Los Angeles daily herald., 1889-09-23
The Last Herald" Paper
to be Presented.
HUMANITARIAN POINT OF VIEW,
The Greatest Good to the Greatest
Number is Subserved by the
Protection of the Seals.

xxOuuOo Ou WuACu UOen Asu5cAo oho ehO
United States claim the right to protect
seal life in the waters of Alaska, the
HERALD reaches its last chapter in this
interesting study. The purpose at this
immediate time will be to show that by
the present policy Of the Government the
greatest good to the greatest number is
subserved. In other words the humane
tartan side Of the question will be pre-
eented in this paper. The Government
report compiled by the House Committee
ON Merchant Marine and Fisheries of the
5Oth Congress, at the head of which was
Gen. Poindexter Dunn, now of this city,
paid particular attention to this view of
the case. Cleaning widely in the volume
of over 400 pages containing the re-
port, this branch of the subject sub.
divides into three sections. These
are the effects of projecting
seal life in the perpetuation of tie
industry, thereby continuing forever to
the world q supply of sealskins; thereby
insuring perpetually labor for large
class of operatives engaged in the curing
of the skins and their manufacture into
garments; and lastly, the securing to the
natives of the seal islands the means of
subsistence.
I'll the plea ot TIC rcschers is, of course,
that by allowing them to pursue their
unrestrained methods of seal hunting
means of subsistence and enrichment
are opened to q number of human beings,
who are driven by the present policy to
seek these means in some other walks of
life. A sufficient answer to that plea is
made If it can be shown that the present
policy guarantees forever such means to
as many souls. 1t has been clearly
demonstrated that to allow the
killing of the seal to be free to
allcomers is to destroy the animal
completely from the face of the earth
in few years. Then will come to an
end forever the means of livelihood now
demanded by the producers. If it can
be demonstrated that the policy of the
United States secures as good means of
gaining Q livelihood to as many people
for all time, then it is better the poach-
ers be restricted by as much as the per-
petual exceeds the merely temporary.
II it can be shown that q policy of pro-
lection secures perpetual means OF
livelihood to hundred times more peo-
pie than the opposite policy, then the
wisdom of such protection is that many
times more apparent.
The present laws allow zoe, 900 seal
skins to be taken annually. By protect
ing the animals from indiscriminate
slaughter this number of skins can be
taken for all time to come. These are
taken on the Pribylov islands during
four months of each year. From there
the skins are shipped to San Fran
cisco, and thence by rail to New York.
Here the major part of the skins are re.
shipped to London. The few that re-
main in this country are dressed in the
vicinity of New York. Those that 60 to
London are sold at auction and taken to
several points in Europe to be dressed.
Much more than half of all the skins
taken on the Pribylev islands are dressed
in London. The dressing of the skins is
Q very tedious and nice process, requir-
ing much time and labor. There are
hundreds of hands employed in this
work for many months each year.
If the people employed in dress
ing seal skins in London were to all turn
poachers and 60 out to Alaska to catch
seals, as the poachers do their work, the
islands to be thrown open to them, they
would take nearly million skins the
first year, half that number the second
year, and in five years there would mol
be q hundred seals in the waters oil
Alaska. If one follows the skins from the
dressing factories to the shops where
they are made into garments, another
larger army of people will be found en-
gagged in this work, Were they to give
up their present occupation and 60 out to
catch seals, the same destruction of seal
life would follow and there would be no
more labor or profit for anyone in fur
seals. There would be none of the ami
mails left. In either of these armies OF
toilers who find employment year in and
year out in dressing furs or converting
them into garments, there are probably
ten times as many people as in all the
poacher gangs on the seas.
If now the mind is diverted from the
dressers of skins, and from the army of
people who make the furs into garments,
to the natives of Alaska, there will be
found a people whose existence depends
on the protection of the seals.
The seal-skin dressers of London,
and the people who make the
furs into garments, if driven from these
lines of employment would have some
chance in the fierce struggle for life to
gain q livelihood at some other occu-
patton, although London is sufficiently fur
nished at present with toilers who cannot
find work. But there is not ghost of q
chance to live left the Aleuts of these
islands if seal life is destroyed. There
are hundreds of these natives on the is
lands where the sole means of subsist-
ence is the seal. All the channel open
to them for the earning of dollar is in
the taking and skinning of the seals, the
sailing of the skins and the loading of
them on the ships. The only food that
they have and the staff of life
is the seals flesh. 1t is to the
these natives what bread is to the poor
of other lands. Cut off the seal and the
natives must perish. Under the humane
management of the Government of the
United States, these people must be pro-
vided with decent houses in which to
dwell. A rate is paid them for their
labor and school is maintained for the
education of their children. They are
making excellent progress in civilization
and have considerable sums of money
deposited to their credit in the savings
banks of San Francisco. Were all re-
strictions taken off of killing the seals at
the coming session of Congress, these
half civilized Aleuts would remain in
the islands until the seals come ashore
next May. These natives, knowing how
to kill and skin the animals and ship
the skins, would simply turn loose and
kill every seal, male and female, old and