The San Francisco call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1895-1913, 1895-05-30

of these matters, and left Seattle for Alas
ka on the 18th inst.
More than half the salmon pack of the
United States. and nearly half of the
worlds supply. now comes from Alaska
from canneries owned and controlled in
San Francisco.
By far the largest operator is the Alaska
Packing Association. Then there are the
Pacific Steam Whaling Company and the
Alaska Improvement Company. All have
their headquarters in this city and draw all
their vast supplies from this market.
A representative of each company was
seen and asked what he had to say relative
to the statements made by the Govern
ment and its action. All were unanimous
in pronouncing the assertions as absurd
and unreliable, and as being entirely with
out foundation. There were also all unan-
imous in saying that the only motive that
could have inspired these misrepresenta-
tons was the desire to create a plausible
excuse for pleasure haunt to Alaska for
some individual at the expense of the Gov
eminent.
w. b. Bradford, secretary of the Alaska
Packing Association, made most compre-
hensive statement relative to the Alaska
salmon industry and its present status,
showing clearly that there was no cause
ior uuedSineSS dS 10 the peImanency OF the
salmon fisheries, nor for Government in
reference in the matter. He said:
We have S. 100000 invested in that coun-
try, and the idea that we are going to exhaust
the rivers OF Alaska of the salmon in them is
ridiculous. Even were we inclined to kill the
goose that lays the golden egg, so to say, we
would find 1t a physical impossibility to do SO,
as shall explain.
Let us go back to 1891, when the largest pack
ever put up in Alaska was recorded This
comprised 72S, 900 cases. At that time all the
cannerles were operating independently. It
was soon found that it would be impossible to
market that quantity advantageously and by
the concerted action of all the canneries of
Alaska the pack of the following season was
restricted to one-half or about $4,000 cases,
which was put up by nine canneries.
This method of cooperation proved SO sue.
cessful and satisfactory that in the following
year, 1898, the Alaska Packing Association was
formed. This company controls thirty-two
canneries in Alaskan waters within the boun-
diaries of the United States, but has never
found it profitable or advisable to put them all
into operation at the same time, as the market
is amply supplied by utilizing only portion
of them.
Each one of these plants represents an in
vestment of about 500, 900. Then we also own
twelve steamers, which cost about ST, 900
each, though we each season employ a much
larger number of vessels.
You will thus see that we are not anywhere
near utilizing all the facilities at hand for the
catching and packing of salmon. There is no
1nducement for us to do SO, for we would only
be overstocking the market. But even were
the market of greater absorptive capacity, and
were we to put all our facilities into operation,
there would be absolutely no danger of ex-
terminating the salmon supply of those waters
One of the statements accredited to DR.. Hugh
NJ: Smith, one of the experts of the Fish Com
mission, is that the extinction of the Alaska
fish is inevitable if the present methods con-
tinue unchecked. Every fish that swims, he
says, can be caught at the mouths of the rivers,
and as matter of fact few salmon now reach
the old spawning grounds in the rivers of
Alaska.
In this statement DIR. Smith shows his abso-
Lutte Ignorance of the subject he undertakes to
speak about. Not more than one fish in every
hundred that we handle is caught in the river
proper. Our nets are set, not in the mouths of
streams, but In the open waters just outside of
the mouths OF streams, and there is, therefore,
no obstruction to the free passage of the sal
mon up the streams. A person fishing in San
Pablo Bay might with equal truth be said to
be obstructing the San Joaquin and Sacra-
mento rivers for the passage of the salmon
Why, some OF the estuaries on which our can
nerjes are located are sixty miles across and
many OF them are from twenty to thirty miles,
1t must also be known that our canueries ex-
tend along the Alaska coast line from the Brit
ish Columbi boundary to sixty leagues north
representing not less than 1000 miles of actual
sailing distance for our ships.
So far as the acquisition of land is concerned
we have only endeavored to secure title to
such tracts as we actually require for sites for
our canneries. 1t is true we sent surveyor
titles might be properly secured. This would
have been done earlier but until within few
years past there were no laws that enabled the
Government to give titles to Alaska lands.
do not see how the people at Washington
can have any correct information about the
Alaska fisheries, as they have never been ex-
amined in anything like a thorough manner
Acting Secretary Hamlin was at Karluk last
summer for a few days, but was not in the
country week all told, SO his stock of infor-
nation could be neither comprehensive nor
valuable.
note that among the duties assigned to ex-
Governor Swineford is that of seeing if all the
requirements of the law are complied with. I
wish to state that there has never been any at
tempt to violate the fishing law in any respect.
All our fishing is done with the gill net, the
meshes of which measure 81 inches.
Ample protection for the salmon was taken
by the Government when it made salmon
reservation of Afognak Island in 1898. We
hsye plant there that cost us 800, 0O0. which