The High-Stakes Battle Over Fur Seals in the North Pacific

In response to the current agitation by the state, the mayor, and citizens of Victoria, there is considerable interest in the fate of the Canadian sealing industry. A friendly atmosphere of compromise is desirable, as the whole question is largely one of international law. It is to be hoped that the Republican convention at the polls will not imply a further assumption of foreign policy for the United States, but rather a settlement of the Bering Sea dispute in conformity with the principles of international law. John Quincy Adams first discussed this point, and it remained for Secretary Manning to intimate the right of the United States to exclusive jurisdiction. At the last session of the House of Representatives, the majority (being Democratic) proposed an amendment to the statute regulating the killing of fur seals and other bearing animals, which was designed to assert the rights of the United States to all the waters within the boundary lines mentioned in the treaty. The Senate committee—Sherman, Edmunds, Frye, Platt, Dolph, Morgan, Brown, Manderson and Plumb—unanimously voted down the amendment, and adopted instead one which merely declares the provisions of the statute apply to all the dominion of the United States in the Bering Sea.