INVESTIGATION OF THE FUR-SEAL INDUSTRY OF ALASKA. 835 



Mr. McGuire. The minority gives notice that a minority report 

 will be filed. 



Mr. Watkins. I move that the chairman arrange with the Com- 

 mittee on Accounts for the payment of expenses incurred by the com- 

 mittee in making the fur-seal investigation of 1913-14, upon which 

 the report of the committee is based. 



(The motion was agreed to.) 



(The committee thereupon proceeded to the consideration of execu- 

 tive business.) 



STATEMENT OF CHARLES NAGEL. 



March 19, 1914. 

 Hon. John H. Rothermel, 



Chairman Committee on Expenditures in the Department of Commerce. 

 Sir: In as much as it is impossible forme to leave here at this time, and your com- 

 mittee can not await my arrival in Washington on the 2d of April, I have decided to 

 submit a brief statement now. 



VOLUME AND NATURE OF WORK TO BE DIRECTED. 



While I was Secretary of Commerce and Labor there were never less than 12 bureaus 

 in the department. Of these the Bureau of Fisheries was by no means the most im- 

 portant. Furthermore, the essentially scientific character of its work furnished an 

 additional reason why a Secretary with only one assistant could not give more than 

 that general supervision which the law contemplates. Even in this particular bureau, 

 the seal herds constitued lonly a relatively important factor when compared with sal- 

 mon, lobsters, and other fish intersets at sea and in the inland hatcheries and stations. 

 Necessarily, and with a confidence which I still entertain, I looked to the representa- 

 tives of the bureau for advice in the performance of all matters of detail. My per- 

 sonal attention was devoted to a few questions of more fundamental importance, with 

 respect to which I would be expected to counsel with other representatives of the 

 executive and legislative departments. 



THE DEPARTMENT'S ATTITUDE TO THE LEASING SYSTEM. 



The first question to which I gave attention was whether or not the leasing system 

 should be continued at all. Both sealing leases — the one of 1870 and the one of 1890 — 

 were made by the Treasury Department. The control of seal interests was not trans- 

 ferred to the Bureau of Fisheries until December, 1908. 



When I went into office, in March, 1909, the lease of the North American Co. had 

 a little over a year to run, and the last killing under its terms was had on the Pribilof 

 I.-lands, in Bering Sea, within the first five months after I entered office. The Gov- 

 ernment's agents were in charge at the islands; rules which had stood for years were 

 in force; material changes were out of question; and, barring the earnest warring 

 that every precaution be observed for the protection of the herds under the law and 

 the rules, the killing was necessarily had without substantial change. The matter 

 to which I gave particular attention was the provision of the law which required 

 that in May of the following year a new lease be entered into under conditions sub- 

 stantially prescribed in the statute. This provision was mandatory, unless in the 

 meantime the conclusion was reached by Congress to change the Government's 

 policy. Commissioner Bowers of the bureau brought this matter to my attention in 

 ample time in 1909 and suggested that the leasing system be discontinued and that the 

 Government take over the management of the herds. This course was definitely 

 recommended in November, 1909, by both the advisory board and the fur-seal board. 

 This suggestion had been advanced and dismissed during an earlier administration. 

 After conferences with representatives of the bureau, the Secretary of State, the Presi- 

 dent, Senator Dixon, chairman of the Senate Committee on Conservation, and many 

 others, the department decided to recommend its adoption. The bill providing for 

 this change was prepared by my direction by the solicitor of the department and was, 

 with the approval of the Secretary of State and the Secretary of Commerce and Labor, 

 sent to Congress by the President with a special message. As will appear from the 

 reports of congressional hearings, representatives of the bureau appeared with me 



