The San Francisco call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1895-1913, 1895-10-24

fered with the illegal traffic around the
bay-a traffic that has been so open and
undisguised that whole villages are thriv-
ing on the gains from it.
Thousands of tons of small bay fish
fish so tiny that a dozen of them would not
weigh an ounce-have been cured for food
or packed down as fertilizer for shipment
to China. Thousands of founders no
larger than mans thumbnail, striped
bass, shad and cod from an inch to two
inches in length are destroyed daily.
These are all fish that grow to be of respect
able size, and the scarcity of fish in San
Francisco Bay is ascribed by the experts to
this unlawful fishing. 1t is only question
of time when the supply will fail utterly if
the law is not enforced.
In the old days men convicted of fishing
with unlawful appliances, or destroying
small fish, were fined 500 each on convic-
ton. One-third of this went TO the arrest
ing officer. This was an incentive to
county peace officers as well as Fish and
Game Commissioners to make arrests, and
cases of illegal fishing were frequent in the
courts. At this time Chinese and Greek
fishers were paying SIS and $16 month
was collected in Chinatown just as the old
police blackmail used to be, and reached the
dishonest guardians of the fish and game
interests of California through a white
mans hands.
One deputy fish commissioner used to
boast that his illicit draw down" during
the fishing season amounted to $500 a
month.
County peace officers, for The sake of the
reward, occasionally interfered with the
pleasant arrangement by arresting China
men who had paid the blackmail. Since
that time the law has been changed, 80
that there is no longer any reward for the ar
resting officer, and the deputy fish commits
sioner is the only representative of the law
that the Chinese need fear. The China
men about the bay have heen pursuing
their unlawful avocation without inter-
rnption for years. They feel so secure that
they make not the slightest pretense of
obeying the law, and if representatives of
the Fish Commission cannot catch them
in the very act of using prohibited APP
paratus and destroying young fish, they
are the only citizens of this State who
labor under the liability.
There is one Fish Commissioner who
admits the incompetence or worse of the
commission. Fish Commissioner Morri-
son was interviewed at Sacramento yester-
day and said that the next Legislature
will abolish the State Fish and Game Com
mission and that he will help them do it..
In warming up to the subject he declared
that the commission had been notoriously
ineffective and he could see no reason why
it should exist any longer. At the same
time he protested that California
afforded a splendid field for effec-
tive work in protecting game in
field and stream, and that the
proper men could and would do good
work. Since the appointment of the pres
ent commission there had been continual
wrangle, and while this was going on fish
were being slaughtered out of season by
the thousands and game birds and ami
mails were shot down by hunters who
laughed at the law. Game wardens had
been appointed to serve without pay, and
In many counties no wardens had been
appointed at all. The commission
had fund to draw upon for the
payment of its employees, yet through
lack of foresight it had been thought
best to let them consider their position as
an honorary one, when any one who knew
anything about it knew that nothing could
be more undesirable than the work that a
game warden was compelled to do. Lying
hour after hour in the marshes or tramp
ing over miles of country in the broiling