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
OUR PLATFORM:
ALASKA FOR ALASKANS.
FULL TERRITORIAL GOVERNMENT.
ABOLISHMENT OF ALL TRAPS.
COMPETENT CHRISTIAN CITIZENSHIP.
WASTE
There are today 48 dago fishing- boats from
Puget Sound and Astoria in the vicinity of Port
Walter, Baranoff Island. Not one of these fish
ermen reside in Alaska or spend a nickel of
money which they earn here to help develop
the Territory. They are brought up under con
tract, which provides that the packing- company
shall accept all the herring which can be caught
by these fishermen. These same cannerymen
maintain commissary stores which are stocked
direct from Seattle and elsewhere at a freight
rate of $5.00 per ton as against $9.00 to resident
merchants.
The cannerymen in the herring business are
repeating today the record of the early salmon
cannerymen of Alaska. They act as if there
is no limit to the supply of herring.
Bear in mind that herring is a food fish, and
the laws passed by Congress make it a crime
to waste such fish. Ask yourself what the
matter is with the Bureau of Fisheries when
they will allow the following conditions to exist,
and do you wonder that Alaskans say that the
entire personnel of the Bureau of Fisheries from
Henry O’Malley down must l>e fired if the fish
eries of Alaska are to live. We would go even
farther than this and lay the blame directly at
the door of Herbert Hoover, and say to that
man that he should either fire the entire bunch
or convict himself of gross hypocrisy in his pre
tentions to conservation.
Either do the job right or get out.
Not long ago Lee Wakefield at Port Walter
dumped over 3600 barrels of herring into the
water in one day. This is a crime for which the
law provides adequate punishment. But Lee
Wakefield is numbered among the big boys and
he has influence, something that is well under
stood, respected and feared even by the bull
headed, stubborn Henry O’Malley.
The capacity of the new Port Walter cannery
is over 750 barrels a day, but this packing com
pany is receiving and paying for over 1400 bar
rels a day. What becomes of the difference?
Superintendent Chris Foss at that place says
the herring there is as good as any in Europe,
and yet he salts very little, grinds the rest of
this excellent food fish into fertilizer, and dumps
as much as he uses every day.
On July 25th and 26th last the said Chris
Foss dumped over 1,000 barrels of herring.
On every large haul made by these dago fisher
men from Puget Sound over 400 barrels of
herring are wasted.
The gas screw vessel named Newport sets out
its seine almost every day and corrals 2,000
barrels of herring, receives a price of 45 cents
a barrel, delivers 515 barrels a day, turns 1,000
barrels loose and finds dead from suffocation in
the bottom of the seine over 400 barrels of good
edible herring.
A number of packing houses in the Baranoff
Island district make no pretense to salt or Scotch
cure any herring. All such food fish are ground
into fertilizer. This is the common practice of
herring packing houses in Southern Alaska. And
here we have dozens of officials commissioned
by Herbert Hoover and under the immediate
control of Henry O’Malley spending thousands of
dollars pretending to enforce the laws of the
United States.
What are the Alaskans going to do about this?
It is a serious condition. When the fish are
gone there is nothing left for the business men
of these parts. The time has come when patri
otic citizens must wake up and realize that the
fish must be saved now, or such fine fishing
centers as Ketchikan, Wrangell, Sitka and other
places will be totally destroyed. We would ask
one more question. Where is the Alaska Fish
Commission, or Herbert Hoover or the Alaska
Advisory Board that these criminal acts can be
committed without restraint by the lawless ex
ploiters who still manage the herring packing
and salmon canneries of Alaska?
The responsibility is laid squarely at the door
of Herbert Hoover and our new Governor,
George A. Parks. What are you going to do
about it?
FOR HALIBUT FISHERMEN
Ketchikan and other Alaska towns are anxious
to become the buying center for the halibut in
dustry. Carl Strong and his friends think the
way to do this is by closing Prince Rupert to