SAVING' THE HAT IVE S. - From The Alaska Weekly.
It is some time s rather hard to tell when "friends of the people1'
start out to save the do van trodden masses from the predatory inter
ests just where the crusade ray end. Lore often than otherwise the
end, as far as value to the "saved" is concerned, is similar to the
tragic finale of the children’s crusades of the riddle Ages where the
hosts of little tots marched bravely and joyously to starvation, and
worse, with lilies in their hands.
inis ie all too oft~n the fate which awaits the followers o± one
demagogues who ride into office on glittering promises.
The cry. has been "Alaska for Alaska ns", and to a certain group,
Alaskans mean natives,, They were the original fishermen of Alaska "
and in them lay the only inherent right to profit by the fish in
Alaskan waters. They must ve saved from the fish trust.
For years there has been a cannery at Letkinkof Cove on the Chan
nel leading to the Chilkat River. It was built ^y native labor and
has been operated almost exclusively by native labor. The only whit'
man employed during the season just passed was a machinist. The
village of Klukwan and Haines have a population of 365 natives all
of whom are dependent for a livlihood on the operation of the Haines
Packing Company cannery. The more able bodied, fish, and the old
and young handle the cannery work, where the cleaning, labeling, etc. ,
is done by hand. Further, this is one of the very few canneries
operated in Alaska financed Alaskan capital. Tim. and George
vo ge 1, who control the Haines Packing Company, have spent the best
part of their working lives in Alaska. How, comes an order from
Commissioner 0’Halley, Czar of all Alaska's fisheries, which auto
matically closes this cannery. All protests against the ruling fall
on deaf ears. Says I.r.0'Lalley,"Chatham ant Icy Straits arc
overfished, we cannot restrict fishing here and allow it in the neck
of the bottle". The order prohibits fishing for a distance of
approximately 10 miles north of the Chilkat Channel, and 20 mi?.es
north of the Chilkoot Channel. South of this point gill net fish
ing is open to all, but to date no commercial fishing with gill net
has ever been done south of the closed area.
The total gear used ^y the natives stretched end to end would
not close of the channels. Farther, the heavy escapement of
chums and cohoes is depleting the reds by invading the spawning beds
in great numbers after the red run and uncovering tht eggs.
A barrier in the stream holding the cohoes and chums back would do
more to conserve th- supply of the more valuable reds than the en
forcement of the present order.
we ao not mean to impugn the moti*ies responsible for Commissioner
0(lialleyfs order. He, undoubtedly, has reasons which appear to him
good and sufficient and he appears to be playing no favorites in his
rulings. We do know, however, that if this sort of thing continues
that the fisheries of Alaska will soon be in exactly the same con
dition as the coal, timber and other resources which are Bureau
cratically strangled in the name of the great Cod, Conservation.
Some conservation of Alaska's fisheries was and is admittedly
essential to the perpetuation of the industry, but no man nor no
Bureau is infallible, and we belike this to be one instance wherein
all Southeastern Alaska should join in protest.
The three hundred and sixty five natives of these villages, de
pendent upon this cannery, are in bad dilemma. The fishing boats
they are using were purchased ^y the company and sold to them and
most of them have paid up to seventy five per cent of the purchase
price. They have their homes in the village. What are they to do?
We would suggest that they ask their "saviours" to provide some
thing equally as good as they had before they were "saved".