The - Hlajkan
Pubished every Friday by the Alaska Native Brotherhood Pub
lishing Company at Petersburg, Alaska.
Entered in the Post Office in Petersburg as Second Class Matter.
SUBSCRIPTION RATES:
Six months, $2.50 Per Year, $4.00
Advertising Rates on Application.
LOUIS F. PAUL.MANAGER and EDITOR
As Others See the Tax Problem
-V
Beginning on the 9th of this |
month, the City Council will
meet as an equalization board to
consider the tax problems which
may be presented. The City As
sessor has made his valuations -'
not much different from the
valuations of last year—a n d
some, not a few of the property |
owners believe that they have a*
legitimate kick.
As regards taxes in the State
of Washington, we reprint the'
following from the several pa
pers from that state:
“Making a concerted demand
for tax relief, taxpayers of the j
community voted to urge upon
the county board of equalization
that real property valuations be
cut at least 35 per cent and per
sonal . property valuations a t,
least 25 per cent.”—The Ray- I
mond (Wn.) Herald.
“The Paying public has not the ’
capacity to pay that it formerly j
had and is crying for relief.”—
The Walla Walla Union. j
“What the business men of
Bellingham told the City Council
relative to the proposed new
business and occupational taxes
is exactly what the great maj
ority of voters will tell propon
ents of other new or extended
taxing proposals that may come
up.”—The Bellingham News.
“In behalf of the taxpayers of
Lewis County we extend con
gratulations to the board of
county commissioners for the
resolution drastically reducing
the real estate valuations.”—The
Centralia Chronicle.
“With a reduction of 25 per
cent in assessed valuation of real
property approved by the county
board of equalization, public
officials in the county will be
forced to exert unusual ingenui
ty in making up their budgets.”
—The Yakima Herald.
“A reduction of 25 per cent in
all taxes will be accomplished
sooner or later.”—The Snohom
ish Tribune.
Face The Problem Squarely
-X
In the past several years taxes
have held up to the full twenty
mills allowed by law but the val
uations have gone clear out of
sight so that some of the tax
payers declare that this is the
highest taxed town in the coun
try. Believe it or not. The fact
remains that the- taxes are so
high that they hurt and any
thing that hurts industry in a
town drives industry away 'from
h town.
A taxpayer stated recently that
he held two properties in Peters
burg which he would be willing
to let loose of for around $1500
but that the tax on each piece of
property was $1,500. “If I offered
the both of them for $1,500 I
could not get it,” he declared
But the valuation is held at that
higher figure" when the actual
value is not there and with the
tax at 20 mills there is a penalty
for owning that property in Pe
tersburg.
The One Way Out
The Board of Equalization can
face the problem but one way to
do so properly. Cut the valua
tions at least 25 per cent and
then cut the tax down to about
17 mills on the dollar. To do so,
the Council must make up its
mind that it will adopt a budget
| not with a maximum of spending
ipower but a minimum of spend
ing and a maximum of saving.
The more dollars of tax money
that are spent only means the
higher the rates of taxes. Those
who yell the loudest about their
taxes still demand the larger ap
propriations for city projects—it
is always thus.
In order to meet the curtail
ed valuations and reduced tax,
the council will just have to fig
ure that it is not going to re
ceive a revenue over a certain!
amount and then place its bud
get within those figures. And
then it will have to remain hard
uoiled when new projects are
proposed during the ensuing
year.
The condition of the times de
mands not only citizens to re- \
trench and to quit the wild orgy
of spending—mostly foolish
spending—but it is making the
same demands of city, state and
national governments. The soon
er the problems are faced frank-1
ly and in a sane manner, the
sooner will there be relief.
We Tell of a Political Promise
x
Some time last spring J. J.
Connors of Juneau, Democratic
National Committeeman an
nounced that if and when the
Democratic administration went
into power nationally and terri
torially, there would be an end
to the appointing of men of op
posite political faith to public
office. While many Democrats
we should estimate a good 75
per cent—are the recipient cf
Republican favors, still they
have made up their minds that
this is poor party politics and
they will not tolerate it when
they get in control.
This reminds us that it was
Republican votes which elected
Walstein G. Smith; and his chief
clerk is a Democrat; that his tax
collector E. M. Polly, was given
his job for betraying his con
stituency and now goes around
the country electioneering a
gainst the Republican party by
fighting his old constituents who
elected him. We find Judge Jus
tin W. Harding another Repub
lican appointee appointing *De
mocrats as United States Com-\
missioners and said commission-j
ers appoint judges of election of1
the opposite political faith and)
thereby throw control of the.
election machinery into the
hands of Democrats. We find in;
the federal offices—for instance j
in the office of Mr. Flory, U. S. i
Commissioner representing the'
Washington government—while j
he votes Republican his office1
force votes Democrat. <
The Democratic National
Committeeman has promised his1
constituents that this practice;
will be stopped when and if he is!
elected to office. Perhaps thej
Republican apointees and can
didates hope to continue in of
fice by playing both ends to the'
middle—perhaps. We are of the I
opinion that this practice is no*vl
cut of date—that those who play I
such a game are going to be
kicked out anyhow by the Demo
crats and that the National
Committee, if made aw*are of the
present situation would not tol
erate it any further. And it is
the announced intention of cer
tain Republicans to present that
matter to the National Com
mittee just to get the reaction
of that body—“just to get a kick
cut of it and to kick several who
have kicked me in the past,” as
one man declares. j
Anyhow, there is going to be i
harmony in both parties one of
these days. \i
"Paul Was Right"
-x- \
The fishermen are all agreed
that William L. Paul, the only
person in politics iru either party
in Alaska against the fish traps,
was right in his statement that
the political issue wa" an econ
omic issue and there could be no
relief until that institution was
removed.
The businessmen of Ketchikan
and Wrangell agree with Paul.
A number of business lights in
Juneau are also in agreement.
There can be no denying that he
is right.
There will be around five mil
lion cases of salmon canned this
year—the pack from the fore
part of the season will be nil but
tne pack in the last two weeks
of the season will be abnormal.
In spite of the fact that the pack
will be larger than in 1912 or
other corresponding years, the
resident fishermen and laborers
will receive less from the fish
eries than when half that pack
was put up in the past. Less
number employed and smaller
earnings.
The trouble with the issue was
that “Paul is an Indian” and too
many ignorant men, blindly pre -
judiced by racial animosities do
not want to be led into prosperi
ty by an Indian. They would
rather taste of bankruptcy and
everything else than to have
profit through following his di
rection.
More than 90 per cent of Alas
ka’s commercial business is bank
rupt. That would not be so
bad if under any other con
dition as in the states. But,
Alaska has the resources—tim
ber bottled up by the Forestry
Bureau which will not even per
mit shipment of logs to foreign
markets unless manufactured
into lumber; which will force
unsaleable timber upon the op
erator; which will give away
billions of board feet of logs to
possible—but not probable pulp
mill projects; by its little tin
gods forcing regulations on op
erators. All of which actions has
destroyed the sawmill business
in Alaska. In the fisheries O’Mal
ley has driven the independent
trapman out; he has driven the
independent seinemen out; he
has helped drive out the inde- j t
pendent canner by his absurd, jj
unscientific prohibitions; by his
sale of trapsites according to
certain cannery operators who
declare “O’Malley receives $5,000
to permit certain traps to oper
ate.” By the discriminations
which are in fact illegal as they
are in direct contravention to
the White Fisheries law which
declares for the protection of
the common right of fisheries.
Alaska's fisheries should em
ploy more than 30,000 fishermen.
This should give the territory
150,000 dependents upon each
laborer. There would be plenty
i of labor to draw upon without
employing the riff-raff and
I scum, the pocked up, venerial
degenerates who are shipped to
Alaska from California, Oregon \
land Washington. The earnings
of each man would be from $800
to $1500 even at the present low
price of one and one-half cents
per pink; one and one-half cents
for dogs; ten cents for cohoes
land fifteen cents for sockeyes.
If the value of the fisheries is
fifty million dollars the labor
I cost would be about twelve mil
lion dollars which if scattered
among the business men of the
Territory would permit them to
I operate at a greater profit than
under the present system of un
1 employed and with those em
| ployed getting such low remun
eration that it does not pay them
to work—except as a duty to the
canneries.
But the average business man
is so blind and so prejudiced that
he would rather kiss O’Malley’s
tees than to assert his inde
pendence and demand that the
maladministration of the fish
eries be forthwith stopped.
Others who benefit by his fav
ors help put the soft pedal oil
opposition to the wrongs he per
petrates upon the territory and j •;
they thereby becoihe traitors of ♦;
their country and fellow citizens. I ♦:
But again, after reading the]*;
above facts, you good reader—N
whether you will agree with us •!
or not—must admit “Paul was
and is right” and there will be
no relief until you follow his
i
dictum that The Traps Must Go. j j
]
Is Progress the Goal of Civilization? <i
Not long ago, we were talking
w;th Mr. Edwards of trapwire
fame, and he told us that we 1
were standing in the way of ‘pro
gress’ when we opposed the fish- ,
trap. He went on to say that all I
history shows that nobody could
stand in the way of progress, or
efficiency. The handworkers of
Liverpool, the cotton workers of
the south, the handprinters be
fore the linotype, and many
others only proved this point, he
said. So he argued that the fish- |
trap justified itself because (1) j
it produced the cheapest caught i
fish; (2) it provided the most
sanitary.
We disagree with Mr. Edwards
first because Progress is not the
goal of society; rather the goal
is the contentment of each mem
ber of society. If machines
bring this about, we are for the
machine; but if the machine j
does not, then we are against I
them. Society has something to
answer for when it permits a'
machine in these days to dis
charge nine men out of ten
without providing for the nine.
Unless these nine can readjust
themselves, somebody has -to
feed and cloth them however
poorly. A simple electrical device
for closing the doors of the New
York subways threw 9,000 men
Dut of employment. Does Mr.
Edwards (or you) have the right
to shut his eyes to the needs c.f
these men and their families in
the name of “progress and let :
! 3
them starve or resort to the Red i <
Cross or petty stealing? I }
We finally pinned Mr. Edwards 1,
down by making him admit that j <
he was a communist for he said, 11
“I believe in cooperation of all|<
for the greatest good of all.” ln‘<
other words, we said, “You be- \
lieve in community effort for ♦:
community benefit, don’t you?” <
He answered, “Yes.” ♦:
“Then” we said, “you are j
nothing but a communist.” j
But why quarrel with a word— j
“bolshevist,” majority rule: j
“communist” the greatest good j
for the greatest number; “so- *j
cialism” the effort of society to ;j
protect its members from ex- i
pioitation. 5
, The people of Alaska must be
allowed to feed themselves.
We conclude our editorial by
saying simply that the fishtrap
is not the cheapest way of catch
ing fish and those who base their
argument on “cheapness” must
advocate the use of “weirs in
the fishstreams themselves” be
cause this form is the very
cheapest—one weir manned by
two persons to each stream
would guarantee the escapement
and economy and would replace
some four hundred traps costing
about $2,000,000 employing about
600 men with one hundred weirs
or less and employing 200 men.
Mr. Edwards’ second reason is
more quickly answered—the en
ure Bristol Bay pack of abou'
2,000,000 cases is from movable
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I i
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—X
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