THE SOUTHERN SPRING MACKEREL FISHERY. 
227 
And I will state here that this country now, with all the improved and unlimited appliances to 
catch fish, with its 120,000 miles of railroads for distributing them into the interior of the country, 
with its 60,000,000 of fish-loving people, does not consume, taking the per cent as represented by 
the population, 30 per cent of what it did in 1831. We do not consume as many mackerel now as we 
did in 1830. We consumed then over 400,000 barrels, and we oug'ht to be able now to give at least 
1,000,000 barrels of good mackerel to our people. 
And yet this food is to-day higher by nearly 100 per cent than it was in those days. 
A balance wheel or regulator— * 
Says this eminent authority — 
A balance wheel or regulator, it may be called, which would prevent the price ever reaching a too high figure under 
ordinary conditions is this: As soon as the demand improves and anything like reasonably paying prices can be 
obtained, the immediate result will be a very material Increase in the number of men and vessels employed ; 
Implying that there is no limitation upon that. 
And considering the rapid growth of theUnited States, the accumulating millions to be fed and tbegreatly increased 
facilities for transportation, there seems little reason to doubt that, notwithstanding the imijroved methods for thecajjture 
of mackerel, if its former popularity can be restored, the pursuit of this species may in future years, as in the past, employ 
a fleet of upward of eight hundi’ed sail of vessels instead of less than four hundred, which are at present engaged. This 
may seem strong ground to take, but when we consider that a catch of upward of 400,000 barrels of mackerel found a 
market in 1831, with the population of our country infinitely smaller than it is now, the statement will not, I trust, appear 
to be an exaggerated one. 
Anti this gentleman further states : 
The cry of the age is “cheap food 1 ” 
Gentlemen will see that I, for my part, am pushing after cheap food, and I was asking my ques- 
tions of this expert in order to develop the fact as to thus being the way to get cheap food. This 
authority says further : 
The average person who goes to market to buy fish for his table can not be expected to be conversant with the 
different grades of mackerel; at least not enough so to make a good selection. A mackerel is a mackerel to him, and if he 
chances to get a good one be will return for another; but if tbe first trial results in disappointment, it can scarcely be 
expected that the experiment will be repeated. So, althougb the fish may be cheaij, it falls into disuse with a large number 
of consumers simply because it fails to gratify the needs and expectations of the purchaser, who thereafter prefers to put 
his money elsewhere. 
It is cheap, because worthle,ss. I want it to mature and abound, and then to be cheap because 
abundant. 
I am informed that the dealers and fishermen along the coast of Maine — 
Says this authority about men whose petitions have come in great volume to our committee 
room, men about whom the gentleman from New York seems to know nothing, and whom he does not 
represent, yet about whom, in the face of their own protests and in the face of the protests of those 
here who do represent them, he seems to be so solicitous — about these men, says this authority who 
for twenty-five years was one of them — 
I am informed that the dealers and fishermen along the coast of Maine— 
And, mark you, every vessel in the Union engaged in the trade that is affected by this bill is a 
vessel of Maine or of Massachusetts — 
are unanimously in favor of restriction. 
That is the information which this gentleman supplies. I do not know who got up the petition 
the gentleman from New York [Mr. Hewitt] has had imposed upon him. It is got up in letter-type 
style, very unlike what we would expect as coming from the rugged men of the sea, the genuine men 
of the sea whom we had before our committee and whose petitions we have, men who are very unani- 
mously in favor of restriction; and Capt. Jesse Freeman, formerly manager of the fishing company at 
Wellfleet, Mass., very positively asserts that all the people on Cape Cod are similarly inclined. 
That, Mr. Speaker, is perhaps as much as it is worth my while to say to the House ; and I trust 
the House will give due weight to these opinions I have adduced of Professor Huxley and Professor 
Goode and of this gentleman to whom I was referred by Professor Baird as the man from whom to get 
information ; nay, he was detained in the city by Professor Baird to give me this information, and he 
was brought on here ahead of the time he would otherwise have come because we expected early 
