.THE ALASKA FISHERMAN
Published the 15th 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
SUBSCRPTION PRICE $2.00 FOR TWELVE ISSUES
OUR PLATFORM:
ALASKA FOR ALASKANS.
FULL TERRITORIAL GOVERNMENT.
ABOLISHMENT OF ALL TRAPS.
COMPETENT CHRISTIAN CITIZENSHIP.
ALASKA GAME COMMISSION
The Alaska Game Commission has been in ses
sion considering the question of game and fur
bearing animals in Alaska. At a later date, we
will publish the new regulations.
This commission, altho a Washington Bureau,
camouflaged “Alaskan” by having four members
thereon appointed from Washington, is a very
splendid body of men. We have been before
them and for a time in daily contact with its
members, and we have been impressed with
their desire to improve fur and game culture
for the benefit of Alaska.
Personal influence counts for nothing with
them. Reason and common-sense directs their
deliberations. We told them that this was
dangerous for this reason; the fight in
Alaska is for home rule—the birth right of
every American citizen. This goal would be
harder to reach if all the Washington Bureaus
were as efficient and unselfish as the Alaska
Game Commission. Even when we informed
the commission that we were against their body
in principle because they were not responsible
to the people of Alaska, it informed us that
home rule for Alaska in game matters was also
their objective, and that they would not hinder
its attainment in the least.
They are a fine bunch of men—benevolent
tyrants pechaps—but a fine bunch of men never
theless.
"LAWS DIRECTED BY PUBLIC
SENTIMENT’’
•‘If, when the next Alaska Legislature eon
venes, a committee were appointed to make a
list of all the laws which public sentiment calls
for, the number would be few indeed. Pet bills,
of which little is now heard, would, if the acid
test were applied, die stillborn.” So runs an
editorial from the Juneau Empire, the paper
that shapes the mind and dictates the policies
of the “better element” of Juneau.
The trouble with the people of Juneau gen
erally is that they think they are ALASKA.
They believe that as they think, so does all of
Alaska think. They can never learn not even
by the drubbing which their pet, the unspeak
able Marquam, got.
Public Sentiment
If public sentiment directed the making of
laws, we would have no hesitation in saying
that the first bill to pass would be the CON
TROLLER BILL, a bill that aims to allow
the people of Alaska to run her own business.
Empire opinion would still leave it to federal
officials. You will see when the legislature
begins to work. 7 • i
The second bill, but first in economic impor
tance, to pass would be the bill to ABOLISH
FISH TRAPS. The benefits of such a bill can
be seen in British Columbia where NO FISH
TRAPS ARE PERMITTED. In 1924 that
country packed one-fourth as many cases of
salmon as we do and yet had over 7,000 inde
pendent fishermen as against our 6,000. On the
s*ne basis as British Columbia, Alaska would
have 30,000 independent fishermen. If each man
had a family of only three (the true ratio how
ever is four) that would mean 90,000 more
people for Alaska. Isn’t this good business?
The third bill to pass would be a bill to pro
hibit non-resident fishermen from fishing in
Alaskan waters. California, Oregon and Wash
ington orohibit a fisherman from fishing in their
waters until he has acquired a residence of
twelve months. If this is good business or fair
practice for these great states, whv isn’t it
good business and fair practice for Alaska?
The fourth bill to pass would be a decent
workmen’s compensation act. The present so
called “workmen’s compensation act” is merely
a bill “to limit liability.” The advantage is en
tirely with the employer as you might exoect
considering the fact that the attorneys for the
big mhies wrote the tyll,