meat the earth produces.
And New York is no excep
tion. The percapita consump
tion of fish brought into Bos
ton is only 1 Va pounds a month
for the state of Massachusetts.
But the Massachusetts figure,
we read, is very heavy. It is
thirty times greater than the
percapita consumption of Bos
ton fish in the other 29 states
receiving fish from there. What
a marvelous opportunity there
is for the Halibut producer, if
he will only obtain control of
the distribution of his catch.
Massachusetts used 56% of
over 6,000,000 lbs of Boston fish
in a month. Pennsylvania took
a tenth as much, 618,582 lbs;
Ohio, the centre ot population
in the U. S. A. took less than
four carloads, 93,605 lbs; Ken
tucky took 807 lbs; Alabama,
Oklahoma and North Dakota
took less than one hundred
pounds each. Nineteen states
took none at all. It may be
here imagined that these places
received fish from other sources,
but of the fish brought into
Boston in a year we find that
Seattle shipped 78 cars of hal
ibut, 65% cars of salmon and
24 cars halibut and salmon
mixed, while 852 boxes of hal
ibut and 2,990 boxes of salmon
were received there from the
Pacific coast by steamer.
But, we will ask, why don t
the big dealers take advantage
of this great population in our
middle states and provinces and
sell to them if it is a possible
market? The answer is, They
cannot profitably advertise fish.
No private dealer can step out
and advertise fish very exten
sively and receive a just re
turn for the money so invest
ed. The commodity has no
protection and the dealer who
doesn’t spend a dime on ad
vertising can sit back and get
as much benefit from his neigh
bors investment as he can. But
a Co-operative Halibut Pool of
this coast could fling exten
sive advertising from one end
of this continent to the other
and reap a direct benefit from
his efforts. It is strictly a bus
iness proposition with them, if
they will only take advantage
of it.
We see the orange and raisin
producers organized and Presto!
We see oranges and raisins ad
vertised and a demand created
far beyond the fondest hopes
of any private dealer. We do
not see fresh tomatoes, bananas,
fish etc., advertised because the
producers are not organized.
Can they put a wrapper of
some kind on them where they
can be protected by a copy
righted label, and the dealer
can advertise such label. The
producer must go on and be
the slave to inefficiency iust as
long as he permits inefficiency
to control him. “None of us
liveth to himself.” The great
cities of the old world were
founded by fisherfolk because
of their accessability to the
fisheries and the protection
their location gave to their
boats. But the importance of
the fishing industry in these
large centres has been lost sight
of because of lack of proper
organization, the absence of
any kind of system, among
those actually engaged in the
industry. Are we, men of the
twentieth century going to al
low such chaos to be passed on
to posterity indefinitely? In
dications are that the time has
come for a change.
President Coolidge, sneaking"
of Co-operation, said, “The ad
vantages which have been set be
fore us in this and other coun
tries are so numerous and im
pressive that one cannot but
wish that every encouragement
may be given to it.” New and
revised Co-operative laws are
being made effective in every
state in *-be Union a^d in Can
ada. The Blue sky laws are
coming in for their share of
adjustment to new conditions,
but as Secretary Jardine point
ed out, the governments can
only provide the necessary
legal machinery, its up to the
producers themselves to take
advantage ot it.
Unfortunately for the fisher
men, however, he has never
been conceived of as a possible
Co-operator, except in the Pro
vince of Quebec and one or
two states. Co-operative mar
keting laws of Washington
state take in horticulture, viti
culture, forestry, dairy, live
stock, poultry, bee and farm
products. Were they not aware
that the potential food supply
of the highseas is limitless?
Suitable laws for organizing a
co-operative associations are
available, but not as extensive
for the fisherman as for the
farmer. A great deal of study
is being given this matter by
those concerned with the pres
ent movement among our Hal
ibut fishermen, and as soon as
the support of these folks is
obtained the matter will be
brought to the attention of the
powers that be. Space pre
vents our dealing with this
here.
Co-operation, as suggested to
us here, is not a piece meal af
fair where the fishermen strive
to boost the price of fish alone.
The fishermen is no more es
sential to the industry than
those distributing fish over our
vast country among its millions
of people. The middle man
cannot be eliminated, but he
can be used to much greater
advantage than at present, if
the producers will organize
themselves and be in position
to say who will handle fish for
them, and select their distri
butors according to their effi
ciency and square dealing.
Backed by businesslike organi
zation controlling the source of
supply of halibut, any large
distributing concern would wel
come the opportunity to rep
resent that organization as its
distributing and marketing agent
in the various distributing
centres. This would not in
terfere with the business of
other dealers as they would buy
them reaui**ernents from the
agents of the Pacific Halibut
Pool.
There may T>e man}/ cf the
old school that will frown upon
any new ideas, whether they
be progressive or not, but let
the fishermen assert himself,
and stand solid beside his fel
low-workers in this natural
course, like a wagon down hill.
All that is required is that it
be properly controlled. With
our laws now up-to-date, this
can be done; the time has now
arrived for putting our fish
eries on a businesslike level
with our other twentieth-cen
tury industries.
Justice Brandeis cf the U. S.
Supreme court has stated;
“And when the Co-operative