The Alaska daily empire., 1921-05-18
''|NTERESTS' DID
 NOT ASSIST IN
 PREPARING BILL
Britt Denies Truth Tn Hunt S
 Statements s-Cives His tory of Measure.

Senator William Britt denies the truth of a statement that was print ed in the Ketchikan Chronicle over the signature of Senator Forest J. Hunt in which William L. Paul of the Alaska Native Brotherhood, who was a lobbyist at the recent session of tthe Legislature. is quoted as inti- mating that Senator Britt had denied
 him hearing before the Senate { Committee on Fisheries on the Britt fisheries resolution. Senator Britt
 also says he was not responsible for the failure of the members of the House Committee on Fisheries to be
 present at the hearings He also denied that special interests had any hand in framing the measure.
 The statement in the article by
 Senator Hunt with reference to this matter follows:
 "The most work with the least ef
 fective results of anything which oc. cupied the attention of the legisla
 ture was probably devoted to fish Legislation. Memorial No 2, known as the Britt Memorial was intro duced early and I am free to say that with proper handling, would lave passed both houses, and many other bills that failed would now be enacted into laws except that the methods. pursued with this bill in fuenced other legislation. '
 "Following is the general History of this memorial after it's introduc tion into the Senate. After being lead by title it was referred to the committee on fisheries, of which MT Britt was chairman. The measure being a long one, I told Mr Britt that I thought he should invite the House committee to meet with us in committee to jointly consider it, as they would thus familiarize them selves with it's contents and hear the objections and comments on the bill. To this he agreed, but when we met in committee they were not present and when I mentioned the fact he said that he could not get them that day but would have them with Us for the next meeting. They were not. present at the next meet ing. which concluded our committee hearings, until the bill went to the House. This was not all Wm. Paul tine young native lawyer, told me that MT. Britt had promised to Notify him of the committee meet ings that he might be present, but had not done so. When he men toned it to MT. Britt. he had told Paul that he wanted nothing to do with him or his people. The fact is that MT. Britt showed himself tc be no diplomat. MT. Paul told his wrongs to tho members of the House He is a bright young man and practical fisherman, and he put in great deal of time to pointing out the faults in the meas. ure from his viewpoint. l talked the matter over with Paul and he admitted that his principal objec ton to the memorial was the In. terests that framed it. He objected to the ,lGteness of the closed sea son as the sockeye run was then ever hence gave them no protec tion. Thus tho measure went to the House with the idea prevalent that one side only had been rep resented, and it met defeat"
 Senator Britt says he several times invited the House members of the Fisheries committee to attend the hearings on the measure in the Sen ate, and he also invited Mir. Paul to be present and assured him that he would be given a hearing Notice of the time of the hearing was given by the Senate. Senator Britt says, and the news columns of The Elm pire contained the news of the fact in advance of the hearing. Any person who had anything to say re garding the measure would have been heard, just as those who were present were heard" said Senator Britt. q understand" he continued that MT. Paul was downstairs in the House during the time that the hearing was in progress. I am sure would have been pleased if he had come upstairs and made his ob jections to the resolution known. would have been more than pleased If the House members of the Com mittee on Fisheries had accepted the invitation to be present. and thus heard the statements that were