The weekly Alaska citizen., 1919-10-27
THE RATIONAL UTILIZATION OF
 GAME

cessary to strike into the interior. The great herds of caribou that only forty years ago came within gunshot of St. Michael, Alaska, at the mouth of the Yukon, have vanished from the lower Yukon almost as completely as if they never had been known in that region. Now the residents of St. Michael must travel hundreds of miles to find the nearest herds of the cari- bou millions.
 But the disappearance of northern big game is a large subject, and not to be entered upon here. We are con- cerned with the rational utilization of the stock that remains. The practical questions now before the people of Canada and Alaska are as follows;
 CD. How can we secure the most
 thorough utilization of wild
 game.
 (2). How can wastefulness be pre-
 vented ana
 (3). How can the continuity of sup
 ply be insured?
 The moment we undertake to con- serve big game in the nothern two thirds of Alaska which is north of the 62nd parallel of latitude we come up against some strenuous demands for the sale of game. Fairbanks now is the storm-center of new demand. for the sale of game all the year round, instead of in the open season only. Most Alaskans believe that the game of Alaska belongs to the people of that territory, that they should ad minister it as they think best, and above all. that the sale of game is not only right, but absolutely neces- sary.
 In 1918, it was stated that the laws of the United States were permitting the sale of moose, mountain sheep and caribou meat during open sea- son for hunting. everywhere in Ala ska north of latitude 62, and that dur ing the year 1917, 6,000 pounds of big game meat lawfully had been fed to the laborers emplp.,e1 ill the con- struction of the Alaska Central rail- way, actually under the supervision of the present governor of Alaska. The large figure was given by MT. Thomas Riggs himself, then Alaskan railway commissioner, at the hearings on the Sulzer bill, in congress, on March 5, 1918.
 The Sulzer bill proposed that noun tain sheep, moose and caribou meat should be sold all the year round, everywhere north of latitude 62 de- grees, and it was ardently supported by Mir. Riggs and the people of Fair banks. The new measure seemed to be so destructive to the big game of Alaska that the Sulzer bill was easily killed. The episode emphasized with new force the fact that new game act for Alaska now has become an absolute necessity, and must be work ed out in the near future.
 Every conservator of American big game is at least partially aware of the conditions that surround white people who live all the year round in the northern regions of Canada and Alaska. Away from the influence of the lines of power transportation, tn procuring of supplies of fresh meat from the fiocks and herds of the stock raiser and farmer is an impossiblity. And it is not good that men, women and children should be compelled to subsist for long periods on no other flesh food than dried fish, dried veni- son, bacon and ham. If we concede that it is right for the trader, the mis- sionary and the soldier of fortune to live in the north, and rear families there, then we must concede that they are entitled to some supplies of fresh meat from wild herds that can afford them without the risk of extermina- tion. In the language of commerce, we believe that they are entitled to all that the traffic will stand.
 The question is, how can we meet the legitimate needs of the widow Fort Churchill, the trader at Fort Resolution and the missionary at Point Barrow, without the risk of an- initiating the breeding stock? Let us assume that not one of these can go out, license in hand, and themselves hunt and kill their own lawful quota of game.
 In the utilization of the wild game food of those regions, the non-hunters must not be fatally penalized because of their physical or other disabilities that prevent them from personally taking their own share of game on the hoof.
 Now. what is to be done?
 The men of the far north at once will say: provide by law that all those who cannot hunt may buy their share of game from those who can hunt.