Territory. And because of their solidarity they
are damned by those professional politicians who
have raped the country and its resources for
many years.
When the economic condition of these people
is bettered they will no longer speak as one unit
in their demands of the officials of Alaska and its
legislature.
-x
DEMOCRATIC PROMISES
-x
In the past campaign—nat’onally—the Demo
crats were out and out on a “wet” campaign with
promises to make the country wet at the first op
portunity. At present there are 39 of the rank
ing Democrats in the Senate who are dry and only
four wet. Give the bunkum artists the cake for
pulling wool over the eyes of the electors, wheth
er you like it or not, the power to make the
country wet or dry will remain in the hands of
the 39 dry Democrats.
With the party strength of the Senate divided
47 Democrats, 48 Republicans and 1 Farmer La
bor, it does not appear that there will be much
controversial legislation passed in the next two
years. The House of Representatives also being
divided, 217 Democrats and 217 Republicans with
one Farmer Labor, it looks like a toss-up as to
which party will be in the saddle and whether
Nick Longworth or Tom Garner will be speaker.
And still the blatant political tin gods go on
making promises which they have no intention of
keeping or which they know they have no inten
tion of trying to keep. Still, promises to some
mean nothing. And campaign promises to most
of them are not made to be kept. The next legis
lature sitting at Juneau may fairly demonstrate
the gullibity of the voters.
-x
A FUNDAMENTAL PRINCIPLE OF LIBERTY
' -X
Judge William N. Runyon of the United States
District Court in New Jersey, recently released a
man charged with expressing opinions favorable
to Communism. The judge held that the accused
had violated no law and should not be punished
unless it could be shown that he sought to over
throw the government. In the course of his de
cision, Judge Runyon said:
“I don’t take it that this government is de
signed to throttle a man’s ideas, to close his
mouth. I believe that free speech is just as much
today an incident and a principle of this govern
ment as it ever was. I believe you have the right
to express your ideas when you please so long
as those ideas so expressed are not designed to un
do and destroy our government. The exchange
of your ideas in the course of conversation, are a
part of your rights.”
From which statement it would appear that
the principle of free speech guaranteed under the
Constitution of the United States is a liberty still
recognized as a right of citizenship and that
even a judge may not deprive any citizen of that
liberty without a fair hearing in court. It might
be weli for others besides judges to read the deci
sion of Judge Runyon and further to give the
Constitution and Declaration more than a pass
ing glance.
-x
DIFFERENCE IN ALASKA HERRING
-x
George A. Rounsfell, investigator for the U. S.
Bureau of Fisheries has definitely established for
the Bureau, the fact that at least in Alaska, her
ring are not all alike. He declares that different
races or tribes of the species inhabit various re
gions of the coast, and he has shown that these
clans of fish do but little migrating or traveling.
This verifies the statement by fishermen of
Alaska.
The charge has been made through the col
umns of this paper and in the columns of the
Alaskan published at Petersburg that depletion
of the herring fisheries would be an accomplish
ed fact unless remedial regulatory measures were
forthcoming at a very early date. It has been
our observation that areas inhabited by herring
have been fished out and that those areas have
not been restocked by other schools of herring
The species in Alaska differs from that of Nor
way in that the Norway herring is of virtually
the same stock which return to the same spawn
ing areas. While in Alaska, the species is pecu
liar to each district and when the district is de
pleted there is no reseeding of that area in the
following years. The operation of herring fer
tilizer plants putting up millions of pounds of
fertilizer and oil spelled the death of this fine
food fish. The herring are being exploited on
to a tremendous a scale.
The catch of Alaska herring has averaged
about 160,000,000 pounds a year during the past
four years. The bureau of fisheries has at last
been importuned to have some concern about
the fisheries. Mr.. Rounsefell last year in his
report published in the Pacific Fisherman de
clared that if fishing becomes too severe in any
area there is grave danger of decimating the
breeding stock for the reason that the herring
do not migrate as do the herring of Norway and
other fish do not come to replace those caught.
The responsibility of depletion of this fishery