THE SOUTHERN SPRING MACKEREL FISHERY. 
207 
their personal experience, that it will be the (lestructien of the lislieries not to have a close time, and 
I am prepared to show you that the lack of a close time already has been a very severe injury to the 
fishing industries of the United States. 
All the fishermen jiresent themselves here with their petitions for this bill. On the other hand, 
there is a single petition against it, and 1 will show you from what source that comes. It is the 
petition of the Fishmongers’ Association of the City of New York. They are opposed to this legislation. 
I think I may say, without being accused of imputing unworthj" motives to anybody, that they are 
opposed to it upon the salutary ground that commissions arc good for people who sell. Of course 
they present one other ground, because people never reveal their selfishness utterly. The Fishmongers’ 
Association say that they are struggling in the interest of cheap food for the jicople. Let us see 
jirecisely what this cheap-food cry means. Mr. Blackford, who is a New York fish commissioner, but 
who is also a dealer himself, gives a single instance of this cheapness of food which illustrates it all. 
He says ; 
About the l.st of April the iiiackerol fleet struck an immense .school of fresh mackerel, and they all loaded np and 
came into New Tork, and there was at one time upward of fifteen million mackerel Ij'ingaround thewharves in the vicinity 
of Fulton Market. Those mackerel were unlo.aded there just as fast as possible. Men, women, and childnai came from 
all parts of the city with baskets and the wagons of licensed venders, .and there was no question .about the price. They 
gave a basketful for 5 or 10 cents and would load a wagon for 25 cents. For the space of two or three weeks the poorer 
classes had the benefit of this immense catch of mackerel. They were distributed .all through the city. Of course, it was 
the means of a large class of jieoide making money— not myself, although I am in the fish business. 
AVhat was the nature of this cheap food? Cheap things we want. It is a little hard .sometimes 
on the men who furnish them that they should be so very cheap, but still wo want cheap food 
provided it is .also good food — not cheap and nasty, but che.ap and good. What does Mr. Blackford 
himself say about the ch.aracter of this food? He says: 
A large portion of these were s<altcd, but at that season of the year the macker(d are Inferior in fatness: the quality 
is not of a kind that makes them most desirable for salting. 
Let me add one other fact in that connection, which is, th.at in order to 8 ui)ply th<at week or two 
of cheap food to the jieople in and around the city of New A’ork, 100,000 b.arrels of mackerel filled 
with spawn were thrown into the ocean and could not be used — a de.struction greater th.au the actual 
use that was made; for Mr. Collins tells us that only 75,000 barrels tvero used and 21,000 salted. Is 
that the kind of cheap food production that you wish to preserve at the expense of what I am about 
to state? There has been a remarkable change of bate in the nature of the results of mackerel fishing. 
Several years ago, when 300 barrels of mackerel were c.aught, 200 of them were No. 1, fat, valuable fish ; 
66 t per cent of the whole were fit subjects for consumption by hum.an beings. 
What are the actual results now, as taken from the books of Lewis Chase .and Whitten, of Port- 
land, for the year 1884? Of 14,877 b.arrels taken, 317 barrels were No. 1; that is, less than 2.2 per- 
cent, instead of 66 J i)er cent. Of No. 2’8 there were 3,121 barrels — less than 21 percent; and the 
balance, 11,439 barrels, were of poor qn,ality — No. 3’s, or irerhaps worse. The result of .all this is that 
under this system of fl.shing the proportion of No. 1 mackerel has been reduced I'rom 663 i)er cent of 
the whole t" less than 2.2 per cent, and the number of No. 3’s h.as increased to 75 per cent. Now, 
what is the effect of that rrpon the production of this food for the people? Most men know nothing 
of these details. To most men a mackerel is a mackerel, and there’s an end of it. When they go to 
buy a mackerel if they get one they do not like they do not go any more. You see there is a temptation 
to dealers all the time tobr.and up their goods, because, I am sorry to say, the de.aler 8 in fish are no 
more honest than the members of the legal profession — things are branded up. 
Mr. Lore. If the gentleman will permit me, I wish to ask him whether this ch.ange does not grow 
out of the change in the manner of catching the fish, the change from the line to the purse net. 
Mr. Reed, of Maine. I have no doubt of it, and the result is that the great majority of these 
fish are taken during the spawning season, when they .are very poor. I can show from the report of 
Mr. Collins (whom I am going to quote as an expert .against these other gentlemen) that all these lish 
are good after the spawning season. 
To resume what I was saying, the effect of stopping the catching of the fish at the season when 
they are bad and really not suitable for food will be that we sh.all have good fish caught and good fish 
distributed all over the United States. There will be .an increased market for them and an increased 
sujjply, because the catch of good, sound mackerel will be largely increased. So, then, I urge this bill, 
not only on behalf of my constituents, but on behalf of all the people of the United States. 
Gentlemen may ask, “ Wh.at people are you keepijig out?” and among the cries raised in OT)i)osi- 
tion to this bill is this: “You want to wait until these fish get up along the coast of Maine so that 
