THE ALASKA FISHERMAN
Published the 15th of each month at Ketchikan, Alaska
WILLIAM L. PAUL, ATTORNEY FOR THE
Alaska Native Brotherhood
Entered as second-class matter at the Post Office at
KETCHIKAN, ALASKA
SUBSCRIPTION PRICE $2.00 FOR TWELVE ISSUES
Progressive Candidates
General Election, Nov. 4th.
Fishermen, miners, working men, the small
business man must remember that our victory
is not complete until after the November elec
tion.
November 4th is the date.
The following men are your candidates, pledged
to protect your interests. There is great danger
in scratching:
Dan Sutherland, for Delegate to Congress;
Henry Roden, for Attorney General;
William D. Grant, for Representative;
C. B. Ferguson, for Representative;
Perry M. Hern, for Representative;
William L. Paul, for Representative.
We stand for Alaska for Alaskans in a real
sense; abolishment of the fish trap; a tax on
non-resident fishermen; the Controller Bill; Elec
tion of all principal Territorial officers; a decent
workmen’s compensation law; a fair and equal
tax on all industry without favoritism; abolish
men of the J. R. Heckman scheme of closing
the fishing season on August 20th, this last as
being unfair to cannerymen and fishermen, being
in the interests of traps, and not a correct con
servation measure for “If you breed late fish,
you will get late fish.”
The Teachers and the Literacy Bill
The teachers who met here recently in grand
convention did three things which are note
worthy; first, they passed a resolution asking
the Territorial Legislature to pass a literacy
test for voters bill; second, they deplored the
attempt which will be made to make the of
fice of Commissioner of Education elective di
rectly by the people of this Territory; third,
they asked that Congress pass a law exempting
them, the school teachers, from paying any in
come tax.
Any person who is not a school teacher will
find the argument against all three resolutions
complete.
Any person who knows Lester D. Henderson.,
the present Commissioner of Education, will also
recognize his fine “Italian” hand, and will agree
with the teachers when they declared in reso
lution that the “Institute could not have been
a success without him.”
Those who have read my articles on the Lit
eracy Bill will know that I have opposed it
mainly on two grounds; first, that it is contrary
to the words and spirit of the Declaration of In
dependence and the Constitution of the United
States; secondly,. so long as our fishery prob
lems are the great political issue of this Terri
tory, it would be wrong to prohibit even so
called illiterate Indians from voting for they
know more about that problem than any other
class of voters, and they are more vitally af
fected by fishery laws than any other class
of voters.
But even if 1 were to concede that the fore
going were not true, still I would say that the
procedure of the teachers was improper, for I
have examined their records carefully and no
where can I find that they have taken any
stand on the matter of illiteracy per se. They
have declared for a political literacy test, but
I would inquire, “Why should we submit to il
literacy at all.”
This magazine stands for complete, universal
education and I state it broadly that Every
child in this Territory is entitled to an education
or a chance to such education. Furthermore,
every child is entitled to an education at least
thru high school at public expense. And until
our white rulers will pass laws and make other
provisions so that this can be true, 1 will con
tinue to oppose a literacy bill desired for politi
cal purposes.
I hope the new teachers at least, (there were
34 of them out of the 80 who convened who
had never been in Alaska before and who voted
for this resolution with no information whatever
as to what Mr. Henderson was driving at) will
read this article and then consider the following
facts: :
It is sought to shut out the Indian vote entire
ly on the ground of ignorance and its conse
quent danger to our government; that their af
fairs are and have been well taken care of by
their friends (white) in the legislature; that
Alaska has been well governed by the white
legislators who have heretofore represented the
people.
The leaders of the Natives say that this is
not true, and say that the native citizen has
always been the object of gross discrimination.
First, it has been and still is the policy of local
school boards to exclude children of Indian blood
from the schools; secondly, the native citizens
are today excluded from the old age pension
benefits; third, the native citizens, I mean the
orphan children, are today excluded from the
benefits of the law which protects these little
unfortunates from the cruelties of this world.
The town of Saxman having more than 50
Indian children w^as without a school of any
kind for many years. The Indian children were
excluded from the public schools of Ketchikan
in the same manner, and even today, the city
makes no provision for teaching these Indian
children.
There are literally dozens of Indian villages
thruout Alaska where there is no school what
ever, the United States authorities do not have
enough money for them, and the Territorial
authorities, including this man Lester D. Hen
derson, so pleasing to the Institute of Teachers
here that they want to keep him forever, will
not make a move to encourage these Indians to
get schools from the Territory. There is a
town near Anchorage where a school has been