JUNE 14, 1919 
 
 
 COMPLIMENTS OF 
 
 SCRIPPS INSTlTimOK 
 FOR 
 
 BIOLOGICAL RESEARCH 
 
 BULLETIN 
 
 OF THE 
 
 SCRIPPS INSTITUTION FOR BIOLOGICAL RESEARCH 
 
 OF THE 
 
 UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA 
 
 THE PROBLEM OF THE PACIFIC 
 
 BY 
 
 WILLIAM E. RITTER 
 
THE PROBLEM OF THE PACIFIC 
 
 By william E. RITTER 
 
 ‘‘The New Pacific,” “The New Par East,” “The Problem of the 
 Pacific” and phrases of like import have been much in vogue during 
 the past few decades. To different groups of persons they have had 
 different meanings. To the group whose interests are anthropological 
 in the technical sense, they connote the meeting and commingling of 
 dominant types of mankind on a scale and in a fashion not occurring 
 before in the history of mankind. 
 
 To those interested in problems of civilized society taken broadly, 
 they envisage such a coming together and testing of the relative merits 
 of types of culture as the world has not hitherto seen. To statesman¬ 
 ship which looks beyond as well as within political boundaries, the 
 phrases connote very large questions of international politics and law. 
 To the largest and most powerful group of all, that which stands for 
 commerce and finance, the expressions mean above everything else, the 
 issue as to what nation and what industrial and monetary interests 
 shall dominate the Pacific area to the end of becoming the chief bene¬ 
 ficiaries of the vast wealth, actual and potential, of the region. 
 
 But there is still another group to which the phrases have, or ought 
 to have, yet another primary meaning. This is the group of broadly 
 observant and careful reflective naturalists. 
 
 The point I want to make necessitates a few sentences on what 
 should be understood by the term “naturalist.” 
 
 A true naturalist is one who accepts the external world in its 
 totality without cavil or preconception and makes it his life-business 
 to describe what he finds with the utmost truthfulness, and to discover 
 as much as possible of the law pervading the endless bald facts which 
 his descriptions have recorded. The naturalist is the preeminently - 
 rational variety of the human species. He is preeminently rational, 
 
 I say, because he considers himself as one who not only applies his 
 reason to the problems of man and the rest of nature, but who learns 
 how the parts of nature are related, and therein discovers the reason 
 in nature. According to the naturalist “Reason” does not ‘Horm the 
 world,” as metaphysical idealism would have it. Rather every human 
 
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being recognizes some measure of unity in the world. That by means 
 of which this unity is perceived the naturalist calls man’s reason; 
 while that about the world which makes it amenable to such percep¬ 
 tion he calls the world’s reason, or the rationality of nature. 
 
 In the presence of stupendous natural phenomena like those of the 
 ocean all people in all ages have been powerfully wrought upon 
 through their imaginations and emotions. Whether cultured white 
 or untutored black, Mongolian or Polynesian, Malay or Aleut, none 
 escape. The sea’s mighty power, its beneficence and its cruelty, its 
 mystery, its incitement to reverence and to superstition—he who has 
 no experience of the primal instincts involved in these, or having such 
 experience tries to thrust it aside as infantile and outgrown, is in¬ 
 capable of treating intelligently and usefully any of the major 
 problems of the ocean and man in relation to it. In just these 
 primordial attributes of the human spirit, teacher, administrator and 
 industrial leader may stand on common ground with sailor and fisher¬ 
 man and aboriginal of whatever race. 
 
 But what possibilities of degradation and misery as well as of 
 exaltation and beneficence are germinal in these deep, ancient human 
 attributes! Hence the transcendent importance of reason in the slow, 
 laborious, progress of civilization, its true role being, never to fail to 
 notice, not to supplant or suppress imagination and emotion, but to 
 supplement and guide them, to make their beneficence more certain, 
 more continuous, more enduring. 
 
 The naturalist would be untrue to his instincts, to the traditions 
 of his calling, and to his training, if he viewed such a problem as that 
 of the Pacific in any lesser light than that of the fundamental nature 
 of man and of the geographic area concerned. 
 
 Viewed from this starting point it is seen that the Problem of the 
 Pacific during the four centuries of its existence, is an incontestible 
 refutation of the modern doctrine that an all-sufficient interpretation 
 of human life can be reached on an economic basis. 
 
 Nothing is written more legibly on the pages of history than that 
 the mighty movement of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, one 
 of the remarkable occurrences of which was Magellan’s voyage right 
 through the middle of the little known Atlantic and less known Pacific 
 oceans, was at least as much a manifestation of human curiosity and 
 the spirit of adventure, as it was of greed for material gain. Nor can 
 an open minded reader of human character and history fail to recog¬ 
 nize the religious element—desire to save souls and exalt the Church 
 —as also fundamental. 
 
 The spices of the Indies, the silks of Cathay, and the gold of the 
 Americas! Not a doubt about the lure of these; but the strength of 
 even that lure was in no small measure sentimental and romantic. Nor 
 
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ca,ii the thirst for knowledge—positive, objective knowledge—be put 
 down as a mere subsidiary factor in the great achievements of the era. 
 He who would subordinate Magellan’s determination to test his well- 
 calculated hypothesis that the new waters Balboa had seen at Darien, 
 were the same he himself had seen at Malacca; and the same navi¬ 
 gator’s, attempt, at the cost of his own life, to make the natives of the 
 Philippines Christian by force of arms^—he, I say, who would assess 
 these motives of Magellan as less powerful than his cupidity, is no 
 trustworthy narrator of human acts, no true interpreter of human 
 nature. 
 
 Even the famous pirates and buccaneers, Drake, Cavendish, 
 Lolonnois, Morgan and the rest, were not as exclusively riches-seekers 
 as economists of the modern school would make them. Thirst for 
 adventure and blood was more than thirst for gold with these men, 
 as has often been said. 
 
 And such semi-scientific voyages as those of Cook and Bering, and 
 such fully scientific explorations as those of the ‘‘Beagle,” the U. S. 
 exploring expedition, and the “Challenger;” and such missionary 
 efforts as those of Junipera Serra, of John Williams, of Lorimer Pison, 
 of Ivan Veniaminof and of Wm. Duncan, are not a whit less funda- 
 mental, even if somewhat less bulky, a part of the Problem than were 
 the operations of the Kussian American Company, the Alaska Com¬ 
 mercial Company, the Deutsche Handels-und Plantagen-Gesellschaft 
 der Sudsee-Insen zu Hamburg, and the Colonial Sugar Refining Com¬ 
 pany. 
 
 The problem of the Pacific like the older problem of the Atlantic 
 and the still older one of the Mediterranean, and of every other 
 definitive part of the earth, rests on what can be marked off into five 
 approximately equal sectors of the human animal’s nature: (1) that 
 of his physical nature requiring nutriment, clothing, and other 
 material things; (2) that of his emotional and imaginative nature, 
 urging to objective adventure; (3) that of his religious and philan¬ 
 thropic nature expressing itself in placative, votive and adorative acts 
 toward the mysterious forces of the universe a part of which he recog¬ 
 nizes himself to be, and which work alternately for his benefit and 
 injury; (4) that of his rational nature demanding infallible objective 
 knowledge of himself and the enveloping universe; and (5) that of 
 his social nature, manifesting itself in political and institutional 
 organization and performance. 
 
 The next move toward our goal will be by way of a single small sub¬ 
 division of the general problem. Take the fur industry of the extreme 
 North Pacific, letting the fur seal question stand central in it, as it 
 does naturally. The five sectors of man’s nature indicated above stand 
 out clearly in this subproblem. 
 
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The existence far to the north of numbers of mammalian species 
 the pelts of which were valuable for human clothing first became 
 known to the civilized world in the mid-eighteenth century through the 
 explorations of the navigator Vitus Bering and the naturalist G. H. 
 Steller, their efforts being a manifestation of Russians spirit of 
 curiosity afid adventure and desire for geographic knowledge. We 
 know positively that neither desire for lands nor trade cut much figure 
 with the Russian authorities who set these explorations afoot. 
 
 The story of economic utilization and destruction which followed 
 in the wake of the discoveries, and continued a full century, though 
 highly illuminating, must be passed by except for three points: (1) 
 the almost complete extermination of some of the richest fur bearing 
 animals, notably the sea otter, as a consequence of unintelligent, 
 uncontrolled, rapacious hunting and trading; (2) the gradual coming 
 in of scientific knowledge and political action to regulate the industry 
 and save from destruction something of this remaining source of' 
 wealth; and (3) the humanitarian efforts, first purely religious but 
 later political, on behalf of the natives, Esquimos and Indians. The 
 economic operations were as ruthlessly destructive of the natives as 
 of the fur bearing animals. In consequence, not only humanitarian 
 and religious motives led to efforts for the people, but the indispensa¬ 
 bility of the Esquimos particularly as laborers for prosecuting the 
 industries, worked to the'same end. 
 
 Confining ourselves now to the fur seal question, attention is called 
 to what may be designated as the era of pure economism in the history 
 of the question. This era extends from the discovery of the Pribilof 
 islands and their seal herds in 1786, to 1910, the year of expiration of 
 the North American Company’s government-secured monopoly of the 
 business, and the assumption by the government of the United States 
 of immediate charge and operation of the property. The period is 
 described as one of pure economism, from the fact that during this 
 time the policy was based on the familiar belief that economic con¬ 
 siderations are paramount; that other factors which necessarily come 
 in, as political, scientific and humanitarian, are yet wholly secondary 
 and subordinate to economic factors. 
 
 As might have been expected, failure, even economic failure, 
 viewing the matter broadly, resulted. Regulative measures for killing 
 seals while they were on the islands were adopted and carried out with 
 considerable faithfulness, but they were based on inadequate natural 
 history knowledge of the animals, so proved only partially effective 
 for conserving the herds. Pelagic sealing, seal killing, that is, while 
 the animals are on the high seas, came into vogue, and was especially 
 disastrous in that it destroyed breeding females and young as well as 
 males. 
 
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The total result was that in the nineties of the last century it became 
 certain that unless a radically different course in managing the herds 
 was adopted, their economic extinguishment was only a question of a 
 few years. 
 
 Our national government resolved to take the problem seriously 
 in hand. Commendably it began by making a scientific study of not 
 only the American but all the northern fur seal herds, such as had 
 never before been approached. The report of the investigating com¬ 
 mission of 1896 and 1897 headed by the distinguished naturalist and 
 administrator, David Starr Jordan, is a model of what a combined 
 scientific and economic report should be. It is noteworthy that the 
 investigating commission was composed of British as well as American 
 scientists, this because an important aspect of the problem, that of 
 pelagic sealing, involved Canadian, English, and Japanese interests 
 as well as those of the United States. 
 
 The most important results so far attained by the new course pur¬ 
 sued by the United States Government, the initial move in which was 
 this investigation, are : (1) the international convention of 1911 between 
 the United States, Great Britain, Japan, and Russia, by which pelagic 
 seal killing is entirely stopped during the continuance of the treaty 
 so far as the citizens of these countries are concerned; (2) the demon¬ 
 stration that depleted seal herds can be rehabilitated, and what 
 measures consonant with economic profits are necessary to insure the 
 perpetuity of the herds; and, (3) the decisive wisdom of our Gov¬ 
 ernment in undertaking to handle the whole situation on the basis 
 of scientific knowledge of the seals, humanitarian treatment of the 
 natives, and due regard for the internationally economic and political 
 interests involved. 
 
 But it would be erroneous to suppose that the fur seal problem is 
 thus solved wholly and for all time. 
 
 Although there is no doubt about the efficacy of the international 
 convention so far as it has been tested, its real test is yet to come— 
 began indeed last year, 1918. Its operation from now till its self- 
 determined expiration in 1926 will be crucial; and just as in its origin 
 and present nature it is international, so the detailed watch over its 
 operation ought to be international. 
 
 But it is in the possibilities, indeed probabilities for the more distant 
 future of the fur seal problem that interest in it reaches its highest 
 level. 
 
 Weighty considerations can be brought forward to support the 
 belief that if the peoples of the Pacific area, along with those of the 
 rest of the world, continue to advance in civilization the Pacific Ocean 
 in common with the other waters of the earth will, as geographical 
 features, and as producers of animals and plants essential to civilized 
 
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man, play an incalculably larger role in that advance than they have 
 liitherto. 
 
 Now these seals along with other marine mammals would almost 
 surely be important elements in this larger role. As indicated above, 
 the seals, at any rate, are demonstrably susceptible of a sort of culti¬ 
 vation. At the same time that they are being utilized for a variety 
 of human needs, their numbers can be augmented. Their productive¬ 
 ness can be made an inereasing quantity. So far as the northern fur 
 seal herds are concerned, the limit of such increase appears to be 
 the space available for the animals during the breeding period. It is 
 not a question of food supply, but of living room, this from the 
 peculiar habits of the animals in choosing small, rocky islands as breed¬ 
 ing places. But certainly as regards the American, or Pribilof 
 Island herds, and probably as regards the Russian, or Commander 
 Island herds and the Japanase, or Kuril Island herds, there is room 
 for expansion beyond what was utilized before commercial depletion 
 began. 
 
 But were a great augmentation of the herds to take place, an 
 aspect of the problem which has hitherto received little attention 
 would almost certainly become prominent. ' This is the question of 
 the food of the seals during the half-year of their long oceanic journey- 
 ings off the North American and Asiatic coasts. That the American 
 seals feed to some extent, while in the far north, on salmon is certain. 
 But concerning their food while they are off the coast of Canada and 
 the Pacific states little is known. Are they not likely to utilize the 
 most abundant fishes of these waters, the herrings, sardines, mackerels, 
 etc. ? But these are just the fish groups which are becoming the bases 
 of some of the world’s important fisheries. At any rate even if the 
 seals do not feed directly and extensively on these economieally 
 valuable fishes, it is inevitable that their food habits should be closely 
 involved with the lives of the fishes—so inextricable do we now know 
 the ‘‘web of life” to be in the waters, as well as upon the lands of 
 the earth. 
 
 So starting with a small, seemingly detached piece of that aspect 
 of the problem of the Pacific which concerns the ocean as an organic 
 producer, rather than as a commercial and military highway merely, 
 we are led on naturally into the problem of the biology of the Pacific 
 in its entire gamut from its marine mammals down to its microscopic 
 plants. And the problem is, be it noticed, one which concerns in the 
 main extra territorial waters. In its very essence it is international. 
 
 The merest glance at a quite different aspect of our problem as a 
 whole must now be taken; that namely, of the infiuence of the ocean 
 as a geographic feature, upon the peoples inhabiting its appertinent 
 lands. 
 
The illustrative question chosen is that of possible seasonal weather 
 forecasting from scientific studies on the ocean and its superincumbent 
 and contiguous atmosphere. Metereology and oceanography have 
 already advanced far enough to justif}^ the hypothesis that in general 
 weather variations for a given land area might be foretold some 
 months in advance on the basis of adequate knowledge of atmospheric 
 and oceanic conditions. 
 
 The enormous practical importance of such possibilities for agricul¬ 
 ture, water supply and so forth is so obvious as to need little comment. 
 The only point I enlarge upon is the much greater relative importance 
 of it in the future than at present, especially for a semi-arid, sparsely 
 populated region like that of much of western North America. 
 Unforewarned water and crop shortage will be a much more serious 
 matter generations hence when the population of this region shall 
 be much denser than it is now. 
 
 To the naturalist, then, the problem of the Pacific, while indeed 
 international, is so because it is part of a much larger, interpeoples 
 problem. And successful handling of it is conditioned upon the 
 creation among the peoples concerned of what may be called an 
 interpeoples and an interracial consciousness. Such a consciousness 
 would have to rest on all the five sectors of man’s nature mentioned 
 above: the economic, the emotional and imaginative, the religious and 
 philanthropic, the rational, and the political. 
 
 Otherwise and more succinctly stated, the problem is one of basing 
 the political unity of nations on the biotic and ethnic unity of peoples, 
 making large use to this end of the common Merest the peoples have 
 in those port Mis of naUire which are the external groundwork of their 
 lives. 
 
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