WILL PROTEST CLOSED
SEASON ON FISHERIES
Fishermen Met in Pioneer Hall
Sunday and Drafted Res
olutions
At a mass meeting of the fisher
men, held yesterday afternoon in
the Pioneer Hall, the following- reso
lutions were drafted and are to be
sent to Secretary of Commerce Her
bert Hoover and U. S. Commissioner
of Fisheries Henry O’Malley today.
“Be it resolved, that the present
closed season prohibiting the catch
ing of all species of salmon, includ
ing king salmon, is wrong in prin
ciple especially as it relates to king
salmon, which spawn from June
first until July first, and, be it fur
ther resolved that the catching of
salmon by trolls should be excepted
from all closing orders unless ap
plied to the period between June first
and July first.”
“Whereas, Behm Canal, South
eastern Alaska, is the spawning
ground or is in the immediate vi
cinity of the spawning grounds of
the King salmon and such salmon
caught therein are about to spawn,
be it resolved that Behm Canal
should be closed in its entirety, and
permanently to trolling, from
Point Sykes to Camano Point.”
Although the meeting yesterday
was not advertised to the general
public, anyone interested in the fish
ermen’s problem in this district was
welcomed.
William L. Paul, attorney for the
“Fishermen’s Protective Associa
tion,” acting as chairman, opened
the meeting with a brief review of
the fishing situation in Southeastern
Alaska. He said:
“The seiner, the gill-netter, and
the troller are against the trapmen
because the traps strike directly at
their manner of making a living.
As the fishing industry of Alaska
is a political question, the fishermen
should take advantage of their vot
ing power to remove the trap, rather
than to talk of blowing up the
traps. The closed season came af
ter long and studied effort on the
part of the cannerymen. In 1917
occurred the first event which cul
minated in the appointing of a ter
ritorial fish commission. In 1922
the controversy over the fish traps
had reached such a stage that a
closed season was proposed. At that
time, it never penetrated your minds
that the fishing party was in the
hands of politics and you threw
away your chance to vote. In 1923
J. R. Heckman’s advocacy of the
closed season was accepted and a
bill was hastily drawn up and pre
sented to the legislature. This was
because the Cannery men were afraid.
They had to appear to congress as
attempting to conserve the fish and
so they made all haste possible to
put legislation on the books which
they could point to as the result
of their own efforts to conserve fish.
It is a singular thing that the legis
lature elected by you should turn
over their prerogative to a governor
from the East who has no interest
in protecting you but who is in
terested in protecting the interests
of the non-resident business men
who made him governor, yet that is
just what has happened and what is
happening today.
“The only manner in which this
problem can be successfully coped
with,” said Mr. Paul in speaking of
the traps, “is by the fishermen’s
power to vote and consequent ability
to place prohibitive taxes upon the
traps. This applies also to the
closed season. The organic act cre
ating the legislature’s power to
make laws prohibits them from mak
ing any laws regulating the fishing
industry, which leaves as the sole
remedy your power by the vote to
tax traps out of existence.”
Following Mr. Paul’s talk, there
were several short discussions on the
closed season. The fishermen be
lieved that the present form of clos
ed season was illogical and worked
an injustice upon all fishermen.
With particular reference to the
west coast closing law, it was point
ed out that that district is the
feeding ground and not the spawn
ing ground for king salmon and for
cohoes and a resolution recommen l
ing that those species of salmon be
not included in the closed season
law was drawn up. It wras also
pointed out that the sea lions con
sume a tremendous amount of fish.
It was stated that a sea lion des
troys about fifty pounds of salmon
per day and that some method of
reducing the large numbers of this
species of animal, should be prac
tised.
The question of employing non
resident labor was also brought up.
It was pointed out that hundreds of
thousands of dollars are paid out
annually to non-resident laborers
who are paid off outside of Alaska
and wdio spend their money in other
communities.
It was also recommended that a
prohibitive tax be placed upon non
resident fishermen, the tax to be
sufficiently high as to induce the
fishermen to make Alaska their resi
dence or else to remain away and
give the resident Alaskan fishermen
a chance. In support of this argu
ment, the experience of the states
of Oregon and Washington was
quoted, in which it was stated that
fisheries regulations of those states
were responsible for a large per
centage of the increase in their pop i
lation, and the wealth of those
states.
It was also brought out by the
meeting that whenever legislation
on fisheries was before congress, the
cannerymen were well represented
while the fishermen were not and
that they could not expect any other
than adverse results. Plans were
therefore instituted whereby a com
mittee is to be appointed to repre
sent the fishermen at the next ses
sion of congress.
N. R. Walker, Democratic candi
date for senator from the first di
vision addressed the meeting briefly
and recommended that a high tax be
placed on all fish above the one
hundred thousand mark caught by
each trap. This was after Mr. Paul
quoted Senator F. J. Hunt as saying
that he would favor legislating the
trap out of business.
Javvn Troy in his boneless Empire
admits that his brand of political
control must go.
Codings’ Cash Store
I. W. COLLINGS, Prop.
58 Mission St.
New & Second Hand
Household Goods
Telephone 188
Ketchikan, Alaska
ZIPP WOO
Hand Laundry
150 Stedman Street
Ketchikan, Alaska
ATWATER-KENT IGNITION SYSTEMS
BOAT LIGHTING EQUIPMENT
GENERAL ELECTRICAL REPAIRING
Exide Batteries
KETCHIKAN ELECTRIC WORKS
KETCHIKAN.ALASKA