le
long, and they sink two hundred feet in the water. What chance has a
school of fish against that? They surround a school and there is no
escape.

Clemente Island, the sister island to Catalina, was once a paradise for
fish, especially the beautiful, gamy yellowtail. But there are no more
fish there, except Marlin swordfish in August and September. The great,
boiling schools of yellowtail are gone. Clemente Island has no
three-mile law protecting it, as has Catalina. But that Catalina law has
become a farce. It is violated often in broad daylight, and probably all
night long. One Austrian round-haul netter took seven tons of white
sea-bass in one haul. Seven tons! Did you ever look at a white sea-bass?
He is the most beautiful of bass--slender, graceful, thoroughbred,
exquisitely colored like a paling opal, and a fighter if there ever was
one.

What becomes of these seven tons of white sea-bass and all the other
tons and tons of yellowtail and albacore? That is a question. It needs
to be answered. During the year 1917 one heard many things. The
fish-canneries were working day and night, and every can of fish--the
whole output had been bought by the government for the soldiers. Very
good. We are a nation at war. Our soldiers must be properly fed and so
must our allies. If it takes all the fish in the sea and all the meat on
the land, we must and will win this war.

But real patriotism is one thing and misstatement is another. If there
were not so much deceit and greed in connection with this war it would
be easier to stomach.

As a matter of cold fact, that round-haul netter's seven tons of
beautiful white sea-bass did not go into cans for our good soldiers or
for our fighting allies. Those seven tons of splendid white sea-bass
went into the fertilizer-plant, where many and many a ton had gone
before!

It is not hard to comprehend. When they work for the fertilizer-plants
they do not need ice--they do not need to hurry to the port to save
spoiling--they can stay out till the boat is packed full. So often a
greater part of the magnificent schools of white sea-bass, albacore, and
yellowtail--splendid food fish--go into the fertilizer-plants to make a
few foreign-born hogs rich. Hundreds of aliens, many of them hostile to
the United States, are making big money, which is sent abroad.

I believe that the great kelp-beds round Catalina are the
spawning-grounds of these fish in question. And not only a
spawning-grou