidence is given by himself in an official report 

 to the Secretary of the Treasury, February 24, 1898. 



The Chairman. Explain it to the committee. 



Mr. Elliott. On Friday. February 20, 1914, Mr. George A. Clark 

 swore that he had no knowledge of the Carlisle rules, posted January 

 17, 1S97, in the official journal of the Government agents on St. Paid 



