The Misstatements of Joe Magill
Joe Magill, Anchorage cannery -
man, has published a lengthy re
ply to Sutherland’s expose of his
operations. The reply defeats it
self because the truth of simple
historical events is not told. We
note below some of them.
“He (Sutherland) had been U.
S. Marshal at Juneau and got fired
after an investigation by the At
torney General of the United
States. Dan and others had been
charged with using questionable
methods in the selection of juries.”
The facts are these:—Attorney
Shackleford had a case before the
commissioner’s court. He mot
Marshal Sutherland in the hall of
the court house, handed him a
list and said. “See that these men
are called for the jury in this case”
—a handpicked jury by Republican
Boss Shackleford. Sutherland did
what any honest man would do.
he gave Shackleford a cussing. But
Shackleford was the Boss and so
Sutherland lost his job.
“His present salary, mileage and
income from the job, amount to
about $15,000.”
Sutherland’s salary is $10,090.
plus $1500 a year for travel ex
pense.
“I presume he (Sutherland* is
claiming Point Barrow as his resi
dence so that he can get, in plenty
of miles.”
The point of residence makes no
difference, the amount is $1590.
“In 35 leading newspapers of the
United States, he described Alaska
as a ‘cesspool of iniquity, the home
of dope-peddlers, cutthroats and
thieves,’ and the Third Division
as a place where ‘more crime was
committed than in any state or
possession of Uncle Sam’.”
The above language was verbat
im from a report of a Grand Jury
sitting at Valdez, which had exam
ined into the practice of many
canneries, without doubt Joe Ma
gill’s included.
“Why are the members of the
board of control to be elected at
large instead of electing one from
each division? That’s the joker.”
Answer, because that is the Am
erican system. Who ever heard of
any state requiring that certain
state officers should be elected
from designated counties?
“The big native vote is in south
eastern Alaska, where Dan and
Bill (Paul) vote the natives me
chanically by taking a printed bal
lot, placing over it a piece of card
board with holes punched in it.
The native then marks an X in
each hole in the cardboard.”
There are over 2,500 natives in
southeastern Alaska who can read
and write as well at least as can
Joe Magill. Over 2.000 natives of
these parts have passed thru Che
mawa. The cardboard story was
invented by Frank Foster in a de
bate in 1921. The trouble with the
native vote is that they are against
FISHTRAPS.
Magill charges that Sutherland
brought the president of the Fish
erman’s Union of San Francisco
and of the Sailor’s Union there
to Washington and that they testi
fied against both fishtraps and
seines.
Sutherland had nothing to do
with their presence. They were
testifying to save their own busi
ness—to-wit, gill netting. When
asked about seines, each testified
that they did not know and were
unfamiliar with that type of fish
ing, but thought seines were as
destructive as traps. NO AMEND
MENA AGAINST SEINES was in
troduced in the committee hear
ing. It came on the floor of the
House and was a TRICK of the
trapmen who knew that the pro
posal to abolish traps could not
pass if joined with a like provision
against seines.
Magill says that the Fish Reser
vations were exactly like the White
Fish Bill.
That is not true. Under the
Reservation system, Magill would
have been given a district in
which no other cannery could take
fish, and in which no one could
fish except with a permit, and MA
GILL WOULD ISSUE THE PER
MITS. Under the White Fish Bill,
if the district was open to fishing
EVERYONE could fish there law
fully. You can see there is the
difference between the two of
FREEDOM and SLAVERY, and
with the Joe Magills playing the
part of Simon Lagree, the slave
driver.
Magill says, “We have had the
third largest pack of salmon in
the history of Alaska this year”
as justifying the White Fish Bill as
ADMINISTERED by the Bureau of
Fisheries.
Magill does not understand fig
ures. There is a SHORTAGE of
MORE THAN 1,000,000 cases of
salmon in Southeastern Alaska,
the oldest and the covered field.
There is an INCREASE of one-half
million cases in Western Alaska, a
virgin field that has not yet been
overfished.
The thing that Sutherland wen
for Alaskans is this—the right of
fishery is open to all. The PACK
ERS wanted the Reservation sys
tem with the PACKERS HOLDING
ALL THE FISHING PERMITS.
Sheldon Jackson
School
SITKA, ALASKA
High School
and
Industrial Training
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