A. N. 15. Publishing Company,
..Published every Friday by the Alaska Native Brotherhood:
Publishing Company, at Petersburg, Alaska.. Entered in the Post
hffice in Petersburg as Second Class Matter.
Subscribtion Kates:
The Alaskan, six months, $2.50
The Alaskan, per year, $£.09 Louis F. Paul, Editor-Manager.
Don't Fight, Gentlemen
Ketchikan is to receive this
year from the Alaska Forest
Fund, $115,000 out of $200,000;
Juneau is to receive $75,000 and
the balance of the Territory is
to receive $10,000.
One would believe that Ket
chikan and Juneau were 90 per
cent of the Territory and entitl
ed to all of the forest funds save
the chicken feed that has been
alloted to the rest of Alaska.
Is It Bribery
When told of the distribution
of this money from the national
forests, an old Alaskan asked:
“Is the $115,000 to Ketchikan
and $75,000 to Juneau “grease”
to get the influential citizens to
support the bureaucratic system
in Alaska? If it isn't, then what
is it for”? .. :
.. There are citizens in Peters- !
burg who object to any aggress
ive effort towards securing mon
ey for Petersburg projects. They
prefer Ghandi’s passive resist- i
ance. Sizing some citizens up m
the light of events, it strikes one j
that this passive resistance is
nothing more than a smelly saf
Fishermen and Friends Should Read Between
The Lines of the Unfriendly Paper
The plunderbund of Juneau
with its “bloc” of federal mass
voters whipsaw the residents of
the Territory to any tunes they
desire. On the one hand they
take credit for the passage of the
Alien Troller tax and on the oth
er hand, they are opposed to it. j
An editorial in the Empire un
der the caption “Power to Tax is
Power to Confiscate” that paper
said“ Tax laws may be and often
are in practice noticeably in- ;
equitable and at the same time
unassailable on the ground of
violation of constitutional limita- !
tions.”
■ • i
The power of the Alaska Legis
lature to impose taxes is very
broad. And it is a power that
can easily be abused to the detri- !
ment of the whole community.
For that reason, it behooves the
responsible citizens of the Terri
tory, people who own property!
or have ambitions to become
property owners, to exercise the
greatest possible care in the se
lection of their legislators to the
end that the taxing power be
wisely exercised.”
This statement was made in
connection with Judge Harding’s i
A Worthy Organization
In the spring of 1929, the i
seiners of Ketchikan formed an 1
organization for the purpose of,;
benefltting and assisting those ;:
persons engaged in that branch' i
of the fishing industry. Briefly I
the aim and object of the asso- £
ciation is : To protect the resi
dent seiner, as far as possible, by c
means which will enable them to 11
get better prices for their fish; jj
To improve conditions generally |t
and establish uniform prices for v
seine fish in the different dis- t
tricts. . j
Under the present system, the ;1
prices vary in each district; in t
no district save Ketchikan, do t
the fishermen know what they a
are going to get until after they 1<
have brought in several loads of ^
salmon and sometimes not until p
the season is over do they know
what they are working for.
• o
There is not one cannery su
perintendent that does not know
it this time what he will pay for
salmon this summer; BUT there
decision in the tax case institut
ed by the Seattle Tollers’ Asso
cation. It is as plain as tin
“administration” organ dares be
on this subject but it is plan,
to anyone reading it carefulh
that “tax laws are noticeably
INEQUITABLE and at the sam.
time unassailable on the ground
of violation of constitutional lim
itations.” The Empire is opposed
to the trollers’ tax and only fear
of political reprisal by the elect
orate prevents them from com
ing out in open opposition.
At this time, in spite of the de
cision rendered by Judge Hard
ing and in spite of the fact tha
we are not lawyers, we assert
that the tax on alien (non-resi
dent) trollers is unconstitution
al, notwithstanding the recent
decision upholding the law.
The decision as applicable to
the law introduced by William L.
Paul in 1925 would hold—but
aot under the law introduced by
Senator Benjamin and amended
ay Representative Ziegler. That
law will have to be rewritten and
t will be an issue in the next
:ampaign.
s not a superintendent who will
ell his fishermen what he WILL
>ay. When approached, his an
wer always is: “I will pay just
is much as “-” cannery will
>ay.” And the boob fishermen
i'o off and fish at that price.
The Seiners’ Association is not
me to merely blackjack the can- j
ter into paying prices out of pro
iortion to cost of production. All
hey ask for is a decent living
/age and to that they are en-1
itled. Every fisherman should
oin this organization and give it j
Lis support, The packers have j
heir “canner’s association” and
hey work in unity and harmony
nd they have assessments for
)bbying and other reasons. They
ave found that united effort
ays them dividends and it is
me that the seiners took a leaf ]
at of the packers’ book. «
-v —x
Are you Interested? t
-X- £
If you are interested in such Is
fron hued mess that ill befits any
self-respecting man
j What then will we do about it?
| Why not protest as a Chamber of
Commerce, as individual business
houses, as individual citizen ?
, Petersburg is entitled to more
roads; the West* Coast needs a
road from Craig to Klawock;
a road is needed across Prince o
Wales Island from certain stra
getic. points to obviate the ne
cessity and rigors of travel
around Cape Chacon or the long
er trip around the north end of
this same island; Kake needs a
road from town to the cannery
and the list can be made longer.
Passive resistance to the au -
tocratic government by bureau;
has not gotten the smaller com
munities the benefits from the
forest funds. Active insistanct
by the two larger towns secures
for them the major allotments
for their highways. It is time
that the people awakened to th
disci iminations practiced and
set forth their objections like
men.
an organization write to W. M.
McCall, Paul Jones, Edward Rid
ley or Patrick Gildea, Ketchikan
and they .will take steps to give
further information. These men
are the Committee on Organisa
tion of this Association.
It is well to remember that it
was this organization which at
tempted to present its objections
to the “hook-off” rule promul
gated by Henry O’Malley. And
it was the snubbing they received
at his hands that forced the Czai
of Alaska’s fisheries into a de
fensive position and which forc
ed the rescinding of the rule. I!
is not large in numbers—yet—
but what it lacks in size it makes
up in determination. In organ
za! ion there is strength. It is
time the fishermen gained theii
full strength and fought their
own battles instead of leaving it
to the Alaska Native Brother
hood and its auxilliary, the Sis
terhood. There are many prob
’ems coming up in the immedi
ate future. These will have to be
met and only through directed
and united effort will any good
be accomplished.
-x
Ethics of the Empire
-X
“It (the Juneau Empire) will
not throw mud at any candi
date.”
Considering the private life or
the editor and the managing ed
itor, this is a very wise resolu
tion. And yet, considering tin
fact that the people of Junear
<now the sort it is, we are con
inually astonished that these
cultured people of Juneau (we
mean those who live on Chicnen
-tidge) should accept their po
lities iroin that source.
“It has always objected to
mudslinging.”
That may be as to the printing
part because of the laws of libel.
But the managing staff of the
Empire has not hesitated to
spread slander.
“From the tenor of the polit
ical aiatiibes in the neoOisburg
Indian organ, its organization
may not be so scrupulous.”
We remember very well that
the Empire printed (on the eve
of election) in big scare lines
.hat Wickersham and Suther
land had endorsed William L.
Paul as the next Delegate to
Congress—a fact that the Em
pire knew to be a deliberate fa
brication. In a conversation with
H. L. Bernard, part owner of the
Empire, he made the excuse that
the “lie came from Ketchikan
and we gave him (the sender) j
h—11 for doing so.” He was then !
asked “Why didn’t you correct!
iiie lie? You had time before
election”? To which Mr. Ber- j
nard said that he thought that it:
should have been done but “I am
not the editor.” j
The fact remains that the Em- !
pire violated the code of the pro
fession in deliberately publish
ing a lie to accomplish a polit
ical purpose. Grantng that it had
an excuse, that excuse is of no
avail because after it knew the
truth it refused or lacked the
honor to correct its prevarica
tion.
And yet the Empire draws the
line at “mudslinging.” It will
stand for the publication of lies,
but not for mudslinging which
may be true but too revealing. j
The Lie Is a Ilabit
Another lie that is well re- j1
membered relates to the special 1 ‘
edition which that same notori- j3
011 sly unethcal publication print- i3
ed the day before the last gen- 1
eral election, charging that Wil
liam L. Paul had “betrayed” his
people for $6,000.
This was and is a dirty, a de
liberate and a contemptible lie £
The honorable staff of the Ju- £
neau Daily Ethical publication
knows that there was no betray- •
al. s
The thing that Paul proposed *
to do did not and does not touch a
my of the issues involved in the
struggle of his people, but merely ii
I concerned a struggle between
quarreling trap owners. *
j When the Ethical Editors with
i their Ethical publication sup
■ ported John Rustgard’s candi
idacy and printed and published
| his platform, why didn’t they
publish the fact that Rustgard on
the question'of the trap lease
i endorsed the position that the
i leases be given by the govern
! ment with the power to regulate
| reserved to the government. Paul
j assumed that same position last
; year with the further prohibition
'that the government reserve tc
| itself the right to “further re
strict, regulate or abolish the
| fish trap.”
It is a matter of peculiar ethics
which condemns Paul as being a
| traitor, but praises Rustgard a::
a statesmen that does not touch
j the question of the trap’s abol
i ishment.
..If a trap site were leased, is
there anything to hinder the
government, if it wished, to abol
jish the trap? Absolutely nothing,
j Wherein does the betrayal come
i in?
j It does not come in except as
bait to the unthinking.
Just a Plain Annatiais
Another instance relates to the
false presentation of political
issues. To the Federal Daily,
the issue is the race question. On
this issue, the people of Juneau
seem to respond.
But IS it the question?
How can a 100 per cent Ameri
can say that it is
Does an issue become bad when
espoused by Indians?
Let us be Americans ! ! !
Let us discuss ISSUES.
The chief difference between
the denunciation of Bureaucracy
by Mr. Coo’idge, Mr. Hoover and
Mr. Lamont is this—we are will
ing to abolish particular bureaus
at once while Mr. Coolidge, Mr.
! Hoover and Mr. Lamont are sat
isfied to denounce the system
and then resist its application.
Is the issue our fisheries? In
which the Indians of Alaska have
consistently charged Mr. Henn
O'Malley with discriminatory
actions to the detriment of ALL
resident fishermen? Mr. O’Mai -
Ity himself answers the charge
and admits his guilt in official
publication. In his reports he
declares that in 1924 the seines
used by all classes of resident
fishermen, caught 38 per cent of j
the total salmon catch while the!
traps (gear used by Mr. O’Mai-1
ley’s patrons)' caught 51 per
cent. FOUR YEARS LATER, Mr.
O’Malley reports that the resi
dent seiners caught ONLY 25
per cent of the total pack while
the trap catch INCREASED to
71 per cent BUT the average
neck remained the same, 5,300,
000 cases. In other words, while
the obnoxious regulations we?*e
published ostensibly in the
name of “CONSERVATION” yet
there was no curtailment in the
pack—theaverage pack for the
four years preceding Year I of
King O’Malley’s reign is within
20.000 cases of the pack of the
of the subsequent four years fol-!
lowing the reign of his lordship.
Wherein is the conservation?
Who is being deceived? And
by whom?
The Indians were hurt first,
fhe resident white fishermen
vere also hurt. But the mer
hants cannot be deceived long
er by the cry “Indians! Indians!”
:or they are learning that a
nerchant cannot make any pro- j
it unless his customers first j
nake the profit.
-x
Tkou Shalt Not
Thou shalt not use a gillnet as
, seine, is a recent prohibition
et forth in O’Malley’s Alaska
ible.
.When is a gillnet used as a
sine, asks a gillnetter? When
; a gillnet and when is it a seine
sks another?
A seine is a kind of net used
1 taking fish; one of the class*.,
I encircling nets, consisting of 0 ■
webbing of network provided
• with, corks or floats at the uppe.
edge, and with leads of grpatei
or less weight at the lower, and
used to inclose a certain area of
water, and by bringing the ends
together, either in a boat or on
the shore, to secure the fish in
closed. The present day seine
is limited to 10 fathoms in depth
and 250 fathoms in length over
all. Purse lines, to close up the
seine as a “zipper” on a bag, is
and must be used under the re
gulations.
\ A gillnet is one which catches
fish by the gills. A gillnet is set
in the form of a curtain, sus
pended vertically from floats on
the surface of the water by
means of lead weights. Tne
meshes are of such size as to
catch by its gills a fish which
tries to force its way through, the
fish being prevented from ad
vancing by the narrowness of the
meshes, and from backing out by
the impossibility of working the
protecting plates over the twine
of the meshes.
It is a physical impossibility
to make a seine out of a gillnet
Such nets have been used hi the
catching of salmon by encircling
the fish and splashing in the
circle and driving the salmon
into the meshes. But to “purse”
a gillnet is an impossibility from
the very nature of the net.
So that the understanding of
gillnetters is that only purse
seines proscribed by O’Malley’s
regulations may be used in the
taking of humps, dogs, cohoes
and sockeye in waters otherwise
open to other gear.
In all of his contentions, in
his administration of the fisher
ies of Alaska, O’Malley declares
that kind of gear has no part in
the question of conservation of
fisheries. Either he has deliber
ately lied about the matter or
he is ignorant of the effect of his
regulations. For limitation of
seines as to depth and length is
I a prohibition against a certain
:kind of gear; prohibiton against
;the use of gillnets in taking of
ithe different species of salmon is
restriction of another class of
gear; limitation of the catching,
taking or killing of salmon under
six pounds by troll is a declara
tion against another kind of
gear.
Bear in mind that the seiner,
| the gillnetter and the troller is
| forced to carry full burden of all
j conservation measures. The trap
is not prohibited from taking
4 4*
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