The Alaska daily empire., 1922-04-08
DELEGATES ATTITUDE
 ON SALMON FISHERIES
 CRITICISED BY WRITER

Juneau, April 6. 1922.
 To the Editor of The Alaska Daily Empire:
 Much has been told of late as to how ready and anxious the Admin. fstraton is to build up and develop Alaska, and we are supposed to have at Washington a Delegate to at least suggest what is for the greatest benefit of the Territory It should ibe well known that Aaskas salmon fisheries even now far surpass her gold, copper, oil, coal and all min erals and othcr exports combined; give employment to more than her total wage earners, men, women and youths. natives and white. They even furnish the chief means of sup port to at least many of the natives. This industry pays into the Terri. torial treasury, for the support of public schools. (except for the educa. tion of the natives, which. with their hospitals and much else. comes di- rectly from the charity of Uncle Sam). more than three times as much as comes from all other sources. and supports that youthful Agricultural College, the Pioneers Home. and other such institutions, for which there is now none too much money, and yet neither our Delegate, nor anyone else appears to have even suggested what would be for the greatest benefit of this great industry. On the other hand. a bill has been introduced and is now pending that would greatly reduce the Territorial funds. and very mate rially lessen. if not wipe out all to- gether, the fish traps. the only really sanitary means of catching the sal. mon. and dn every way, the best and least harmful.
 MT. Sutherland, in his campaign for reelection, started this subject recently at the Palace Theater, by stating that, salmon comes from a Latin word, and might have added. If he had known, that the only change was in adding the end letter. that the original word salmo means a leaper. and as salmon have actual 1y been known to leap nearly or quite 20 feet, 12 or 14 of which was entirely out of water. clearing To- foot cascade, they surely were well named. Having accomplished that much, after escaping p,irse-seiners, traps and gill netters. the salmon s troubles should have been over. bnt just there the thousands of gulls were encountered and the ablest ex- pert the government has yet sent to Alaska mentions 5000 salmon near their spawning ground. with their eyes picked ont by the gulls. As each salmon produces from 25.000 to 50,000 eggs. that must very greatly diminished the possible reproduction of the salmon. And yet. nothing has been done toward exterminstiRg or even lessening the number of gulls. which never have been of any real benefit Then there are the native hookers. who are still given the spe- cial privilege of doing all the mis- chief they wish, in the best red sal. mon streams.
 lMr. Sutherland dwelt at great length on what was done in England 700 years ago. which perhaps is not strange, as he was born and raised a British subject. but none of his European talk had any direct bearing on Alaska salmon. There never were any salmon in any of the Metiterran- can streams. and but very few in tho- Thames. For many years all Europe has produced but very few at least in comparison with Alaska's annual output. It has. how. sver. proven the greatest market fof the Alaskan product. Germany formerly took nearly or quite all U our mildcure salmon, while Great Britain and Canada are heavy pur. :hasers of Alasia's canned salmon.
 nhe candidate for reelection next mentioned the depletion of salmon in