Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1888-05-17
THE FIsHERiEs TREATY.
The Majority Report of the Foreign Keia-
tions Committee Summarizing the OBJ
jections to rehabilitation of the Treaty.

| discussed for two hours the propriety OF
| considering the Fisheries treaty in open
session, or of admitting an official re-
| porter with a view to having the discus
| sion reported, and subsequently made
| public in whole or in part. Several reso-
buttons were pending, one by Mr.. Riddle
berger, providing for an open discussion;
one by Mr.. Hoar, providing for a stenog-
rapher's report for subsequent publ1ca-
ton, and one by Mr.. Morgan for a report
| for the confidential use of the Senate
only. The Hoar resolution, slightly
amended by Mr.. Teller, was finally
adopted, and it is probable that the de-
bate will be published from day to day in
the Record.
The question of giving publicity to the
reports of the foreign relations committee
adverse to and in support of the treaty,
| was then discussed, and the injunction OF
| secrecy was removed from both.
The majority report, after an extended
!, review of the objections urged and criti-
cisms of the method of negotiation, sum-
marizes the objections to the treaty as
! follows:
l. The United States recognize British ter
ritory, and renounee forever all claim to indie
| pendent right in all the great bays along the
| British North American coasts, named in the
treaty. and admit that all such bays form
part of and within British territorial SOW
/ ere1gnty and jurisdiction.
2 OF the few such great bays that are left to
be visited by American fishermen, the larger
part are understood to be valueless, and some
of them subject to French fishery rights
older than our own, if they are British bays.
g. If bay fishing is not profitable now. 1t may
be IN the future.
4. Whether profitable or not the United
States ought not to give up, upon any consid-
Grafton whatever the right of its vessels OF
every character to visit and carry on business
in any part of the public seas.
s. The treaty surrenders the claim and right
of the United States, which has been acted up
On and exercised for now more than century.
of its vessels, engaged in fishing or other occu-
pations. to visit and carry on their business in
these great bays and the principle of which
claim and right has once been solemnly decid-
ed against Great Britain by a tribunal organ
tied under a treaty with that government
6. The new area OF delimitation described in
the treaty greatly increases the danger OF our
fishermen unintentionally invading prohibited
water. and thereby exposing themselves to
penalties.
z. The treaty. by it's fifth article, renounces
any right of the United States in any bay, etc,
however large, that cannot be reached from the
sea without passing within the three marine
miles mentioned in Article of the convention
of October 90 1873 thus excluding vessels of
the United States from all waters however ex-
tensive and the distance between whose head
lands is however great, the sailing channel to
the shore.
s. The treaty is n complete surrender of any
claim of a right now existing, either under the
treaty of 1888, the treaty of 1918. the acts of
Congress and the British orders in council in
1880, or tho Twenty -ninth article of the
treaty of 1871, for vessels of the United
States engaged in fishing any where on the
high seas, and even having commercial char
acter also to enter any port of British North
America for any purpose whatever; and puts in
the place of these clear rights, which, in re-
Spect of the British fishing vessels, exist in the
United States to the fullest extent, greatly re-
strcted and conditional rights arising solely
from present grant of Great Britain
9. II binds the United States to be content
with whatever is given by this treaty as the
full measure of it's rights and to be content
with it forever, or until greater hospitality and
freedom of interchange can be obtained by
further concessions or consideration our
part.
TO- In the face of all this, it leaves British
North American fishing vessels possessed of
all commercial rights in all the ports and
waters of the United States.
II. Whatever privileges of commerce, hospi-
tally or humanity thus provided for in the
treaty, are to be obtained only upon condition
that no fishing vessel of the United States shall
receive any of them, unless such fishing vessel
shall, under regulations of the Secretary of the
Treasury of the United States, be branded with
an official mum Der on each bow, and that such
regulations shall. before they become efectual
be communicated to Her Majesty's govern
ment.
12 1t provides that general, and even then.
much limited commercial rights and rights of
trans-shipment, as mentioned in Article Is,
shall be obtained only at the price of exempt
ing all Canadian fishing products from our Gus
tom duties.
10. Its provisions concerning the executive
and judicial treatment of American vessels and
fishermen that may be seized arrested for
supposed illegal conduct, are, to make the
most of them, nothing other, and probably
something less, than statement of what the
laws and conduct of any administration of
every government protesting to be civilized
should adopt and exercise as an act of duty and
justice.
ID. Instead of diminishing sources of irrita-
tion and causes of difficulty from different in
ter relations and disputes it will, the commit
tee thinks very largely increase them.
Various other suggestions adverse to the
wisdom of ratifying the treaty, might easily be
made, but the committee does not think 1t
necessary to go into them. The majority re-
port concludes as follows: ''The committee
can not but hope il these ill-adviced negotia-
tions, which as is known TO all the world, can
not properly commit the United States in any
degree until they shall have received
the constitutional assent OF the
Senate, shall fail to meet the
approval of this BODY Her Majesty's
government will take measures to secure JUS
tice and fair treatment in her North American
dominions to American vessels and American
citizens, in all respects and under all circum-
stances, and that that government will see the
justice and propriety Of according to American
vessels engaged in the business OF fishing, all
the commercial rights and facilities IN her
North American ports that so freely and
cheerfully accorded to her own in the ports OF
the United States, and that thus the friendship
and ooG-feeling which ought to exist between
neighboring nations may be finally established
and secured.
The majority resents the Presidents
action in declining all the correspond
ence incidental to the negotiation of the
treaty. The assumption that portion Of
such correspondence could be intrusted
exclusively to the discretion and control
of the Executive, and properly withheld
from the Senate, is believed to be con-
trary to the essential nature of the con-
stitutiona1 relations between the Presi-
dent and the Senate, and in violation of
the continuous practice from the founda-
ton of the Government.
The House in Which Grant Was Born.
NEW YORK, May 10.-The World this
morning publishes special from Batavia,
O., saying that the house in which Gener-
al Grant was born has been leased by
Colonel l.. Hawkins, ex-sherif of Hamil
ton County, and will be on exhibition for
one hundred days at the approaching
Centennial Exposition in Cincinnati. II
is to be lifted from its present founda-
ton, put on 1at-boat and foated dow
the river to Cincinnati. There it will
be put on wheels and taken to
he Iany.o r1yr