Jones announces that he con
siders the governor the spokes
man of the people of the state
rnd he will oppose the treaty.
Jones is a Republican. Senator
C. C. Dill, Democrat informed
a few close friends before leav
ing for Washington he would
oppose the sockeye salmon
treaty because Governor Hartly,
Republican, didn’t want it, and
he believed that the Republican
governor should shoulder the
entire responsibility for its de
feat.
If they are right, the oppon
ents of the treaty have written
their own swan song in state. If
they are wrong, the opponents
of the treaty will be stronger
than ever, politically. The future
rests in the hands of the gods.-—
Jimmie K. Brown, in the Chi
nook, (Wn.) Observer.
Ed. Note: We had a deal of
respect for Senator Dill because
of his labor record and inde
pendence. When a critic likens
the Senator to Pilot who washed
his hands of the fate of the Na
zarene he only dodged a ques
tion which, by his action betray
a weakness. How much greater
in history would Pilot have been
had he followed the dictates of
his own conscience and declared
tc the Jews justice in the case as
he saw it. Responsibility for the
defeat of the salmon treaty may
be the fault of Governor Hartley
but a certain portion of that de
feat will be laid at the feet of
Senator Dill of Washington.
Utilization of Man-power In the Fishing Industry
By COLIN McKAY
Canada Produces $876 per man
compared with England s
$1980.
Utilization of the Man-Power of
the Industry will, thinks Mr.
McKay, provide the solution.
The man-power efficiency of
Canada’s fisheries is consider
ably below that of the fisheries
of England and Wales.
Canada’s fisheries, in the pri
mary operations of catching and
landing fish, employed 62,785
persons in 1928. The year’s pro
duction had a market value of
$55 059,973. The value of the
catch per man works out at
about $876.00.
The fisheries of England and
Wales in 1920-1928 employed 30,
203 fishermen regularly and 3,
839 part of the time, a total of
34,042 fishermen. The wet fish
landed by the fishing craft of
England and Wales was valued
at 13,989,000 pounds sterling or
about $37 000,000. The value of
the catch per man was about
$1,980.00.
According to these figures, the
value of the production per man
in the British fisheries was more
than twice as great as in the
Canadian fisheries. At the same
time, the catches of high-priced
fish, such as lobsters, salmon,
and halibut, made by the fisher
X
men of England and Wales are
small as compared with corres
ponding catches made by Can
adian fishermen.
Employment is Seasonal In
British Columbia
Of course, in an important re
spect, this comparison is not
valid as a measure of the rela
tive efficiency of the fisheries in
the two countries. A better
measure would be the value of
the catches per working hour
per man. The great majority of
the fishermen of England and
Wales are engaged in fishing op
erations the year round. On the
other hand, great numbers of
Canadian fishermen are only
seasonally employed at fish
ing, in many cases because of
natural conditions; in others be
cause of governmental regula
tions. None the less, the com
parison has a certain interest
from the point of view of the ef
ficiency of a nation’s use of its
man-power. Organization of the
Canadian fisheries so as to pro
vide steady employment for ev
ery man who finds it profitable
to engage in seasonal fishing is
out of the question; it might be
possible to assure ^ much great
er number fairly steady work in
the fisheries, but that would re
quire a shifting about of great
bodies of fishermen that would
leave them even less opportunity
of home life than they now have.
But what is not out of the
question is the organization of
the general economic life of
Canada so as to assure employ
ment for fishermen in other oc
cupations when they are not
able to carry on fishing opera
tions. Many fishermen find gain
ful employment in the off-sea
sons, but insofar as Canadian
fishermen are idle between fish
ing seasons, the economic system
of Canada may be said to be in
efficient, since it does not ade
quately utilize its man-power.
Prom this aspect, the problem
of the fisheries in Canada differs
materially from that of England
and Wales where it is possible
for the great majority of the
fishermen to find regular em
ployment in their own occupa
tion. If population is to be re
stored to shore fishing commun
ities, some new direction needs
to be given the economic life of
Canada, whereby new industries
will enable the fishermen to sup
plement his earnings from the
fisheries.
The decline in the fishing po
population of Nova Scotia, since