THE ALASKA FISHERMAN
Published the 15 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
SUSsCRPTION PRICE $2.00 FOR TWELVE ISSUES
OUR PLATFORM:
ALASKA FOR ALASKANS.
FULL TERRITORIAL GOVERNMENT.
ABOLISHMENT OF ALL TRAPS.
COMPETENT CHRISTIAN CITIZENSHIP.
GRAND JURIES
No where in the United States is the game
of politic", played more continuously. Even
grand juries have been used as mere pawns in
the ceaseless game.
Every citizen of Ketchikan and Juneau has
known of the rotten conditions and vice that
have prevaded those towns from time to time.
When those cities have been cleaned up, it ha
been done by the federal officials without the
co-operation of the city officials. Vice has pre
vailed according to whether the federal officials
were active or sleeping.
The first attack on this intolerable condition,
was made by the Honorable Dan Sutherland in
his speech printed in the Congressional Record
of March 16 last.
To discount what he said, Democrat Senator
Dimond of Valdez and his associate Republican
Joseph Murray, representative from the sam •
Division, introduced a resolution in the las
Legislature denouncing both Mr. Sutherland ano
the Attorney General of the United Stacs for
what was called a “libel on the decent cities
of Juneau and Ketchikan” by the Juneau E npire.
The resolution was defeated. In the debate on
that resolution, the principal speech was made
by the Honorable William L. Paul, of Ketchi
kan, in which he went into detail and further
emphasized the speech of Mr. Sutherland. Sen
ator Forest J. Hunt carried on the atUck in
worthy style in the Senate.
In the further moves of the game a “special”
grand jury setting in Ketchikan last April con
sidered the matter and made such a report that
Edward G. Morrissey, editor cf the Ketchikan
Chronicle and self-appointed spokesman for the
present city council, printed the report with the
following headlines: GRAND JURY REFUTES
SUTHERLAND, the sub-heading being “State
ments made by Sutherland, Paul and Hunt ut
tered solely for Political Purposes.”
However those of us who live in Ketchikan
realize that this report of the April grand jury
was a mere whitewash. Two days after the
Ketchikan Chronicle printed the report a shoot
ing scrape occurred in which L. B. Hamilton
nearly killed Mrs. Tiny Walker, spilling much
blood over the Ketchikan Chronicle’s report as
well as on that of the grand jury. At once the
Chronicle came out with a report that the city
officials had stated that there was not the slight
est trace of liquor’s being the cause of the
shooting. Since then Tiny Walker’s place ha;
been abated for this cause, and the other day
Hamilton was found guilty of shooting with
intent to kill, the evidence being that “Hamil
ton was not very drunk, at lease not so drunk
as the others.”
The regular grand jury for the fall term of
the district court has now rendered its report,
and sad to relate, the same Edward G. Morrissey
has been compelled to print (only in smaller
type) the headlines “GRAND JURY REPORT
PANS CITY POLICE” with sub-title, “Houses
of ill-fame in business and residential sections.”
The attention of the grand jury was first
called to the lawless conditon of the “Creek”
district of Ketchikan by a petition signed by
the Indian mothers resident in Ketchikan who
protested such places. We are printing the re
port in another column.
The position of this paper is this; if the
public really knew what was going on, these
conditions would not be tolerated. We havo
an abiding faith in the public. Information and
publicity are the sure forerunners of right
eous indignation.
ROTARIANS
Rotarians have taken issue with the editorial
entitled “The Rotary Club” printed in our last
issue and they have presented strong evidence
to show (that we were mistaken in our under*
standing of their aims and ethics.
By way of explanation we will say that we
formed our opinion of Rotary Clubs and got
our facts about them during the two years when
we were closly associated in business with a
very prominent Rotarian. If Rotarians are not
pledged to give preference to members in bush
ness, then we certainly have done them a wrong,
And since some have so declared that they
are not so pledged, we are willing to accept
their statements. The strong and weak points
taken from their own literature will speak
for themselves:
Its membership is formed on the unique
plan of one active representative man from