SAM BUTT’S LETTER TO
ARTHUR FREE, CONGRESSMAN
Mr. Arthur M. Free:
I have just received a copy of
your speech printed in the Con
gressional Record; and in answer
1 will say that I have had 40 years
experience in the taking of salmon
from the time they near the coast,
until they reach their home
stream. I have also watched them
on their spawning grounds year
after year for 40 years. Now.
please do not forget that. Your
friend, Dr. Gilbert, spent the en
tire summer of 1926 on thei^
spawning grounds in Alaska. Well
this is fine as far as it goes; but it
does not go far enough. Dr. Gil
bert deserves a lot of credit for his
fight to save fish, if that is what
he wants. Now, I want to save
fish, and I want to save the peo
ple.
Mr. Free, you know as well as I
do that in the States they had to
pass stringent laws to protect the
game from the game hogs. If you
are so anxious to save Alaska from
the fish hogs, and if you are really
honest about it, I will tell you how.
There is only one way.
But before I go any farther, I
want to tell you that I know al>
about your first hand information
and from whom you got the princi
pal part of it. As to the fish ques
tion in Alaska, I have a letter
from this teacher that proves be
yond doubt that he is not trying
to save all the fish he can, but in
stead he is working on the other
side of the fence and with the fish
hogs. NOW THAT MAN SIGNED
HIS NAME HENRY O’MALLEY,
and if worst comes to worst, I in
tend to send that letter to Dan
Sutherland.
Here is the way. First limit all
traps and seines and gill nets to
75 fathoms; then limit all canner
ies to 1 line; then limit the pack
to 25,000 cases; then limit the sea
son to 50 days and no closing days
during the open season; limit
each cannery to 1 trap, the jigger
of which must not exceed 120 feet,
the lead 75 fathoms; allow them
to fish anywhere in tidewater; let
the Territory take 1 cent on each
fish that is caught, and the Feder
al Government y2 cent revenue;
now to arrange the price of fish
from fisherman to canner, appoint
a board of G men, 2 cannerymen,
2 fishermen, 1 Territorial and 1
Federal appointee and they can set
the price at a reasonable figure.
Now, if the poor canneymen feel
that they have been too much
imposed upon to go ahead and can
for a year or two, well that will be
tine for the Fish. We might as
well starve all at once as t0 drag
along for 4 or 5 or possibly 10
years half fed.
Mr. Free I am telling you that
Mr. Hoover will have to shoulder
all responsibility for tlie disap
pearance of the fish under his pre
sent system. The Bureau of Fish
eries is not, or will not be to blame
for everything, for I have a letter
from Mr. O’Malley wherein he has
blamed the Department of Com
merce for action that has been
taken and advised me to do
the same. I would tell that to Mr.
Hoover if you were to call an in
vestigation of the Bureau of Fish
eries.
Yours truly,
SAMUEL E. BUTTS
Member Advisory Board Alaska
Fisheries Appointed By Governor
Bone at the Request of Herbert
Hoover.
A small boy was having his haii
cut for the first, time.
“How shall I cut it?” asked the
barber.
“With a hole in the top like my
daddy’s please,” was the reply.
THE CANNERY SENATORS
Senators Bartley Howard, Thom
as Jenson, Harry Pratt and John
W. Dunn.
Ben Grier, Joseph Murray, Thom
as Scott, Sumner Smith, Thomas
Gaffney, Aylmer Rydeen, Ralph Lo
men, Walter Fisher and Robert
Sheldon.
FOR THE PEOPLE OF ALASKA
Senators Charles W. Brown, Ar
thur Frame, Forest J. Hunt, Wiil
A. Steel.
REPRESENTATIVES
Charles Benjamin, Charles Fergu
son, William E. Worth. William L
Paul, Richard Sundquist, H. H.
Ross, Fred Johnston.
“FISHERIES BILL DEFEATED IN
ALASKA LEGISLATURE’*
The people of Alaska were again
defeated in the vital measures af
fecting her fisheries. Special in
terests were again placed above
general interest by the CANNERY
Senators and Representatives.
The curious thing about our elec
tions is that the candidates openly
supported by the Special Interests
are nearly always defeated; but
when it comes to voting in the
legislature the Cannery and Trap
men always get enough votes to
defeat the People of Alaska .
This reminds the writer about a
conversation he had with Joe Mur
ray, special interest representative.
It was the day after the House was
organized. Murray was “tight”
enough to be talkative, and said.
“You deserve all the credit for
beating us all right. But I want to
tell you that when we need those
birds who deserted us, we will
reach right out and take them.”
The worst of it was that we knew
that he spoke the truth.
After adjournment sine die, the
same Joe Murray told Mr Ross:
“You beat us at the start all right,
but when it came to the vital Issue
of taxation, we got 'em hack."
“HIS MASTER'S VOICE."