The labor journal. [volume] (Everett, Wash.) 1909-1976, 1919-02-21

ana state came Waruen, 0endIe
Bill No. 127 is now pending in the
Legislature and unless the friends
of the fishing industry get busy the
bill will remain pending. 1t is hop
ed that the Legislature will take
enough time from it's reactionary
work to give this bill the atten-
tion it deserves. If the flag-wav-
ing members (no reference to Sen
ator Lamping and a few like him
desire to show that they are sin
cerely loyal, here is chance to
make a show of hands. The fol-
lowing letter from Commissioner
Darwin moro fully explains the OBJ
jects of the bill. Read it:
February IL, 1919.
TO the Editor Of The Labor Journ-
al;
Dear Sir;-The abnormal de-
mands of more than four years of
world war on the fisheries of this
state has already accomplished the
practical destruction of the Sock
eye salmon run, the greatest of
any of our salmon runs. Indica-
tions are that it has very greatly
depleted our next greatest run,
which is that of the Humpback sal
mon, while all of the salmon runs
have been greatly reduced. The
extraordinary circumstances are the
only possible justification for this.
But now that peace has come, moth
ing can justify our permitting this
destruction to continue.
One of the most regretable cir
cumstances is the fact that in the
destruction of our great Sockeye
run, the chief beneficiaries were
the Austrian alien enemies of this
country The records of this office
show that practically twothirds of
the fish taken in Puget Sound
(where the Sockeyes and Hump
backs rum were secured by purse
seiners. And OF the purse seines- in
operation, at least two-thirds of
these were operated by Austrians,
not over fifteen per cent of these
were American citizens. AS a re-
suit they were able to absolutely
dictate the price for their product
and in this is found one of the rea-
sons for the high fish prices for the
last several years.
These Austrians, many of whom
have been in this country for TWEEN
ty-five and thirty years, were con-
Quoting their fishing operations in
violation of the law, without ev-
en- declaring their intention of be-
coming citizens, until in July and
August of 1918. This was three
months following my assumption
of the office and as soon as | found
them fishing in violation of the
law | served notice upon them that
they must desist therefrom. This
resulted in their filing their de-
clarations of intention but only
some ten or fifteen per cent have
ever completed their citizenship.
Immediately after the declaration
of war with Austria | refused to
issue them licenses on the ground
that they were alien enemies, bat
was finally forced to do so by a
divided opinion of the Supreme
Court of this state.
The Austrians remained here and
conducted their fishing operations,
making enormous profits by the de-
pletion of our fisheries, while our
own American citizens were forced
to leave the fishing industry and
go into the army to fight the bat
ties of this country, and of civiliz-
alton itself, against the brothers
of these same Austrians. II is a
fact that in 1917, while our Amer
lean boys were getting thirty dol
lars a month risking and losing
their lives for this country, these
same Austrian purse seine fisher
men were, during certain weeks of
the year, making as high as seven
and eight hundred dollars each and
the dependents of our soldiers were
being forced to pay the most eX-
orbitant price for the fish caught
by these Austrians. And many of
these Austrians were sending the
money which they were earning
here, to Austria to aid their breth-
ren to fight and kill our soldiers.
In an attempt to rehabilitate the
fisheries of this state, which have
been in part destroyed and large
ly as result of the efforts of these
Austrians, I have prepared new
Fisheries Code, Senate Bill No. 127,
p~o..ilas a0,Ono 9th