Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1893-03-11


s,ers which do NO, exceed the
size that the law allows. great portion of
those mast be under size. Now those mea
who take Holsters and ship them in tina,
way, come here and ask YOU to enact a law
which viii absolutely Close every lobster
canning industry in Eastern Maine. The
holsters taken AMI shipped to the West, are
shipped in bulk 1t is an in,possisiliry for
the f-i warden< TO pick ON, the Holsters
which are too short as,i SO taken in viola
ton Of the isw. They are shipped in great
bniks. So ar,ster this state Of affairs il
really makes but very little difference 10
those men, what size of lobster the law
allows to be taken. Ii is different with
the factories. Ny friend has spoken of the
factories. Ii is true to certain
extent, perhaps, but can say this,
that in every one of these factories where
these HOLSTERS have to be singled out and
used i, is a very easy matter for any warden
without any trouble Whatever TO detect the
sligAtes, violation of the Law. Now | say
once more tina, il il these men who are
shipping the Holsters ont of the State in
this way, who come here. as ! understand
IT, am! ask YOU to favor the passage of this
bill. These factories are scattered along
our coast, all, or very nearly all. east OF
the Penobscot river. There are factories
in Passport, Alilbridge, in Jonesport, in
Prospect Harbor, in South West Harbor,
in Bass Harbor, Brooklyn, oceanvilie.
Green's Landing, West Deer Isle,
North Haven. Rockiand and For;
Clyde. Now how important il Is TO
those factories the present law remains as
it is. As | understand the present law
everybo can catch HOLSTERS down TO thu
length of niae inches in the month of May
and June The Gamers during the same
time practically, from the goth of April to
LIST of July, can also take and can Holsters
of that length. During all other portions
of the year the law requires that Holsters
taken shall be 10 l-2 inches in length. The
passage of this law we say would surely
close every lobster canning industry III
Maine. OF these factories which | have
enumerated understand that there are u
/ few that depend almost entirely upon the
| lobster industry for their business.
The others depend upon it in part
| for the bulk of their business
and when they cease to can Holsters and go
into the fish business they have then, what
is necessary, the trained help which has
been trained in canning Holsters early in
the season. | understand that this is al
most necessity for the factories. The
time for canning fish is very short. They
work night and day and it is very essential
that they shall have trained and expe-
rienced help when the time comes to en-
gage In this fish canning business. Then
again the amount of this industry is impor-
tant to all of these factories. This business
amounts to about 5000. 900 year. think
these factories can about 30 900 cases of
Holsters and for these there is paid in the
market about 81 or IS case, making a
business of 100000 or $3.50, 900
a year. 1t is that business that
we ask you here to protect,
1t needs no expert to tell you what the re-
suit will be of the passage of this law. Ii
needs no man exp -rienced in the lobster in
dustry to tell you that the dose of medicine
which the law proposes to give these can
ming factories will surely kill. | hav,
heard it said here many times during this
session that the future may well be judged
by the past, and | want to say that rign
here is an absolute and not fanciful illus
tration of this saying. In 1857 a law was
passed fixing the size of Holsters at 10 u
inches, and that law .hen il went into effec
closed every single lobster canning industry
in the State of Maine. 1t was so manifest
that the closing of those factories
was the result of that law
that the very first Legislature thereafter
saw fit at once to repeal it. You pass thi.
law today and those same factories will be
closed. The lobster canning industry OF
Maine will be- thing of the past. Thi,
matter was heard by the committee and .
full hearing was had after notice given
The details were carefully gone into, and
we have here the reports of this committee
the majority report signed by six and the
minority report signed by two. Further
than that, the Senate by an overwhelming
vote has voted to accept the majority re
port. | trust that the ajerity report vii
prevail.
Mr.. Maddocks of Boothbay IIarbor:
live in locality where people gain thei
living in the winter and spring by lobsteri
largely. | know what a lobster smack il
and what II lobster canning factory is, and
hope ! shall not BE- censured from the fact
that do know it, This till means that til,
smack men of this State. 40 or 80 sail Of
them, of this and other states, shall have
the monopoly of the lobster business: j
means that those men who catch fish shall
catch just as many as they do now. II
either case we have no protection. The
can catch them under the present law anc
they would under the proposed law. 1t is Q
matter of necessity, not of choice. The
fishermen on our coast are struggling
against the elements of this winter and the
only resource they have is to catch the
small HOLSTERS and the large ones.
Tho plars, n lat "a covered with loo an Il
all they can do to get a living in some
localities is to catch these Holsters, AMI i,
they were deprived of catching the sbor,
lob ters they would suffer more than they
do now. There is no protection in the
minority report.
There is no evidence of any unusual
dlminution in the number of Holsters. The
simple fact that from five to 25 tons pei
day are shipped from Portland would con.
vince any man that there is no great
scarcity in the number The weather con
trolls this. HOLSTERS are high just now or
account of the weather more than anything
else. They will be low in the spring as
they have always been. If gentlemen
wants Holsters to eat in this State there
are two ways to get them-one is to
make them more plenty by artificial propa.
III
men who are gathering these Holsters along
the shore and carrying them to Portland ia
be smuggled ont of the State. If we had
free fishing we could ship the small HOLSTERS
to the people who want Holsters today in
our State. How can we expect more lob
sters when the smackmen are increasing
their capacity. and coming here and asking
for a monopoly OF the business. that they
4 st.
| The gentlemen has said that the canning
| industry is confined to eastern counties.
beg to differ with that. In my county
there are FIVE factories that can Holsters,
yet the competition of the smackmen for
the small Holsters is so great that it is hard
work to get Holsters to work with. When
we open our factories in the spring on the
10th of April, we put out few thousand
dollars for labor. The people who receive
this money would miss it. We are depriv-
ing them of this money when we accept the
minority report. What does the smackman
do? He carries his Holsters to Portland
and they are shipped to New York and the
West. The money is taken out of the State
and we are the sufferers. The canning in
dustry is of long staining. There is no
evidence that it ever did any damage The
| fish have withstood it, and there is no evil
dence that there is any short crop. OF
course we have scarce years and plenty
years. There is no reason at all why we
should change the law and make it any
worse for the fisherman. believe if the
| House could understand this matter az it is
they would vote to accept the majority re-
port. The law is hard enough as it is now
We cannot live under it, but we can get
along after fashion by breaking it in an
emergency.
Mr.. Sylvester of Lisbon: You will be