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.
Intolerance
There is among ^ us today a mother whose
son was "killed in Fiance,” but she may not
vote because she cannot read and write. She
offered the life of her boy on the altar of su
preme sacrifice, but she may not exercise her
right of Representation. Rather she is stig
matized by the charge of corruption because
she cannot read the Constitution for which her
son gave his life.
HERRING W ASTE
Pour tons of fertilizer per hour equals 40 tons
in ten hours. This is the capacity of Lee Wake
field’s company at Red Bluff Bay. The Marine
Packing & Reduction Co. at Washington Bay
also puts up 40 tons per ten hour day. To
gether these two plants put up for fertilizer 80
tons per day, that is ONE MILLION SIX HUN
DRED THOUSAND POUNDS of good food fish
are ground up for use as manure EVERY DAY.
That totals FORTY-EIGHT MILLION POUNDS
per month. WHERE ARE HERBERT HOOVER,
food conserve!’, and HENRY O’MALLEY, that
bull-necked individual who has driven over two
hundred Indians from their homes “to conserve
food fish’’?
A QUESTION
The opening prices on Puget Sound for salmon
were: 20c for pinks, 30c for chums, 40c for co
hoes. and 80c for sockeyes and now 85c.
The question is this, why cannot the fishermen
get the same prices for the same fish in Alaska?
These canners say because it is cheaper to pack
down in Washington. Come through with the
proof. Taxes are more than twice as high, fish
more than twice as high, so where is the dif
ference ?
15 pinks to a case at 20c equals $3.00 for
fish alone; add $1.30 for boxes and cans totals
$4.30; add 35c selling cost totals $4.65; interest
comes to 40c a case, totals $5.05; then add in
surance, warehouse, freight, and other costs.
We hope the day will come when some public
spiiited canner, if he is ever found, will publish
his true costs.
The Chilcat Country
“The conditions around the Chilcat country
have been grossly misrepresented and are not
nearly as bad as pictured.” So says Henry
O’Malley, the head of the Bureau of Fisheries.
All the same he has issued an order re-opening
the Chilcat to gill net fishing.
Mr. O’Malley is referring to our publication
when he says that “conditions have been grossly
misrepresented.” Ilis argument, however,
amounts to this: You are entirely wrong, but
1 will modify the rules to which you object.
Before Mr. O’Malley gets through with this
fish business he will do a lot more modifying,
that is providing he has any sense of justice
in his heart. But stiffneck, bullheaded O’Malley
will squirm and twist, evade and dodge issues
before he will change his rules. It would be a
good thing for humanity if he should lose his
job and should be sentenced to earn his living
for just one season fishing in a seine boat. He
might then learn something about fish.
Shortsighted
Fishing was prohibited by law in tne Ketch
ikan District on August 18th last, and on the
Western Coast of Prince of Wales Island on
August 22d last. Without an exception every
seiner put up his seine at that time, but many
of the trap owners fished their traps up to the
last minute and then closed them, so they said,
but continued to take fish from the traps for
more than a week on the pretense that they
were using fish caught during the open season.
This violation of the law was made possible by
the fact that Henry O’Malley, the czar of Alaska
fisheries, withdrew all watchmen and other offi
cers from the district on the 22d of August,
at the very time when their presence was most
needed.
This leads us to recommend a further regu
lation in connection with fish traps, as follows:
That every trap be required to release all fish
caught therein at the beginning of the weekly
closed period and also at the beginning of the
seasonal closed period, then it will be possible
for fishery officers to know which traps are
disobeying the law.