Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1888-05-30
THE NATIONS CAPITOL
Senator Frye on the Fisheries
Treaty.
England Warning on New Eng
land Fishermen to Se-
cure Markets.
Cleveland Willing to Crush a Great Indus
try Out Of Existence to Please
John Bull.
Canada the Tool OF Great Britain and
the Ally OF the Present Ad-
ministration,
WASHINGTON, May 30.
Senate.

the consideration or the nsnerles treaty.
Senator Morgan asked leave to make mo
ton, but Senator Frye, who had the floor
declined to give way. Thereupon Mr. Nor
gan gave notice that upon the conclusion o
Mr.. Fryes remarks he would move the post
ponement of the treaty till December.
l Mr.. Frye then addressed the Senate upol
the treaty.
Mr. Frye spoke of the change from til,
closed to open doors as an evolution from
darkness to light which was somewhat dis
turbing to him, as he had equipped himsel1
for a discussion within closed doors, witt
senators familiar with the subject. whereas
now he found himself suddenly compelled tt
invite into his confidence 60,000,000 o.
of Abraham Lincolns plain people of the
republic. He was aware that he had made n,
adequate preparation for the occasion, ant
that there was nothing left to do but tC
throw himself on the indulgence of the Sen
ate and the people, SO as to blunt the SHARP
edge of criticism. The question before the
Senate he said was no trifing one. 1t invol-
we'd the dignity of a great republic and the
rights of its people. 1t could not be belittled
by the talk of localization, by charging that
it concerned only New England industry
of but little account, that the Yankee fisher
men alone were interested and that the
wrongs to be righted were only upon the
northeast. 1t couldn't be obscured by the
| Presidents intimation that in the event OF
the failure of the treaty he would resort to
the law Congress had passed so as to put in
| jeopardy and perhaps destroy all the business
interests of the great north. 1t could not
be belittled by the interviews furnished by
the Boston Herald, nor by letters written to
the banquetng party in New York, in which
it was declared that every man who opposed
the ratification of the treaty was either con-
trolled by personal prejudice, par
tizanship or profound ignorance
nor by the administration, hippantly and jeer-
ingly suggesting that it would be cheaper to
buy up the Yankee fishermen and their fleet
The question before the Senate, he declared,
was should the citizens of the United States,
fisherman, but still ctizens-be protected
against wrong, injustice and outrage, inflicted
by neighboring nation, emboldened only
because it rested under the aegis of a
mighty power beyond the seas. He proceed
to pay glorious tribute to the valor and
patriotic services of Yankee fishermen in
the wars of the Revolution, 1912 and the Re-
bellion, and asked whether such men were
entitled to be treated with contempt.
He recalled the British campaign
against Abyssina for the rescue of one Eng
lish subject, and said that his admiration of
such an incident almost tempted him to for
get the in Justice and wrong that great coun-
try inflicted day by day on its own subjects
He declared this powerful republic had ut
terly neglected the rights of the fishermen
He then detailed the history of the fishery
legislation, saying that Great Britain had ac
corded us the right of fishing on the Grand
Banks and other banks ever which she had
no more control than over mid
ocean. She never surrendered anything
that was her own. She had guarded
her own markets since 1912, so that the Ca
madam fishermen might be quadrupled and
so that when she needed sailors she would
know where to go to find the bravest and
best in the world. Therefore Canada COM
menced by every conceivable outrage, wrong
and injustice, to drive our sailors away. Mr.
Frye detailed the long continued outrages at
length. He said: Under the treaty of 1854
we were permitted to fish within their waters
ami they within our waters. They were per-
mitted a free entry to our markets
and thus got all they wanted. Mr..
Frye traced the increase of the
Canadian fishing fleet ami the gradual
decrease of our fishing trade down to nothing,
as result ef the right of entry of Canadian
nSn Tree. ne " INT sutCessiNt anu
doubling license tax upon American vessels,
as further means for Gripping our commerce.
He declared that the modus vivend only Sc
cured to us upon a payment of "A dollar and
a half per ton, commercial privileges which
we were already fully entitled to. Congress
was Just on the point of passing retaliatory
law in response to petition from the fisher
men of New England, when diplomacy
was again resorted to, resulting in
the treaty of 1871. England wanted the
southern market, SO favored the South and
Joined France in attempt to build up mon
archy in Mexico and sent troops to Canada.
She built vessels and armed and equipped
them and sent them upon the ocean to de-
stroy our commerce and then refused to pay
damages until she secured another treaty
which stipulated that if there was any bal
ance due Canada for privileges which she had
given us, of the right to fish we should pay
it; that commissioners should be appointed
to see if anything was due. We also gave a
free market for her fish.
Our commissioner a weak old man,
unfit to cope with Sir John Mcdonald and
Tupper. The umpire was Delfosse of Bel
GUM man owned by Great Britain. Through
that commission we paid Canada So 500 900.
Great Britain had so good a bargain she re-
fused to allow us to abrogate the treaty. In
Il wears we remitted over six millions of
Canadian duties making eleven and one-half
millions the cost of the treaty. During the
whole time we caught in British waters about
seven hundred thousand dollars worth of
fish. Their capture cost us one million, two
hundred thousand dollars. During the last
three years of the treaty there were not a
dozen American fishing vessels in British
waters. When the day came that notice
could be given to terminate the iniquitous
treaty it passed the Senate unanimously.
The President gave notice in 1885,
that we had no treaty except
treaty of 1850. If we bad taken a manly
course this thing would have ended then, but
Secretary Bayard had an itching palm for
diplomacy. He was profoundly ignorant of
fishery matters, but Sir Lionel West was not.
He persuaded Bayarh that conflicts between
fishermen might lead to war with Great Brit
ain. Bayard said, What can do? will do
ANYTHING you say" and he granted the modus
viveud, clearly without any constitutional
right The nub of the treaty was this that
the President recommend to Congress the
appointment of commission to settle the
I fishery rights" The President sent in his
message and he (Frye) offered resolution
declaring it the sense of the Senate that the
United States wanted no fishery commission.
! The resolution was unanimously passed.
1 Peace was once more broken. In the next
year and half l20 American vessels were
seized in those waters, under every conceiv-
able pretence. Vessels were driven to sea
in storms, refused hospitality, and treated SO
barbarously that the Dominion Secretary OF
| Treasury declared the treatment brutal. Mr..
| FRYE cited a number of illustrations. Seventy
I five years ago such treatment would have re-
suited in war. Yet sixty millions
people submitted to it at the hands of five
million. The succor asked for by these yes