House Bill Number 39
This bill introduced by
William L. Paul, was a bill to
place a discriminatory tax on
non-resident fishermen for the
purpose of compelling non
resident fishermen to make Al
aska their bona fide home and
to discourage all those who
would not do so.
The tax on seiners who come
up from Puget Sound and oth
er non-resident districts was
placed at $250 by Mr. Paul a
ter conference with Cliarle., B.
Ferguson of Craig and William
D. Grant of Wrangell.
Non-resident Trailers were to
be taxed $50; gill-netters were
to be taxed $25; and each non
resident workman on a trap
was to be taxed $5.00.
inis Dill came out ot me
Ways and Means Committee,
of which Mr. Ross was c' hr
man. with few changes as fol
lows; the figures “$250' on non
resident seiners were change t o
read “$50,” an ; making the ef
fective date of the bill Jan
uary 1, 1926. This rep or i: was
signed for passage by Grant,
Paul, Nylen, Sund.qui Grier
and Sherman.
The bill was opposed b ■
H. Ross and H. G. Wat
Fairbanks.
While this bill was under
consideration for ? long time,
those who were opposed to tor
bill did not really -ho / the
hands but we e content to let
the bill be modified to mm"
the criticism ; and objections (•'
various members. For t’vitrw
son, the $50 turn on non-re
ident troller ; was reduced to
$25.00.
Mr. Sh.ermr.TL of Anchorage
and Mr. Muriay cf M cCar:.h;/
were both very active in amend
ing the bill, reducing the taa
in every case.
The enemies of the resident
fishermen and those seeking the
support of the cmnerymen who
wished to protect the non-res
ident fishermen showed their
hands on April 20th, 1925 at
the final hearing of the bill.
J. R. Heckman, who cam
paigned against William L
Paul in 1924 and at that time
advocated a big tax on those
“Austrian seiners” that come
to Alaska for a couple of
months, buying nothing here,
turned fthovd conplttcly. He
went upon the floor of the
House and fought the very tax
measure which he had support
ed during t tic previous cam
paign. Of course, his act was
to be anticipated for his sup
port of this measure during
the campaign was merely to
get the fishermen to think about
the non-resident seiners in
stead of fishtraps, an issue rais
ed by Mr. Paul.
/r\t tins time, Mr. rieckman
was seen in frequent conference
with John Rustgard, Attorney
General for Alaska. However,
all of Mr. Rustgird’s political
supporters v/ere very much sur
prised to see N. O. Hardy or
Juneau get up and ask’ to have
Mr. Rustgard address the House
on the bill. As a matter of
fact, it is now generally known
that Mr. Rustgard had arrang
witl now the assist
ant cashier of the 1st Nation
al f:;.n c( Juneau, to be called
for the purpose of opposing
tki- biR to tax non-resident
fishermen.
Mr. Rustgard addressed the
Hoi- e and sao1 e against the
bill. He said Had Maska had
the right to pr s such, a bill
(per ) bu he 1 ?as not
inst sure about it. He finally
c 1 c e ;1 w fits c m e t • * i n g 1»k e these
words. “If you pass 1H3 bill,
I om -r- ' 1 the runreme Court
of the Uni' ed States might hear
about it r. 11 d v••1'rn the case of
the right tc place a graduated
lined salmon comes
e h. 1 prema Court, your
■ j-jg- • - bill migh '
the
Supreme Court
cr-’ ut .Alaska’s
claim.”
€
1 Mr. Paul read from
u e very law cases
to which Mr. Rustgard had re
ferred and in which the Su
preme Court of the United
States had already said that
'hero was no limit on the right
of t'ie Territory to tax, “even
io the extent of destroying the
businessHe pointed out that
Mr. Rustgard was hdmself the
attorney cF the Territory in
one of the cases.
When the vote was taken, it
was lost by a vote of 8 to 8.
Those favoring the resident
fishermen were Elliot, Fergu
son, Gr siu Grier, Nylen, Paul,
Foss, Sundquist.
Those opposing the resident
fishermen were Hardy, Jensen,
Moody, Murray, Sheldon, Sher
man, Watson and Wilcox of
Valdez.
On the very next day, Mr..
Paul and others noticed that
the clerk of the House had not
made a true report of the pro
ceedings relating to this bill,
and he therefore moved, Mr.
Ferguson made the second, that
it be noted in the House Jour
nal that the Attorney General
(John Rustgard) “spoke against
the advisability of passing the
bill (No. 39) on account of
litigation pending before the
Supreme Court.”
Very singularly, Jos. Murray
who had always opposed Mr.
Rustgard, and who had pre
viously voted against consult
ing with the attorney general
on other matters, now came
forwrard and lead the opposition
in protecting John Rustgard
from the record. Murray and
the cannery crowd who took
orders from him did not want
the record to show that Mr.
Rustgard had fought against
the bill, to protect our Alaskan
resident fishermen from the un
fair competition of the Puget
Sound-Astcria variety.
The proposal to let the record
spe'’1'' for Rr elf and reveal to
the fishermen of Alaska how
Mr. Rustgard fought this just
bill designed to protect them
was accordingly defeated by
Toe Murray, N. O. Hardy (now
running for reelection on the
“Independent” ticket) Harry
Watson, now the honored pri
vate secretary of Gov. Parks,
and Sneaker Wilcox of Valdez,
another man who now wishes
the fishermen of the Third
Division to vote him back to
the House.
Is it a mere accident that
John Walker Troy, editor of
the Juneau Empire and Edward
G. Morrissey, of the Ketchikan
Chronicle went south together
on the Princess Mary?
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