The Birmingham age-herald., 1923-11-01
PART PLAYED BY
 FISH IN HISTORY
(New York Times)


 in this country, are said to be uncommon in France. Not that France lacks amateur fishermen their number Is legion-but that none has ever been seen to catch a fish, or even to have bite, and that for the Frenchmen who line the banks of rivers and ca nals in all parts of the country the catch and it's recounting are apparently matters of no impor- tance. Cynical travellers have de- clared that there are no fish In French waters and have conse- quently admired the patience of the French fisherman who, armed with umbrella and often with book and pipe. sits immovably on a campstool with rod and line in hand for an entire day at a time. And yet what traveller in France has not eaten, in almost every inn where he has stopped, fish pre- pared in the delectable style known only to French chefs?
 The holding of "fish week" un- der the supervision of the French government seems, therefore, little like the campaign of some of our own economists who have been preaching "eat more bread" in order to meet the troubles of our wheat growers. Not content with mere preaching, the govern ment established fish-frying cen ters in the interior of France where portions of fried fish from the sea were sold for few cents. The real purpose was the popu- larization of saltwater fish, in order to help the fishing indus tries of the channel ports. which have recently been suffering from bad times.
 French fishermen have for cen turies piled their trade in the North Sea and off our own Grand Banks. For the former Dieppe has been the center, specializing in herring, and for the latter St. Malo and Brest, from which gem erations of fishermen have sailed across the Atlantic in pursuit of the cod. The movements of the herring are still the subject of speculation, but their influence on history is generally conceded by advocates of it's economic in- depreciation, who point to the fact that herring moved in large numbers into the Baltic Sea in the twelfth century, greatly con tributing to the wealth and de- velopment of the Hanseatic towns, which were quick to build up a vast trade in salt fish. For some unknown reason, in the early part of the fifteenth countrywide date is given in some sources as 1425-they deserted the Baltic for the North Sea, off the Dutch coast. In time the Hansa prosperity de- clined, and the Dutch fisheries, greatly stimulated, became source of new wealth and power to the Netherlands. The Dutch in the late sixteenth century de- veloped a method of curing and barreling the herring that gave them an unusual advantage in the trade with Catholic Central and Southern Europe.
 Despite the fact that in our own history the fishermen and mer- chantmen did not much intermin- gle, and that when our navy ex- banded during the war of 1872 1t drew most of it's recruits from the latter. it has been the experience of both England and Holland that a great fishing trade is closely allied with a great merchant ma rine, and these in turn with a big navy. There is little doubt that generations of fishermen furnish ed excellent material for the ma- rine. and that the great impetus to the sea which originated in the fisheries was carried over into the merchant service and the navy. In helping her fishermen by stim- ulating the demand for their product, France. therefore. is prof iting from this lesson. But such is the number of the inland fish ermen who sit by the river banks forever, that to encourage them would probably result in paralyz- ing all work-and probably in no increase in the numbereof market able fish.