THE WHITE BILL
How Real Alaskans Regard the
Latest White Fish Bill
The present White fish bill as re
turned by the Commerce Committee
of the Senate seeks to make the
Secretary of Commerce the over lord
of Alaska, giving him complete and
absolute power over all the w&'ecs
of A.'a.cka. This means that tie
Bureau of Fisheries will Lave the
right to do as they please without
restraint of law.
This bill is endorsed by all Fish
Barons of Washington, Oregon and
California, except that tlie^e people
object to the clause that prohibits
the Secretary of Commerce from
giving exclusive fishing and canning
pernr'tr; to anybody—meaning them
selves of course.
The bill as it now stands is strong
ly opposed by our Delegate to Con
gress Dan Sutherland. But Mr.
Hoover and his Fish Bureau who
are supporting the exact demands
of the Fish Barons, claim that Dan
is not truly representing Alaskan
sentiment, and to prove that, they
point out the fact that various Cham
bers of Commerce in Alaska and in
Seattle have endorsed their views.
The Seattle Chamber acting thru
their fish committee is backing Mr.
Hoover. This committee consists of
Mr. E. S. McCqrd, attorney of prac
tically all large canneries; Charlie
Garfield, who fought the cannery
and trap system until the cannery
men met his terms by promoting
him to serve them in Alaska; and
four cannerymen.
The Juneau Chamber endorsed Mr.
Hoover. This Chamber consists
principally of cannery lawyers and
the cogs of the federal machine. Not
a man of them knows the differ
ence a humpback, a bull-head, and a
steel-head.
The Ketchikan Chamber also en
dorsed Mr. Hoover. And to make
it still stronger, they called a mass
meeting which was attended by
nearly 500 citizens and fishermen
of this district. They proposed the
exact resolution which had been un
animously adopted by the Ketchikan
Chamber the day before. I made a
motion to lay the resolution on the
table indefinitely, and in the vote
which followed, there were so many
hands raised supporting my motion
that the Chairman, Mr. Thomas Tor
rev, could not count them. Mr. Ed
ward Morrissey, the secretary of the
mass meeting, then proposed that
we march past the chair. After both
sides had voted, it was found that
the motion carried by more than two
to one. This shows just how repre
sentative the Ketchikan Chamber is.
I then proposed that the following
.telegram be sent to Hon. Wesley L.
Jones, Herbert Hoover, and Dan
Sutherland, which was carried almost
unanimously:
“The citizens of Ketchikan in mass
meeting assembled hereby endorse
the White Fish Bill with the ex
ception of the restriction against
purse seines second paragraph sec
tion three for the following reasons;
depletion of our fisheries is due pri
marily to the trap system and not
to the purse seine; that between
the two forms of gear the trap is
by far the most destructive the ratio
being at least three to one; that its
restriction as proposed will not abol
ish more than twenty per cent of
traps; and will not be a hardship
on many; whereas purse seining is
only practical method of catching
fish in this division as permitting
ample escapement not possible under
trap system; purse seining is the
basis of livelihood of thousands of
our residents; restriction of traps
without restriction of purse seines
will mean escapement of at least
ten million salmon; any other change
in bill will mean a surrender to the
trap interests that have brought
about the ruin . of our resident fish
ermen.”
This telegram was ordered signed
by the chairman, Thomas Torrey,
who is also mayor of this city, and
Edward Morrissey, editor of the
Ketchikan Chronicle, and Kit Kittles,
a fisherman. Mr. Morrissey refused
to sign the telegram so Walter
Thomas was substituted.
In the town of Wrangell, over
four hundred citizens signed a state
ment even stronger than the above
telegram. One article states “The
depletion of our fisheries has not
been due to purse seines, but has
been due to traps.”
The mass meeting at Sitka took
similar steps and protested the trap
system in the strongest terms.
Senator Wesley L. Jones in his
answer to the telegram said the
matter of seines and traps is a“con
troversial subject.” There is an ov
erwhelming sentiment based upon
experience here in Alaska that traps
are the direct cause of depletion.
There is no controversy to speak of
about that point. The controversy
is on the part of Mr. Jones’s con
stituents in Seattle and their allied
concerns.
Senator Jones personally investi
gated the fisheries of Alaska last
summer, and on the very day that
he was in Ketchikan dining with
the Chamber of Commerce and in
vestigating our fisheries by talking
to cannerymen, these same canery
men dumped over 100,000 pounds of
trap caught fish within 100 yards of
Carl Strong’s wharf and the Ketchi
kan cold storage.
--
So far as we know, H. L. Faulkner,
directing mind of cannery candidates
has never informed the public wheth
er or not he has taken out his full
naturalization papers.
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JUNEAU - - ALASKA
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