PETERSBURG, ALASKA, APRIL 11, 1930
VOL. 4.
No. 42.
Wickersham’s Reply
Confutes Charge
In an undated letter to the
Press, similar to another letter
to the Chronicle, John Rust
gard declares “The latter (Wick
crsham) does not say anything
about the leasing of trap sites.
Neither does he commit him
self specifically on anything
else. That may be good politics
but not very manly. He puts
himself into position where he
can promise one thing to the
fishermen and the opposite to
the canners. The same oppor
tunity for duplicity is main
tained throughout his platform
and other public utterances.
“But what is my opponent go
ing to do about the leasing of
traps if elected. He and Paul
accepted fat fees from the can
ners for putting the leasing bill
through Congress. He knows
the canners expect him to do so
if elected. If after taking their
money he declines to carry out
his agreement he will forever
brand himself as the worst
double-crosser on record in
Alaska politics and utterly un
worthy of confidence or sup
port of anybody.
“Personally I have a much
better reason for supporting the
leasing bill than Wickersham as
signed for his attitude on the
subject.”
Wickersham’s Position
In our files is a copy of letter
addressed to the Sitka Camp of
the Brotherhood by Judge Wick
ershanv under date of March
25th. We quote in part:
“There lies before me, and
you may have received a copy,
a printed circular entitled, “A
Speech by John Rustgard, ad
dressed to Natives and Whites
Alike, published and circulated
by the Rustgard Campaign Com
mittee,” which was intended al
so to “kill” your bill.
In the first place this “speech”
is as false as the Marquam tele
gram. First, because no such
* speech” was ever delivered by
Mr. Rustgard,—when and where
was such a speech made by him?
It was not “published and emu
lated by the Rustgard Campaign
Committee,”—but it has been se
cretly published and circulated
by John Rustgard personaly. He
alone is responsible for its pub
lication and circulation, and for
the false attacks upon Suther
land, Paul and myself in its pag
es. Let us examine this unborn
“speech,” and hear Mr. Rust
gard’s statements:
“1st. He declares that for an
extravagant and silly fee I pre
pared a bill in 1927 to enable
the canners to secure a lease on
trap sites for four years, at a
Gil tyaJ&mg-giagmg
HUSKAt COMEDY Miff J
iKig MJiltX brothers!
shbm
rental based on the number or
fish caught in the trap, and the
right of the public to retake the
site at the end of any year, and
he then asks, “What is this but
the sale of political influence”?
There are two answers to that
question: first at that time I was
not in Congress, and had no in
tention of ever becoming a can
didate for that or any other of
fice. I was a practicing lawyer,
and was employed to bring
peace between two certain
groups of men. one of which was
engaged in “jumping” the trap
sites of the other, which they
had held by yearly possession
for fifty years without paying
a cent to the public, and second,
Mr. Rustgard publicly approved
that wicked bill in his recent
platform as follows:
“I also believe that owners of
fish traps and trap sites should
be protected in such ownership
against all interference except
by the Government and to that
end should .receive .leases for
their trap sites for a fixed peri
od, subject always to revocation
and whatever rules and regu
lations the Government may see
fit to impose.”
See Mr. Rustgard’s Platform.
If my action as an attorney in
1927 in drawing a bill carefully
saving the public’s rights, and
providing for a high rate of
rental to be paj d into the public
treasury was wrong, what about
Mr. Rustgard’s wide open de
claration in his platform?
“What is this but the sale of
political influence”?
I send you herewith a copy of
my printed platform, and you
will notice that I do not declare
in favor of a leasing trap site
bill such as Mr. Rustgard does,
f not only did not declare in fa
vor of it, but I SHALL NOT in
troduce such a bill if I am elect
ed to Congress, for this very
good reason: That while I drew
that bill as an attorney, I ought
not to introduce it in Congress
for that very reason, and will
NOT. Mr. Rustgard WILL be
OBLIGED to introduce it, under
his platform pledge, if he is
elected. “What is that but the
sale of political influence”?
John first denounces me for
drawing such a bill, as an at
torney, for my clients in 1927,
£nd THEN STRONGLY EN
DORSES IT IN HIS POLITICAL
PLATFORM IN 1930, AND
| THEREBY SECURED THE SUP
PORT OF THE CANNERS TO
HIS PRESENT CANDIDACY!
^'What is that but the sale of
political influence”?—is John’s
(inquiry—so let him answer it.”
A SIZEABLE PACK
With the purchase of the Em
el Packing Co., at Valdez, the
Pacific American Fisheries, Inc.
adds 40,000 cases to its packing
capacity. They will now be abl<
put up 1,020,263 cases or 11.31
per cent of the total North Am
erican pack or approximate^
25 per cent of the Alaska pack
acific American Fisheries In
corporated in 1929 reported ne
of $1,086,578, or $3.59 a share oi
Lhe average number of share
outstanding during the year. 1
vigorous advertising campaigi
Plans Developed
For Auto Caravan
-x
Preparations for the proposed
automobile caravan from Seattle
to Hazeltine, B C., over the first
section of the projected exten
sion of the Pacific Highway from
Vancouver, B. C., to Fairbanks,
Alaska, were carried forward at
a conference recently between
B. A. McKelvey of Victoria, di- |
rector of publicity and informa
tion for the Province of British
Columbia, and W. F. Kennedy
of North Okanogan, senior gov
ernment whip in the provincial
Legislature, representatives of
Premier S. F. Tolmie, with Asa
hel Curtis and Charles D. Gar
field of the Seattle Chamber of
Commerce.
Mr. Curtis and Mr. Garfield
have charge of arrangements for
the American members of the
party on the trip, which will be
headed by Major Malsolm Elliott
president of the Alaska Road
Commission. The conference was
on the length of the invitation
list and day-by-day details of
the proposed trip.
The party will be limited to 40
persons because of the restricted
and sometimes scant accommo
dations at many of the stopping
places. Twenty-five members of
the caravan will be American
newspaper men selected from
West Coast States by Curtis and
Garfield. Pressure is being
brought to bear to reduce the
number of Americam newspa
per representatives.
The caravan will assemble at
Vancouver on the 14th of June
end will leave on that same day.
It will be due at Hazeltine about
the 21st and the schedule calls
for return to Vancouver by June
30. The route is 832 miles from
Vancouver to Hazeltine.
x
"Alaskans” Flock
North
x
Seattle’s army of cannery
workers and fishermen are be
ginning to head for the salmon
plants of Alaska in preparation
for the 1930 packing season, and
heavy bookings are being made
for ships plying in the northern
routes. , -
The first exedus of workers
took place on the Alameda lad
en with 442 passengers, includ
ing many employees of salmon
plants. The Alaska also headed
north with another army of
workers. By the middle of last
week, on the Alaska Line alone,
772 passengers were booked for
the north.
On the Alaska were crews for
Superior Fisheries at Tenakee,
New England at Alaska Pacific
Corporation at Drier Bay, Paci
fic American Fisheries at Val
dez, Shepard Point Packing Co.,
at Shepard Point. The vessel
also had large shipments of
supplies.
The last trip of the Alameda
• brought north crews for Port
, Althrop, Quadra, Kasaan, Peril
Straits..
Ensign Majory of Vancouver
■ has been stationed at Ketchikan.
Game Warden Dufresne is in
k Ketchikan on official business.
1 is planned for this year and
3 large scale operations are ex
i pected as a result.
i
*
Rustgard Embraces O’Malley and
Defends His Fishery Policy
' The first political rally for the
approaching primary election
was held at The MacGregor yes
terday evening: The party head
ed by the Hon. John Rustgard,
included Walter P. Scott, of Ju
neau and C. T. Gardner, also of
Juneau. The former running
for office of representative and
the latter, senator in the Legis
lature.
.. Mayor E. N. Ohmer presiding
introduced each speaker. Mr.
Scott prefacing his remarks de
clared himself an engineer by
profession and superintendent
of the Alaska-Juneau Gold Min
ing Co.’s mill at Juneau. He call
ed attention to the four basic in
dustries of the Territory, fishing,
mining, lumbering and pulp and
fur and game and then made no
mention of any of the industries
save mining.
Asserts Alaska-Juneau em
ploys 600 men the year around
with a pay roll totalling a million
and a quarter. (Which means
a yearly average of $2,083).
Declared a serious error was
made in making office of Com
missioner of Education elective
nnd insulted the intelligence of
his audience by declaring they
could not vote intelligently on
that subject. Will do all in his
power to make that office ap
pointive if elected. Will en
courage prospecting by furnish
ing transportation; will require
that all Territorial help be resi
dents of Alaska five years. De
clared certain legislators voted
|en bloc and to the detriment of
good legislation.
TOM GARDNER
Introduced as a member of the
firm of Sawyer-Reynolds, log
gers. Talked about pulp possib
ilities and declared non-resident
troller’s tax’ only piece of decent
legislation enacted by progress
ive block. Asserted the measure
was put through by the Troy
Empire crowd Condemned the
forcing of this bill thru along
with bill to make elective cer
tain offices heretofore in contro;
of federal powers.
Attacked Steel as being non
1 resident and without the sapa
jbilities of an efficient senator.
Declared Frank L. Knight to be
a mere figure-head for the An
chorage First National Bank who
should not receive support from
thk voters.
. .Asks that not much be expect
ed of him as he had just gotten
up from a sick bed.
HON. JOHN RUSTGARD
Mr. Rustgard, candidate for
delegate to Congress prefaced his
remarks by decrying and con
demning mud-slinging tactics
in campaigns and then wielded
a big brushful of the same stuff
in a manner that brought him
no votes. He asserted that Judge
Wickersham’s platform was a
“duplicitous” pamphlet and that
on every question Wickersham
left a door open to step out from
a positive position.
Going into the fiish question
he charged William L. Paul with
“blackguarding” the Bureau of
Fisheries and promised that he
would give O’Malley full support
on the regulation of fisheries.
Questioned Wickersham’s asser
tion that gear should be more
equally controlled and declared
statement to be nothing but a
bote catcher as he (Rustgard)
did not see how any change
could be made. Read parts of
Wickersham’s speech before the
Ketchikan Rotarians and declar
ed it a bunch of “bunkum.” His
defense of the canners followed
whereby he tried to show that
virtually all canners were oper
ating at loss and closed with the
question “Shall we let outside
canners come in and then refuse
[them profit”? Declared that the
local resident fishermen were
not being discriminated against
and that this was a typical Wick
ersham statement—made delib
erately, brazenly and knowing
■ everyone knew it was not true.
Called Wickersham a “brickbat
artist” and by use of brickbats
and brickbat brigade, hopes tc
' go to Congress. Called atten
tion. to regulations for benefit
of residents promulgated bj
O’Malley: limit of boats to 5C
feet in length and gear restric
tions to discriminate against
Irene Runstad Wins
-x
. .Miss Irene Runstad with her
coacher, Miss Mary Reep, left
on the Alameda, Wednesday
morning for Ketchikan where
Miss Runstad will represent Pe
tersburg in the finals of the De
clamatory Contest for South
east Alaska. Classes were sus
pended while the student body
accompanied our contender to
the boat where she was given a
fitting send-off. Miss Irene has
made very careful preparation
for this event and she deserves
to win. .. .
Irene Runstad was declared
winner of the Declamatory con
test at Ketchikan with Melvin
Howe of Ketchikan, speaking
a piece entitled “Antonio Ma
ceo,” second and Muriel Jarman
of Juneau reciting “Promise” by
Annie Hamilton, third.
-x
FIRST ELECTIVE WOMAN
SENATOR
.. Ruth Hannah McCormick, il
lustrious daughter of Mark Han
nah showed herself a “chip off
the old block” by defeating Den
een of Chicago for the office of
Senator to Congress from Il
linois. She received more than
a hundred thousand votes more
than her opponent who auuealed
to the voters for party regularity.
Sound fishermen; commended
troller’s tax law and challenged
before being given license to fish
in Territorial waters.
Attacks Senator Steel as being
non-resident and attempted to
show the insincerity of Mr. Steel.
Attacked William Paul as being
another “brickbat artist” who
had learned from the Wicker
sham school. That personally,
privately, he was a fine honor
able man but had fallen into the
hands of men who had led him
astray. That his work in the
legislature was ineffective be
cause of his tactics and speciflc
allly mentioned that Paul’s bill
to tax non-resident trollers $50
failed to pass and the law did
not pass until “Paul was elected
to stay home.” But he did not
mention that Paul’s bill failed of
passage because of his (Rust
gard’s) speech against the bill.
Charges Paul and Wickersham
with being crooked and dishon
est with their constituency.
In his constructive argument
he asserted the only way to build
up a permanent population was
to embrace and support the fed
eral bureaus. “Let us cooperate
with the bureaus. It is the only
way to get them to relax their
restrictions on natural resourc
es. Asserted that two pulp mills
will increase population from 25
to 30,000. Mentions menace of
the Siberian fisheries and de
clared it has driven American
produets out of world markets.
Closes speech by addressing the
Indian vote by declaring Wick
ersham was handing them a lot
of bunk in urging their suit be
fore the Court of Claims against
the Government; stating that
che Indians were contributing
ten dollars each to the support of
the attorneys who would make
from a half million to a million
dollars if they won and question
ed that Wickersham would pass
up such a large fee for a con
gressional salary.. He wound up
his speech a with a spread-eagle
appeal to the Viking spirit of
' the voters of Ptersborg.
the right of Legislature to lim
to one year’s residence before