Generalities Versus Facts
chief difficulty confronting those who are attempting to offer constructive
/1 suggestion or legislation touching the salmon packing industry of Alaska is the
impossibility of standardization owing to widely different local conditions along the
thousands of miles of coast and waterway where canneries are located. What is
feasible at one point may be impractical or quite impossible at another.
The same difficulty presents itself in discussing any given phase of the industry. As a
consequence statements are often made which may be true of a given locality while in
nowise applicable to the industry as a whole which are none the less accepted by the
public as applying generally.
The statement that the packers bring outside labor into the territory for the season and
pay them at outside points at the conclusion of the season is a common one. When found
to be true investigation will prove it to be so only in cases where the canneries are located
at isolated points, where no local labor is to be had, and where there are often no mer
chandising institutions except cannery commissaries in which the men may spend their
money. On the other hand in Southeastern Alaska where the country is more thickly
settled by far the greater percentage of employees are residents of Alaska.
Again the statement is often made that cannery crews are largely made up of Orientals.
An examination of The U. S. Bureau of Fisheries report for 1922 shows that of the 21,974
employees, 12,429 were white, 4,192 were natives of Alaska and 5,353 were Orientals,
Mexicans and Negroes, most of whom were employed at labor unattractive to white men.
It is impossible to accurately arrive at figures on the proportion of cannery wages paid to
Alaskans in Alaska. We would say that a reasonable estimate was 35% or approximately
$3,500,000.00 annually.
There is no locality in Alaska where merchandising institutions are within the radius of
fishing operations where those institutions do not profit materially through the industry.
A careful and unbiased consideration of the subject will convince anyone that the benefits
derived by Alaskans and Alaskan communities from the canning industry are in direct
ratio to the capacity for serving the industry in the different localities.
Herbert Hoover once said, “Scientific discussion, pious statements or political oratory will
not spawn salmon.” Neither will loose discussion, unfounded derogatory statements or
political chicanery bring about conditions conducive to getting the best from the fisheries
industry for Alaska or the packers.
On the contrary an understanding of the mutual problems confronting those engaged in
the industry and the citizens of Alaska and a sane consideration of those problems in a
spirit of sincerity will aid materially in their solution.
Alaska’s chief industry is worthy of honest, unprejudiced consideration
at the hands of every Alaskan.
The Canning Industry of Alaska
HOOVER URGES
ELIMINATION OF
INDUSTRIAL WASTE
WASHINGTON, D. C., Feb. 20 —
‘‘While we currently assume that
meat advancement in living stand
ards are brought about by new and
basic inventions an even larger field
ior advancement of those standards
is found in the steady elimination
of our economic wastes.” Secretary
of Commerce Hoover say sin the
forward of a booklet entitled, “Sim
plified Practice—What Is and What
It Offers,” issued by the division of
simplified practice of the department
of commerce.
“The necessity of maintaining a
high-wage level requires that all
processes of manufacture and dis
tribution be reduced to the lowest
possible cost,’ ’Hoover wrote. “This
can be done through the elimina
tion of those wastes arising out of
too high a degree of diversification
in certain basic products.
“Today dozens of different sizes,
styles, types and patterns of the
most commonplace aritcles are plac
ed in the market by manufacturers
who must possess special equipment
and skill to produce these endless
variations. Merchants accumulate
great stocks, which turn but slow
ly, because of the excessive diversity
and lack of interchangibility in their
components. Because of this situa
tion many manufacturers and dis
tributors favor cooperation for sim
plification and standardization.
“The saving in national effort
through such cooperation as dem
onstrated by many well known ex
amples of simplification and stand
ardization, runs into millions of dol
’ irs. There is a great area still un
touched, in which the application
of these waste-eliminating measures
may well save not millions, but
billions. The rate of our advance
must be. and will be, in proportion
to the extent in which we all co
operate lor the elimination of
waste.”
Simplified practice, the booklet
says, was begun during the war by
the War Industries Board’s conser
vation division. Its values were
such, in the opinion of Secretary
Pacific Coastwise Jet-vice
^ADMIRAL LINE
iH.F.ALEXANDER. PRESIDENTaB«£s*^aiM*»"»5
STEAMSHIP ADMIRAL WATSON
Sails from
Seattle
March 4
March 24
Arrives
Seward
March 12
March 31
South from
Seward
March 14
April 7
Calling at all regular Southeastern and South
western Alaska ports in eluding Seldovia and
Kodiak.
WAYNE BLUE, Agent
Telephone Main 81 Res.. Madison 40
STEAMSHIP STARR
STEAMER STARR WILL SAIL MARCH 1
San Juan Fishing and Packing Co.
G. C. HENDERSON, Agent
PHOi - .V1ADISON 13$. 8EWARD, ALA8KA
Hoover, as to justify its continuation
as a peacetime activity. He then
appointed a planning committee, in
cluding A. W. Shaw, Chicago, E. W.
McCullough, of the Chamber of
Commerce of the United States, and
A. A. Stevenson, of Philadelphia.
“WE WERE NEVER
FRIENDS,’’-DEMPSEY
I “IF DEMPSEY WON’T FIGHT LET
SOMEBODY ELSE HAVE THE
TITLE,” KEARNS TELLS UNI
VERSE.
LOS ANGELES,Cal., Feb. 20.—
Heavyweight Champion Jack Demp
sey said this afternoon that he and
his manager, Jack Kearns, ‘‘never
had been friends. Our deals were
purely business ones,” he declared.
Dempsey’s outburst came follow
ing his announcement that he would
marry May 20 and was through with
i the ring.
Kearns, when asked about the
j latest development, declared that
“the public wants a fighting cham
pion and if Dempsey doesn’t want
[to fight,” then let somebody else
[ have the title.”
I Warming up to his subject, but
| with the introduction that he had
i “no quarrel with Dempsey,” Kearns
said:
“I’ve made just as much money
for Dempsey as he has made for
me, although some people have got
! the idea that I'm a kind of a para
| site living off the champion.”
Tex Not Disturbed
NEW YORK, Feb. 20.—Unconvinc
Let Morrison Fix it for you
Next to Crawford’s Shop
i
i
P
ed that Jack Dempsey intends to re
tire as a result of his forthcoming
marriage, Tex Rickard announced to
day he was going ahead with plans *
| to match the champion and Tommy
j Gibbons for a title bout here about
June 1.
FIVE YEAR PRISON TERM
MAY BE GIVEN BOOTLEGGERS
LITTLE ROCK, Ark., Feb. 20—Fol
lowing his inauguration Gov. Thomas
J. Terral outlined his policy, the high
lights of which include a gasoline
tax of 5 cents per gallon, luxury tax *
for school purposes on school tickets,
and abolition of the penitentiary and
sale of grounds and buildings with a
transfer of headquarters to a State
convict farm.
He suggested also a fiv-eyear term
for bootleggers and one-year term for *
pistol toters. Bills to this effect have
been introduced.
Senator Dulaney proposes a revision
of the State’s basic laws and asks that
a convention be called next July in
Little Rock to draft a new Constitu
tion or amend the present document
drawn up in 1874.
Brunswick Phonographs and Re
cords. The Alaska Shop. tf
The Alaska Railroad
TRAINS LEAVE SEWARD
8 A. M.
Monday and Thursday *
TRAINS ARRIVE
8 P. M.
Wednesday and Saturday
Gas Launch
KENAI
FISHING AND HUNTING
PARTIES CARRIED DOWN
LAKE KENAI FOR THE
DAY OR TRIP. TELE
PHONE ARRANGEMENTS
TO MILE TWENTY
Louis Bell, owner
-i
I
ALASKA STEAMSHIP
COMPANY
Southwestern Alaska Route Schedule
Vessel—
ALAMEDA
YUKON
ALASKA
ALAMEDA
YUKON
ALASKA
Scheduled
Lv. Seattle
February 17
February 21
February 28
March 7
March 14
March 21
Scheduled
Ar. Seward
February 23
February 28
March 7
March 14
March 21
March 28
Scheduled Sail
from Seward
February 23
February 28
March 7
March 14
March 21
March 28
Steamers in the above schedule will make all regular ports of call
in Southeastern and Southwestern Alaska.
J. H. FLICKINGER, Agent
PHONE MAIN 125 SEWARD, ALASKA
4
AN EMPIRE BUILDER
As all railroads in years gone by have been the greatest
contributing factors in development of the regions through
which they passed, so also is THE ALASKA RAILROAD each
day accomplishing much towards the building of an empire.
In place of the old, tremendously expensive and inconve
nient methods of transporting supplies of whatever character
over rough trails from the coast, there is now a modern rail
road that carries supplies and equipment in greater quantities
to and from the Interior, and along the way, in much less
time and at far less expense than was formerly required.
This great steel highway offering regular twice weekly
freight and passenger service between Seward, Anchorage
and Fairbanks; and tri-weekly mixed service over the
Chickaloon and Chatanika branches, is at your service. For
further information write
THE ALASKA RAILROAD
McKINLEY PARK ROUTE
ANCHORAGE ALASKA
Special week-eend tickets (one and one-third actual fare) on
sale at all ticket offices