poration employing labor in the Ter
ritory shall establish monthly pay
days at which time such employer
shall pay for all labor performed
more than ten days prior to such
pay day; provided, however, that
where the laborer’s services are ter
minated all wages or other compen
sation due and payable immediately,
except in the event of strikes in
which more than ten employees
participate, when the payment of
moneys earned by such strikers
may lawfully be postponed until the
first regular pay day thereafter;
provided, further, that nothing in
this Section shall be construed to
affect any valid contract entered in
to by the employer and employee.
Section 3. Any employer who,
having sufficient means 30 to do, or
having sufficient property not ex
empt from execution so to do, shall
wilfully or fraudulently, with in
tent to annoy, harass, oppress, or
defraud an employee, refuse to pay
such employee upon demand the
money due him for labor as provid
ed in this Act, shall be deemed
guilty of a misdemeanor and, upon
conviction thereof, shall be find in
any sum not exceeding one thousand
($1000.00) dollars.
Section 4. Chapter 49 of the
Session Laws of Alaska, 1923, is
hereby repealed.
Approved April 28, 1925.
The Attorney General has been
instructed to investigate and re
port. He did so and described the
situation correctly. He also recom
mended legislation, which, among
other thing3, provided that where
the written contract for the season
gave the sole power to the master
to decide whether the employee had
performed his part of the contract
or not, the employee should not
thereby be barred fro*n appealing
to the courts and showing that the
decision was unjust and that the
employee had earned his wages and
his transportation.
This bill was prepared by the At
torney General ,came before the
Committee of Labor in the House
of which Committee Hon. Tom Gaff
ney was chairman. -This committee
lead by the chairman, cut the bill
to pieces and left nothing worth
while. What remained was tabled
by the seven reactionaries aided by
two misguided liberals.
During the discussion before the
Committee, Chairman Gaffney gave
his rea3ons for his opposition to the
bill in the following significant
language: “A good man can al
ways get a job. No good man was
ever discharged.”
It might be added that no good
employer ever cheats his employee.
But that is no reason why wo
should not have laws protecting em
ployees against fraud, and that
there are numerous employers prac
ticing fraud is undeniable.
“Can You Blame Him"
Juneau, Alaska
March 20, 1927.
Hon. Herbert Hoover,
Secretary of Commerce,
Washington, D. C.
Dear Sir.
Am writing to show and prove
to you that shortening of the Fish
ing Season at Dry Bay as it stands
does not, serve the public’s purpose,
and is unfair to men like me.
I am a resident of Alaska for
thirty-one years and have followed
fishing most of the time, and have
lived at Dry Bay and was employed
by the Libby Company for three
and one-half years as Fishing Boss
at Dry Bay and know the conditions
up there.
It has always been the Company’s
aim to keep outsiders from fishing
there if they possibly could. When
they had no opposition, they never
started to fish before the 25 th of
May and did not run the cannery
before the 1st of June, as it don’t
pay them. There is too much ex
pense the first of the season.
They don’t get much of the fish In
the Lower Bay as they don’t have
it to themselves like the upper rlv
er. The fish start to run between
Hie Gth and 12th of May, and any
that knows the habits of salmon,
knows that they don’t go up the riv
er when the river is low. It is
twenty-six miles from the Lower
Bay to the Lake or Basin and of
course in that distance the river
forms a good many eddies and still
water where the fish will gather and
play around until the river raises
which she does about the 5 th of
June, some years earlier and some
later.
I he company has the upper river
all to themselves and has airo
drives and fast gasboats so they
can go after them where it don’t
pay us independent fishermen be
cause we only stay their for the
King salmon, while the Libby com
pany fish for red salmon and sil
vers, when the fish has got up that
far they are no good to 11s mild
curemen as they are black, but for
canning the Blacks don’t show.
For us to start fishing in Lower
Bay 1st of June we would get noth
ing because the river starts to rise
gradually and by the nth the cur
rent is too strong to drift. I have
quit fishing the 7th or St.h of June
every year but after that the Lib
by’s have got all the eddies up the
river and they sure are cleaning
them out so you can plainly see the
party who recommended it was the
Libby’s as it is all in their favor.
T am informed that. Harry Pride
recommended it. T would like to
know where he ever got to know
anything about fishing. He gets
right out of the Marshal’s job at
Hoonah and gets appointed to Fish
warden at Yakutat last year. This
is his first experience with fish, and
just got the Libby’s side of It and
us independent fishermen are kept
in the dark until it is published in
the paper.
I have gone to an expense of
$800.00 for an outfit and am sup
porting four motherless children
and it comes pretty hard on me. I
would not have cared if you had
closed the river entirely, the way
It Is now it all onesided and all