Nearly eighty million cases of sal
mon have been packed in Alaska, and
a (great part of them during the
last 10 years. Fresh fish and
frozen and salted have been shipped
out by the millions of pounds.
Of the great profits heretofore
made from the fish in the Alaskan
waters conservative men have esti
mated that less than 10 per cent of
the gross receipts have been put into
circulation in Alaska.
Hardly a dollar of the millions and
millions that have been taken away
has been spent in re-seeding the
ground or in cultivating the crop
that produced so abundantly in the
past.
Need the people of Alaska be beg
gars when others are stealing their
wealth?
The marshal’s office of the First
division estimates two-thirds of their
prisoners to be both discharged can
nery employes and foreigners. The
maintenance expense of the office
is nearly eight hundred dollars each
day. And additional expense is in
curred when criminals are sent to
McNeil’s.
The marshal’s office in the Third
division reports conditions there even
worse. And the grand jury from
there made the charges last fall that
the courts were subservient to the
cannery interests there.
At least one physician and one
cannery superintendent have regret
e<i the widespread of a dread disease
among the class of labor imported
by cannery interests.
He alleged that he had not re
ceived his pay, as per contract, for
working all summer in a cannery in
Western Alaska. The case came
before the Washington state labor
commission. According to the re
port, the stipend he should have re
ceived, but did not, was the munifi
cent sum of 1") cents per day.
Our natives may suffer most for
the time, but eventually whites will
contract the disease which has play
ed no small part in the past in
causing powerful dynasties to fall,
and reducing great nations to naught.
Need our legislators stand in fear
and trembling lest they insult or in
jure the feelings of those who have
abused, heretofore, their privileges
so?
There was more red salmon packed
last year in Alaska than in Siberia,
Japan, British Columbia, Washington
and Oregon combined, according to
the Pacific Fisherman’s Year Book
for 1921. (Some claim the pack
was short). And more than once
iii their official organ one may read
that canned red salmon are scarce
on the market.
Men who are in a position to know
have said that it costs more to po
lice the red salmon districts than
the cannery interests pay altogether
in taxes. Of course, the department
of justice furnishes the money for
policing, but the public expense
with little public benefit is there
just the same.
A high tax on red-fish would bene
fit Alaska in more ways than one.
The territory would either have'
money in its treasury, or the salmon
would have an opportunity to re
plenish the sadly depleted streams.
And if the red salmon market IS
overstocked, as some claim, in two
years from now our territorial legis
lature can make a survey of the
conditions and let down or raise the
bars to suit the occasion.
No, the clouds are not black;
they are lined with gold. And we
can get it, too, by turning them over;
for the right to tax is the crux to
the whole • situation, and the su
preme court of the United States
has upheld the territory’s right to
tax. By judiciously exercising this
right, we can make the burden light
er on those industries that need en
couragement, and we can prevent
others from exploiting the wealth
of Alaska beyond public good.
Let the red salmon carry the load
for a whije.
WRIGHT WEN RICH.
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WHO IS HIT
“By his four-flushing1, his ab
solute lack of any conception of the
American principle of self govern
ment and its application, Delegate
Sutherland has firmly welded the
Alaskan fisheries to Washington bu
reaucracy—he has played the most
important role in crowning a bureau
as King of Alaska’s greatest indus
try”;—from the Empire of May <flst.
Would the Empire call Scott C.
Bone a four-flusher? Would it tell
him that he had no conception of the
American principle of self-govern
ment and its application? Would it
say that Mr. Bone has firmly welded
the Alaskan Fisheries to Washing
ton Bureaucracy? Would it say that
Mr. Bone has made the bureau of
fisheries King of Alaska’s greatest
industry? Would it say that Mr.
Bone has made Hoover the king or
duke of Alaska?
Bear in mind the above statements
and read what Scott C. Bone has
said about the same principle of. fish
ery legislation now known as the
White bill.
In 1922, Gov. Bone wrote to the
Secretary of the Interior: “The De
partment of Commerce should have
full authority over the fisheries ade
quately equipped and empowered to
make and enforce rules and regula
tions limiting the catch and num
ber of traps and curtailing fishing
areas and closing streams in the
public good. If further reserves be
necessary to augment the govern
ment authority, they should be
promptly ordered.”
In 1923 Gov. Bone recommended
“the vesting in the Department of
Commerce complete authority over
the fisheries of Alaska.”
THE ELECTORIAL COLLEGE
The curious psychology of George
Sexton, recently elected by the Re
publicans of Alaska to represent
them in the National Convention at
Cleveland brings to my mind the
presidential electors charged under
our /constitution with the duty of
electing the President of the United
States.
The abuses of the government of
Britain were such that our forefath
ers sought a way to insure good
rulers for the new nation. Many
of them had a distrust of the ability
of the common people to judge or
choose wisely. They were afraid of
the “mob” although they were com
mitted to the democratic form of
government.
Therefore they invented the elec
toral college. The theory back of
this body was that the people would,
choose their ablest leaders and these
ablest leaders would gather in a
body and without instructions, with
out prejudice, without coercion, they
wouhl find the best man in the en
tire nation and select him for the
President. They would in the same
manner select the vice-president.
At first the theory was followed,
and electors did their best to select
n on of this character. In those early
dayr, it often happened that t r
President and vice-president belong
ed to entirely different politica*
schools.
After a time, however, the people
became dissatisfied with the selec
tions of these electors and began to
instruct them, until now, electors are
bound to vote according to the man
date of the citizens of each state.
Theoretically, the electors are still
perfectly free to vote for any qual
ified citizen of the United States,
but actually they have no choice in
the matter.
Under the rules of the National
Committee, we understand that the
delegates to the National Convention
elect the National Committeeman,
Mr. Sexton says. But if the elected
delegates can elect whomever they
please of what force is the law of
the Territory? Can a delegate ac
cept his election under the same
territorial law that also provides the
manner in which the National Com
mitteeman shall be elected and still
say that he, the delegate, is free to
make his own selection?
Here in Alaska, we are struggling
for self-expression in government.
Our laws are all directed to making
it possible for the people to formu
late their wishes into law. Is it
possible that a creature of the peo
p’e, this delegate, can tell the ma
pority of Republicans that he is the
all-wise, the father, the daddy, and
thus defeat the wishes of the People
when in the form of law?
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