LETTER TO PHILADELPHIA
Mr. B. K. Wilbur,
Philadelphia, Pa.
I see by the paper that G. W. Ed
monds was defeated for renomina
tion from his Philadelphia District.
The most discouraging aspect of
our fight for fair fish laws, was the
fact that this man was the rank
ing member of the committee for
the Merchant Marine and Fisheries,
and thoroughly committed to the
side of exploiting interests. Th?.
situation in Alaska is worse than
ever before, on account of the ap
parent alliance between the Bureau
of Fisheries and the trap interests
The law which gave Mr. Hoover
complete control of fisheries with
out limitation wo uld be a good law
if our public officials were free to
do whatever the circumstances war
rant, but these officials are be
holden to the large cannery and
trap interests, and therefore they
are not free. In side-stepping the
issue of placing responsibility for
the depletion of our fisheries as
it relates to the kind of gear, to
wit: fish traps or seines, these of
ficials state that they will not en
ter into the controversy whatever
on the ground that it makes no dif
ference how the fish are caught,
since in any event the fish are
dead. They continue the argument
by saying that if all the fish are
caught by seines or by traps our
fisheries would be destroyed. Their
business they say is the conserva
tion of fish by guaranteeing the
escapement.
These officials then promulgated
rules to guarantee the escapement,
and in every case the rules merely
extend the restricted area an addi
tional distance from the mouth of
the creek, and as you know our
seining grounds are altogether in
this area. Consequently the seine
catch is being reduced constantly,
whereas the trap catch is undis
turbed. For example: my family’s
fishing ground is at Salmon Bay,
North Prince of Wales Island.
There my family has been able to
make a living by catching three or
four thousand red salmon each year,
bringing us an income of about two
thousand dollars. The big traps a
mile or so below our fishing ground,
which catch the fish as they pro
ceed to the spawning grounds of
Salmon Bay, catch during the same
period of time something like three
hundred thousand salmon. As a
consequence Salmon Bay is con
sidered as an example of fishery
depletion. Therefore the Bureau *,f
Fisheries have closed Salmon Bay
to fishing and driven my family
from that District. This guaranteed
an additional escapement of per
haps five thousand salmon or even
ten thousand salmon, as there were
two other families who made their
living- there. Nothing, however, is
done to curtail the catch of the
big trap that levies its annual tri
bute of three hundred thousand on
passing schools of fish. You will
see that conservation is thus placed
one hundred per cent on the small
resident fisherman. This is what I
mean when I say that there is an
apparent alliance between the of
ficers of the United States Govern
ment who have control of all fish
eries under Herbert Hoover, and
the big packing and trapping in
terests.
I do not know what we can hope
for by continuing the fight against
the ruination of our country. I
only know that since these condi
tions are wrong, it is the duty of
all free men to fight against the
oppression that comes through
these large exploiting corporation
interests- Some of you may not
place the blame upon Secretary
Hoover, but many of us have talked
with Mr. Hoover. We have given
him all the information necessary
and still he shuts his eyes against
the painful truth and tells the world
that everything in Alaska is as it
should be
I am giving you this information
because I know that you are in
terested, and with the hope that
you will use your influence on be
half of these people for whom you
have spent so many years of your
own life.
Yours sincerely,
WILLIAM L. PAUL.
“UNROMANTIC RASCALS”
A book has been recently pub
lished having- for a title “Memoirs
of the Foreign Legion,” by a mem
ber thereof who signs himself as
M. M. The common conception of
the Foreign Legion is that it was
a regiment composed of generous
souls that burned to fight for
France. He had been told that the
spirit was of “the greatest coma*
raderie;” that there were companies
of each nationality with officers of
the same nationality; that the Le
gion was now a clean and healthy
place. He found by his own ac
count, so he says, that there was
not a word of truth in any of this;
that the whole environment was un
speakably foul, that 70 per cent of
the Legionnaires were Germans,
and that idealism was the last thing
to look for in its ranks.
It should be said in passing, how
ever, that the writer M. M. was not
of those who took part in active
battles, but being himself a Ger
man and coming into the Legion
late, he was forced to stay behind,
for it was found that the Germans
in this Legion would desert to the
enemy on every occasion.
One or two passages from this
book are worthy of re-printing.
Coming from a man of German
blood this description is amazing.
“The Legion was the stamping
ground of the typical ex-German
as he has been described for gen
erations. Seventy per cent of the
Legion were Germans, and it was
German food, German manners, Ger
man discipline, German militarism,
German arrogance, German insol
ence and German arbitrariness. One
of the Majors was a German-Alsa
tian, the Jewish Lieutenant had a
German name, every sergeant-ma
jor but one was a German, every
sergeant but two was a German,
the cooks were Germans and the in
firmary nurses were Germans. The
severity of the punishments was
decidedly German- It was a, Ger
man regiment of the lowest type
transplanted to Africa. The soldiers
spoke German among themselves
and aired only German sentiments.
They retained all their German
habits, excessive drinking, eating,
smoking, swearing and blasphem
ing.”
The whole book seems to be one
of disillusionment, as can be seen
from the following paragraph:
“Genuine feeling was unknown in
the Legion. There was nothing to
redeem; a man was a living shell,
with his soul dead, with no con
science or scruple, without heart
or feeling, with only a belly to feed
and fill with drink, and sexual or
gans to serve him for his depravi
ties. To rob openly, to steal se
cretly, to murder when lust prompt
ed, were all one to him. There
was no friendship, no respect for
others, nothing was sacred. Every
thing was calculated, every feel
ing only existed theoretically, was
called into service to obtain money,
drink, food, tobacco and animal sat
isfaction. And having once suc
ceeded, the victim was publicly
laughed and jeered at, treated with
contempt for his stupidity and soft
ness and when bullied by others
who exploited their knowledge of
him and finally harassed him into
submission until any attempt to re
tain self-respect was impossible and
the last ray of decency was 3x
tinguished.”
M. M. finally succeeded in get
ting away from the Foreign Legion.
This he did as he described in the
next paragraph:
“The luxury of a good bed, the
cleanliness and care of a first-class
hotel ,the feeling of wearing cle^n
clothes, the comfort of breakfast
in bed and lounging over The New
York Herald—I felt I was sudden' y
transported from a pigsty to para
dise.”
He finally made his way to It
aly and sailed from Spain.
SEND IN YOUR SUBSCRIPTION
NOW FOR THE ALASKA FISH
ERMAN.