A. N. B. PUBLISHING COMPANY
SUBSCRIPTION RATIOS.
The Alaskan, six months,. .. $2.50
lhe Alaskan, per year . $4.00
Published every Friday by the a. N. B. Publishing Co., Petersburg
Entered in the Post OAe* in Petersburg as Second Class matter.
JUST STALLING
The action of the Juneau Com
mercial Club on the herring ques
tion is neither here, there nor amid
ships. It quibbles when it should
come out flat footed either for or
against herring conservation. If it’s
against action toward closing down
the oil and guano plants why not
say so. What is there to be gained
in this fence straddling position?
To claim that nothing should be
done until a study of the herring,
it’s habits, its spawning places, its
feed and so on, may be made is
just a big, healthy stall; a sort of
hold up of proceedings with, seem
ingly, a hope that the whole affair
will be tabled and forgotten.
Great Scott! If there isn’t any
thing known of the fish by this
time, when will there be? We
know of piscatorialists, and others
versed in things fishy, delving deep
ly into the mysteries of herring 35
or 40 years back, and we have co
operated with authorized and official
students of the fish 20 years ago—
and since. A possible explanation
is that there is considerable herring
reduction plant money in Juneau or,
at least closely connected with
Juneau financial channels, and the
balky actions come from a desire
to keep this money, or wealth, in
tact—in Juneau, of course. Well,
here there, everywhere, today, there
are big business concerns, the own
ers and stockholders pushed aside
and out of the road of progress by
vote mandate, decree and legislation.
Think of the thousands of produc
ers and the millions in wealth that
went whoop-e-la! over the fence
and out when the votes on prohibi
tion were counted. How about the
men thrown out of employment and
the thousands of dollars lost in the
anti-seine laws of the Columbia
River district? Then, of very re
cent date is the outlawing of fish
wffieels in Oregon. Sure enough,
the owrners of the wheels and the
canneries fed by them and the em
ployees are hard hit, but all these
moves are made with the object in
view of the greatest , good to the
greatest number and the protection
of what he have. The killing of
herrring for other than food pur
poses must be stopped even though
we fully realize that it is going to
cause the interested few a deal of
inconvenience, worry and money
loss. The herring folk have had
mighty nice pickings. They are
greasy and guano rich; they’ve made
fats and manure while the making
was excellent. They have left a few
herring here and there and we’ll
protect those stragglers if wr© can—
AND WE CAN.
THE DEAD STILL WITH US
Like a cork in a whirlpool the
Sacco-Vanzetti affair keeps bubbing
up continually. In the Oct. 22 issue
of Liberty, New York, there is an
article, bearing on “The Law’s De- i
lay” in the case by Wilder Goodwin <
of the New York bar. i
The article is well worth careful i
reeding for it goes into much de- ;
* tail and illustrates plainly the whys 1
and wherefores that kept two con- j
demned men under sentence of ]
death for about six years, before <
the climax came in electrocution.
There is no comment, by Goodwin, <
on the guilt or innocence of either 1
Sacco or Vanzetti. You may draw t
your own conclusions. 1
All the way through the trial and (
in the maze of the law’s delays the (
condemned men held the help and 1
sympathy of the so-called radicals, 1
nearly all of the working men or- i
ganizations and; practically as many 1
of the conservatives as there were, i
of the latter, for conviction. i
There is a claim that Sacco and t
Vanzetti were “railroaded” to the (
electric chair. There is a whole lot (
that goes to show the trial not al
together fail. Webster Thayer, the
judge, was very much in evidence
and his bias, alone, made the pro
ceedings decidedly lopsided.
The killing of the men, Sacco and
Vanzetti, when everything is con
sidered, has left a nasty taste in the
mouth of the world that won’t soon
be gotten rid of.
THE LONG HAND OF THE TRAP
OWNERS
Those who go down to the sea in
trolling boats and depend for a
living on hooks, leaders, lines and
poles, must keep a sharp eye to
wind’ard. The trap owners—a, large
percentage of whom are cannery
men in the States -of Washington as
well as in Alaska—are out againsl
the troller. A flare up of what may
come, and come soon, took place
last September in Portland, Oregon,
at a meeting where there were rep ,
resentatives of packing industries,1
state fishery commissions, trap own
ers and Henry O’Malley in person.
For some time the Columbia Riv
er trap owner has been bucking the
troller and has caused the latter
many hardships, loSs of both time
and money and, at one period, put
him completely out of business. The
cry of the trap contingent is that
the trollers kill so many immature
King or Chinook salmon that the
future of those big fish is decidedly
gloomy. The future of the big
salmon and the saltyr tears shed
come with poor grace from the
knights of tin and seamers for they
did nothing to conserve any of the
Columbia River salmon until forced
to do so.
Of course, what the trollers don’t
catch the traps will. The Colum
bia River trap has sent the sturgeon
and shad and that delectable salm
on, the blue-back, along the trail
of the dodo, and now, in their
black bordered greed, they desire to
run the troller into the breakers
and keep him there. And what
happens to the troller, in the sec
tion of coast above and below the
Columbia, will eventually happen
here.
mere was a law passed several
years ago that all immature Chi
nook salmon snagged by trollers
should be returned to the sea. For
a time the trollers lived up to this
decree to the very letter. Did the
trappers and trap owners comply?
Well, hardly. The small Chinooks
were sneaked into the canneries as
silversides and toward the middle of
the 1920 season some of the pack
ing outfits made “gentlemen’s
agreements” with many of the troll
ers to take all of the small salmon
on a silverside schedule. Talk
about big salmon conservation in
this line!!
What the canneries want is fish,
and they want to catch ’em in theii
awn gear, and that gear is the trap.
Since there are lesser priced fish -
af the salmon family in Alaska, the <
canning companies haven’t been in
erested in packing kings and, there- i
'ore, haven’t given the troller much
ittention, but legislation against the 1
roller in one place will cast its
gloomy shadow -on the hook and <
ine industry in another. Trollers 1
lon’t forget that. 1
This spring, in Alaska, the catch {
>f kings in traps was exceptionally 1
>ig and, as the packers didn’t care i
o can them, they were sold to fresh e
ish buyers and cold storage con- i
erns at figures below, in most cas-H
!S, the price fixed on troll caught c
angs. Mild cure plants didn’t c
lave much use for these trap sal
non as the rough handling they s
iad gone through in brailing and t
n transportation broke the flesh
ind softened the meat. However, 1
he revenue was enticing and, as 1
>ne cannery man put it: “If the 1
atch next spring (1928) is any->l
- ------
thing like what we had this year,
I’ll make it a point to trap all the
kings we can.” Right here is the
beginning of the head wind the
trollers will be obliged to buck.
When the trapping of king salmon
turns from an incident to an indus
try, then the trap owner will want
to hog it all and anti-every-other
kind-of-gear legislation will breeze
up.
HARLEY HANDICAPPED
From appearances on the surface
of things it looks very much as if
the Bureau of Fisheries—the local
division—is trying to run Harley
and his little canning outfit t Mouu
tain Point, in The Narrows, out of
business. Fisheries officials com
plained right along, while Harley
was putting up his fall pack, that
he—Harley—was canning illegally
caught salmon, and it seems the of
ficials spent more time around the
cannery trying to make their alle
gations good, then they did in scout
ing elsewhere for real evidence.
To say, when a salmon arrives at
the cannery, that it has been taken
from waters closed to commercial
fishing, is a statement, not a fact,
and if the officials are suspicious,
it is up to them to find out just
where the fish was captured. Any
how, while the fisheries men com
plained and made threats, Harley
kept putting up the salmon deliver
ed from time to time at his plant.
The cannery man supposed the
catches to come from unrestricted
areas. He made no special inquir
ies about it and the fishermen
made no definite statements bearing
on the matter. But it seems to have j
been much easier to accuse Harley
of paking poached fish than it was
to capture the poachers, if any
there were.
Not long back Harley shipped the j
last of his fall canning to the States, j
2700 cases. Directly after arrival1
the product was seized by the Bu !
reati of Fisheries—Chemical De
partment—and some 2S0 cases con- ‘
fiscated and condemned as spoiled
fish. Now it may be that the seized
fish aren’t good. We are not in po
sition at this time to dispute the
alleged findings of the chemists,
but the threats before hand againsf
Harley make the seizure look as ir
the fish wardens were bent on get
ting even, and making their ill
temper, at not being able to get di
rect evidence connecting anyone
with illegal fishing, a very disagree-1
ibio situation all around.
HOOKS AND HOLES
The Pacific Fisherman, for Oc
tober, concluding an article: “Bear
ing of Halibut Data on Possible
Conservation Methods” dwells, in
a paragraph, on the proposed meth
od to curb destruction of the young
fish by making it illegal to 1130
small hooks. The paragraph reads,
in part: “One method proposed
some time ago was abolition of fish
ing with small hooks, which has
been largely practiced of late years
in certain localities and was thought
o be especially destructive of young
lalibut. This question was careful
ly investigated, and it was found
hat either large or small hooks
ised on the grounds most frequent
y by “baby chicks” took exactly
he same class of fish, although the
small hooks were more efficient, per
haps even on medium and large
ish, although in the case of the lat
er, the gangions would often
[ t
i
.i
(
i
(
i
i
1
1
l
r
1
\V
d
t
d
)reak.’
This large and small hook study
alls to mind the lesson a man
earned from a couple of feline pets,
t seems that the man in question
iwned an old tabby cat and a wee
:itten. The latter was just able to
lavigate properly and, as the man
llowed his pets the freedom of the
louse, he was continually bothered
>y having to open and close the
loorg for the cats to come in or go
ut.
“I’m no door-man for cats,” he
aid to himself. “I’ll fix things so
hat there’ll be no more annoyance.”
So, in, this fixing mood, he cut two
loles close by one of the doors. One
iole was large for the tabby; one
Lole was small for the kitten. Then
te sat down and watched. The kit
s
d
e
Si
a
c
c
a
n
g
ten, tail erect and dignified, came!
in and went out the same hole that
its mother did.
Sure enough! A chick halibut
will bite the same size hook its
mother did—or would. When a hal
ibut of any age is wise enough to
scout around its food trough for
i ho hook that will fit its mouth the
best, it is wise enugh to not bite
at a baited hook at all.
NOT THE ENGINEERS
During the more or less animated
talk at the Commercial Club Thurs
day evening anent the proposed
move to push motor driven fishing
boars under the laws that govern
tlie operation, manning and equip
ment of steam vessels, Earl Ohmer
made the statement that the action
was probably started by some en
gineers who were looking for jobs.
Being a licensed chief engineer of
ocean going vessels and a member
of the marine engineers association
I know that the statement of Mr.
Ohmer isn’e true except in a very
small part. The conflict as to rules
governing the different vessels—
steam and internal combustion mo
tor driven—is old. In fact it dates
back to the time when motor driv
en craft first became or were made,
a commercial success. When the
motor vessel became an active and
more than successful competitor of
the small steamboat the first howl
that went up for rules to govern
both craft alike was from steam
boat OWNERS, not the licensed of
ficers. Later on, when it appeared
that there wasn’t going to be any
rules applying to the motorships,
(he licensed officers of both the deck
and engineer departments of the
steamers joined with the owners of
steam driven craft, and the laws on
the matter we have now came ino
effect. It was found out, in this
early effort to place motor vessels
under inspection rules, that the big
oil companies were the indirect
fighters for few or no rules at all
for the gas boat. The less there'd
be of inspection rules, the mor*
motor craft there would, likely, be I
tnd, accordingly, the more fue'
stuff they’d sell. All the oil com
panies got out of the steamboats
>var the sale of an occasional quart
or two of lubricationg oils, as at
hat time very few steam vessels
mint crudes. The motor driven
ooats didn’t horn into the steamers
;o much from operation costs ag
hey did in getting off with prac
ically no life saving equipment. A
’earner, it hardly mattered how
onall, in order to pass inspection
vas literally loaded with small
mats, life rafts life preservers, life
ouoys and so on. What did the
ras boat have? Just about next to
mthing, and they aren’t much bet
or equipped today. The Seattle
hamber of Commerce says that
\e, of Alaska, should fight the pro
msed inspection rules as they bear
>n motor vessels, as we have so
nany of the small gas or oil craft
n passenger and mail runs here,
he chamber seems to be willing,
mwever, for steamers to still go
iroperly manned and equipped,
md the very lack of proper in
fections rules to apply to motor
oats is just the reason the many
—if not all—of the passenger and
tail runs are covered, now, with
ttie, smelly, unsafe and ill equip
ed motor boats. The motor boat
rove the steamer off, and in the pet
p squabbles and fierce under bid
ing for mail carrying between them- 1
?lves, all there is left is the carbon 1
ioxide posion and fire trap, poorly 1
lUipped, cold and all around un- 1
ife. In recent years the bigger ]
ud Diesel engine driven boats on
tmmercial runs, outside of fishing
•aft, undergo proper Inspection and
re presumed to be efficiently man
ed. Thirty-five years ago I could
o from Wrangell to any of the
a a a
westward Prince of Wales Island
ports in comfort, fair speed and I
agreeable accommodations in a j
steamer. Today, with all the great |
strides in travel betterment else- ;
where, I’d have to make the trip j
in a topheavy, poorly heated, freight j
cluttered and slow motorship of
some sort. Progress! As to the |
fishing craft, solely by .nemseives, |
they can’t stand ver^ hard pressed
rules, but the squeal that they
should originate mostly from the
passenger, freight and , towing
Diesel ship owner. He thinks it is
costing far too much, in comparison
with the fishermen, to get his equip
ment and keep it up.
Fir3t, last and all of the time
inspection laws lean to Safety
First—lives and property. That’s
what they are for. Those who are
willing to risk their ships, who
work their crews hours upon hours
a day, who don’t care whether or
not their sailor folk get off safely
in fire, in storm and in wreck or
collision, don’t want any rules to
hinder them, of course.
WILL A. BARROWS
U. S. RECEIVES NEAT SUM FROM
DISTRICT
Income taxe collections for 1927
in Washington jumped $1,000,000
over receipts for 1920, and virtual
ly the same amount over collect ion j
for 1925, it was shown recently in
comparative figures announced by
Burns Poe, collector of internal rev
enue for the district. This gain was
made notwithstanding increased de
ductions allowed by law. Figures
are for the fiscal year just closed.
“Evidently money was coined
more freely and business as a whole
was better in 1927,” Collector Poe
said. “There have been certain cuts
made by congress, resulting in not
nearly so many persons as hereto
fore filing returns; yet with more
people relieved from paying income
tax the receipts showed an increase.
$13,192,297 TOTAL
.Collections for the fiscal year pi
1925 were $ 12,334,154,38. For 192b
they were $12,156,713^14. For
1927 they totaled $13,192,297.64.
Analysis of income tax receipts
for the state of Washington, not in
cluding Alaska, showed that cor
torations paid approximately three
times as much income tax as in
dividuals. Collections from corpor
ations were $9,872,274.50 for 1927,
ind from individuals, $3,119,923.14.
PAY MORE
..IN ALASKA, HOWEVER, THE
INDIVIDUALS PAID MORE TAXES
THAN THE CORPORATIONS.
There Vere only a few districts in
which individuals paid more income ;
taxes in 1927 than corporations.
Exceptions were Florida, New Hamp <
shive, New York and Oklahoma.
THOSE DAM BOLSHEVIKS AGAIN f
The Soviet Government, already ?
heavily interested, indirectly, in ‘
sheep in Oregon, is now negotiating g
for the purchase of three millions :
of pounds of wool from the Pacific :
Cooperative Wool Growers through :
the Growers’ manager, R. A. Ward, ;
at Portland.
THE RADIO OF TUESDAY NIGHT
Reported a gale of wind, along
the Washington Coast, speeding
southward at 60 miles an hour, and
idded that the storm was out of
Alaska. Alaska doesn’t care to
;ive anybody, nor anything, some
king that isn’t wanted, but sined
hi£ wild wind has gotten away from
is we can’t say that we regret the
oss of it.
ixmstx
DRS. C. M. & R. L. CARLSON
Optometriste and Opticians
218 -19 Commercial Building
KETCHIKAN, ALASKA
n»»nnnm»»»mmnw»»n»»nffl*g
<rinnnrrTTVTVVVVVVVVVTVVTVVVVVVTVY^ ♦ • ♦ * ’
McGilton - Hanson
WOOD YARD
Spruce, Hemlock or Yellow Cedar ♦{;
Give your orders to |
DICK HANSON or A. McGILTON f
j~xkke*<k«xk~x*x~xkk~X‘X‘<~x
John Fanning
SHOE STORE
Dealer in
Complete line of Silk Hosiery
Hest grade of Shoes for men,
women and children.
L Best Quality Goods
!♦ at very low pricer. ¥
C %
j* Shoe repairing neatly done. ¥
i:
..x-x-x-x-x-x-x-xx-x-x-r-x*^
The ever growing Circulation of
rile ALASKAN among buyers is an
Inducement to Merchants to Adver
ise in The ALASKAN.
Buy at Star Bakery and Save Money
Fresh Doughnuts, Cup Cakes, I'oo1’!,".
and Cinnamon Rolls
Always on Hand Fresh
STAR BAKERY
AMERICA FIRST arrives in Pe
tersburg Friday morning, leaving
for Juneau via Kake and way ports
about noon.
HA HOW TRANSPORTATION
COMPANY
JACOBITZ TAXI
DAY & NIGHT SERVICE
Stand at Arctic Hotel
Phone 35
-----. -p
ALASKA CAFE
George Kim, Proprietor
Meals at all Hours
Good Services, Fair Prices
| We Solicit Your Trade
; _
^ntxtnxmntmxnmxxmxm
When in 1 own Stop at
ARCTIC HOTEL
First Class Rooms
Reasonable Rates
CARL ROGER, Pro.
OS
Home Service Mending
of Laundered Goods
We give full value for your
money.
H.OYAMA, PRO.
ico2mx0:tr>;ojo:ox^:O'>ocLCvm'c-moc>^
lot?«!?!!.TtTTTtTttT ft ttt
l
j Sanitary Market |
A Roast you’ll alike :::
| The Very Choicest Beef !!
Mutton and Pork
Vegetable in Season
SITKA HOT SPRING
HEALTH RESORT
Rate $3.00 per
day and up
Dr. Goddard, Pro.
Built
Attraeti/ely
You car. get
the latest de
signs in
Sash, Doors
& Millwork
diiectfromthe
manufacturer
at money sav
ing prices
ff' rite today
for FREiil
lustrated tat
Isr/AIUWORKWS
^ J. r.UPPLY corpti ' AT