THE ALASKA FISHERMAN
Published the loth 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
,;UBSCRPT10N PRICE $2.00 FOR TWELVE ISSUES
OUR PLATFORM:
ALASKA FOR ALASKANS.
FULL TERRITORIAL GOVERNMENT.
ABOLISHMENT OF ALL TRAPS.
COMPETENT CHRISTIAN CITIZENSHIP.
I'KorOKTIOWL KKPIJKSKNTATION
The next candidate fcr DELEGATE TO CONGRESS
will have to declare himstlf on the question of PRO
PORTIONAL R E P E S ENT A TI ON, and possibly on the
separation of the First Division of Alaska from the bal
ance thereof.
This issue is being brought to the front by the at
titude of the other Divisions themselves.
THE CONTROLLER BILL
The last example of this is the declaration of the
northern candidates on the Controller Bill. They ad
vocate “equal representation to each of the four Divi
sions,’’ and “oppose any hand picked measure made
to give the First Division politicians control over the
last of the Territory.’’
Let ns examine this docD’ine of “equal repre
sentation.’’
In the recent general election, the Second Division
cast LESS than 700 votes. Actually 850 votes elected
two Senators and four Representatives.
In the Third Division, the total vote was 2,250. Ac
tually less than 1100 voters 'lected the Senator and
our Representatives.
In the Fourth Division, the total vote was 1615.
Actually less than 800 elected the senator and four
Representatives.
TOTAL VOTES
The total votes of those Divisions was LESS than
1600, the victorious parties commanding LESS than
LI00 votes. Yet these 2200 will have SIX Senators
tnd TWELVE Representatives.
The First Division east over 5 400 votes, the suceess
ul candidate^ receiving 2667 to 2758 votes, MORE
THAN THE COMBINED VOTE OF ALL THE OTHER
MVISIONS, and yet it gets only TWO Senators and
r'our Representatives.
If the other Divisions would give the same sup
port to the elected Representatives of the First Divi
sion that the First gives to the other Divisions, the is
sue would not arise so soon.
PRO PORT I ON AD R F PRESENTATION IS JUST.
“I MWIiAJLLFJil) PROSPERITY”
We have just received a letter from the Honorable
Charles Ferguson, for four y* ars a member of the
Alaska Legislature, as follows:
“Dear William:—I enclose clipping from yes
terday’s I*. I. that should have a forceful reply. The
clipping reads: “Although Alaska’s foreign and do
mestic commerce fell off nearly one-fourth during the
last year, the territory is on the threshold of unnaral
eled prosperity, Governor Parks reported to the Secre
tary of the Interior Roy (). West today.”
.lust as long as we allow such bureaucratic bunk
to go unchallenged, just so long we will get no relief.
We have all the facts to discredit his statements, and
should make the most of the opportunity.
Parks made an extended trip to tlie West Coast
(Prince of Wales Island) last fall, and when he got
hack to Wrangell reported there that he “found no
poverty.” Had he forgotten the speech made to him
bv Fred Thomas, “Governor, the fishing season iy just
over, and I don’t have a dollar in my pocket for my
family with which fo face the long hard winter.”
Where does thc Governor find the “unparalled pros
perity or even signs of it?
In this (the First) Division with over half the pop
ulation. 90', of our bread and butter iy hogged by
about 20 corporations. We are getting progressively
poorer each year. Every community and every , town
in this Division has reached its peak and is on the de
cline.
Recause a little patch up in the Sticks represent
ing less than 2'of our population has gathered up a
few crumbs from the operations of an alien exploita
tion company, the Governor thinks we are about to be
hit by a Dig crumb of “unparalleled prosperity.”
A governor of that sort should be discredited for
he is either ignorant of the facts or without brains to
asyimulate them or he is purporely misleading both
the people of Alaska and Washington, D. C.
What operations in this Division now or prospect
ive, under existing conditions, promises “unparelleled
prosperity?”
The blight on our prosperity is the regulation of
our fisheries. The new regulations indicate that there
will be NO CHANGE in the principle of favoring the
traps and foreign interests, the discrimination against
local fishermen, or the deadly seasonal closed season.
Governor Parks endorses this system which has caused
the loss of millions of dollary to both canners and fish