The Wrangell sentinel., 1920-09-30
Alaskans Urging Congress to War
 On Brown Bears

congress will be asked to tackle al its next session will be that of the brown bear, according to Lee ]. Smits in the Seattle Star.
 That the prototype ofthe nursery bugaboo is an actual menace to civilization in 1920 may seem amaz- ing, but there has been assembled massive indictment proving that thousands of square miles of rich territory are barred to settlers be- cause of a hulking beast with an appetite for everything from ants eggs to Merino sheep; a creature weighing half a ton or more and with a touchy, unsociable disposi. ton.
 The brown bear of Alaska is even larger than grizzly, and twice as mean, according to the big file of charges that the Alaska bureau of the Seattle chamber of commerce has prepared. He has a long list of human victims, killed or maimed and he has given hundreds of others the scare ot their lives.
 Actuated by the commendable intention of preserving a species from extinction, the Government carefully protects the brown bear. The sportsman may shoot the harmless black bear in Alaska whenever he meets one, but only by obtaining a special permit from the bureau of biological survey may the brown bear be hunted.
 And how does the brown bear display his gratitude?
 On Kodiak island the depart. ment of agriculture established an experimental herd of sheep. A high fence was erected to protect the animals after they had weather ed a hard winter. The bears, emerging hungry in the spring, tore down the fence and wiped out the flock.
 A settler who hoped to escape the bear menace by building his home on a small island off Kodiak learned that the bears could swim. They cleaned up on his live stock and he moved away.
 Eastern sportsmen, it is said, vigorously protest when it is pro- posed to lift the protection be- slowed upon the brown bear. He is a magnificent beast. his pelt makes about the best trophy the big game hunter can acquire on this continent and it seems shame that he should go the way of the silver.tip of the Rockies.
 But the chamber of commerce, and those who would like to settle on Kodiak island, the Alaska pe- ninsula, the Yakutat region, the Baranof and Admiralty islands, look at the matter differently.
 The brown bear is the only large wild animal in America that habi- tually attacks man without provo- cation. Prospectors go in dread of him. carrying tin cans filled with stones to warn him off. The brown bear, scientists and hunters agree, does not trail man to kill him, but will charge when he finds him. self face to face with a human in- truder.
 A high.power rife, skillfully handled, is not always certain pro- lection against the brown bear, as he stands terrific amount of pun ishment. A cannery employe was brought to the hospital at Juneau this spring, dying from injuries in- hicted by bear he had surprised while it was eating a deer. Two shots from a rifle failed to stop the rush of the animal.
 Tt is difficult to get people in Washington to look upon the bear question as something mighty seri- ous," said J. l.. McPherson, man. ager of the Alaska bureau.
 There seems to be a lot of comedy connected with bears. But the Alaskan settler fails to see it.
 We propose that if the brown bear is to be saved for science and for nature.lovers that a few speci- mems be isolated on remote island where those who like bears at close range can commune with them.
 The brown bear has no place in a country that invites settlers and should be an outlaw, with a price on his head, instead of cherished ward of the Government"