nery docK.**
The whole river is staked out. The company
says: “These stakes are just as much for you as
for us.” But in the season for fishing, the natives
are kicked out.
There was a large run of humpies and so Ya
kutat has been threatened by big seines and
fishtraps. But the spirit of the Yakutat people is
this: “If they come, we will fight. Yakutat has
the fighting spirit. We still have the same spirit
of our forfathers of 150 years ago when we clean
ed out the Russians.”
How About Diplomacy
Too many of our people, their spokesman said,
are praying to be saved from a fight. “It reminds
me about what happened in 1898 when 600 pros
pectors crossed the glacier back of Yakutat. Two
Swedes fell behind. They got to the west bank of
the Alsak and were played out Just then, they
saw a big brown bear coming down. There was no
way to go. The bear kept coming Said Ole to
Gus: “Pray, Gus, Pray!” “No, you Dray” said Gus.
So Ole prayed thus: “O God help us and drive
that bear away. If you don’t drive it away, be
neutral and you will see the darndest fight you
ever saw.”
Some there are who would use “diplomacy” in
a case like this. Others would emulate the Swede.
-xj
FISH PRICES AT YAKUTAT
Sockeye: Company gear, 15 cents; private gear 27c.
Kings, company gear, 75c; private gear $1.05
Pinks, company gear, .03c; private gear, 04.
-x
A LETTER TO THE SATURDAY EVENING POST
IN RE: “KIDDING OURSELVES ALONG
IN RE: Articles bgy Stewart Edward White.
Ketchikan, Alaska
April 21, 1930
Editor Saturday Evening Post,
Philadelphia, Penna.
Dear Sir:
There are a few germs of truth in Stewart Ed
ward White’s recent articles in your magazine, but
there are so many misstatements of fact that the
whole series is rendered ridiculous.
Not the least of these is his statement that
the Bureau of Fisheries is on the right track. They
are fundamentally wrong, and the fisheries of
Alaska are in worse .condition than ever. No
amount of publicity can cure that.
He states that Alaska Indian seine boat own
ers save all their engine work to get it done free
in the cannery in the spring. Not one minute’s
work is clone free. Every dollar’s worth of work is
taken out of their fish money at the end of the
season and at a good rate, too. I have audited too
many seine boat accounts not to know what I am
talking about.
The Bureau of Fisheries is kidding itself along
It is kidding the people of the United States and
it is kidding Stewart Edward White. It is not kid
ding the Indians of Alaska, however.
Someone in Alaska kidded Stewart Edward
White in the article of April 12th with a ven
geance. “An emergency is hereby declared to ex
ist”! That is the stock phrase that ends every
bill which is designed to go into immediate opera
tion; otherwise it is not operative for three
months. The Legislature of Alaska meets every
two years; the fish articles were printed long after
the session of 1929 met, and passed the appropria
tion of $40,000 for the cleaning of salmon-spawn
ing streams, and it has not met since. That was
a silly measure, but it’s danger does not lie in the
direction White assumes. If White reads the Ses
sion Laws of Alaska, he will see that phrase, “An
emergency is hereby declared to exist,” in every
bill that carries an appropriation. We have lots
of “emergencies” in Alaska.
"By recent legislation Alaska has removed all
restriction from the killing, at any season, of the
big brown bear.” Alaska has nothing whatever to
do with any restrictions on any kind of game or
fish. Washington, D C., and its Bureaus handle
all that.
I have travelled all over the fish streams of
Southeastern Alaska every year for considerably
longer than Stewart Edward White has done, and
I have never seen a brown bear, not one, outside of
a Zoo in the States. Not a Mexican, Filipino or
Chinaman is allowed to carry a gun in Alaska, not
even to obtain meat for his family in season.
We expect Alaska will be overrun next sum
mer with visiting yachtsmen expecting to pot a
beai fiom the beach! They ought to sue your pa
per for expenses. You had better fire Stewart Ed
ward White.
Very truly yours,
William L. Paul.
---x
SOVIET WOMEN
'-X
It is the fashion among Americans to despise
the Russian Soviet Government. The term “Bol
shevik” is usually considered the final proof and
unanswerable argument.
.Without attempting to cover the whole sphere
of government, let us call your attention to the
Soviet position on the rights of women. The Rus