The Seward gateway., 1922-04-11
SPEECH 0F I B. DRAYT0N
 AT ANCHORAGE APRIL 8
(Continued from Page Four)

go hunting for 1t. To my mind conser- vation is an atrocity. I have long known it to be fraud, false pre- tense pretext for political jobs. Not that object to political jobs per se. I am now looking for one myself. and as I get closer to 1t I see less odium attached to official employment than in my free lance days when cared for nothing particularly but a scrap. and the personal equation entered not into consideration of political jobs. I can look with patience upon but one type of Alaskan who fails to denounce con- servation upon every occasion. and that exception is the Alaskan who was born dumb and speechless. |
 Now in any examination of the con
 servation question, from the Alaskan point of view, two matters must alwaysI be remembered. These two things areI that conservation means an entirely different thing In Alaska than the defi- nition given it by MT. Webster and his fellow photographers; and, secondly, that the dictionary notion of conser- vation is unknown in bureaucratic practice in Alaska. All intelligent Alaskans favor the rigid protection of our natural resources against waste as
 a matter of course. Presumably ev- erybody does, everywhere in all coun-
 tries Except in name only the die
 tionary notion of conservation bears no
 resemblance to the thing called con
 servation in Alaska. When I speak of conservation I mean the thing I see at first hand, and that Is only system
 Of political patronage and bureaucratic maadministration inimical to Alaskan
 interests. The political jobs. the bu-
 reaucratic soft-snaps, and the activi-
 ties tending to their perpetuation, con-
 stitutes fully ninetenths of all there
 is to conservation in Alaska today
 The other one-tenth consists chiefly of petty annoyances to struggling set tiers who are trying to make 8 small dent upon the surface of an otherwise unbroken wilderness. In former years Alaskan conservation meant also the intentional, advertised and deliberate strangiing of any enterprise which presumed to venture into Alaska with view to the development of natural resources. All who so ventured ori ventured far enough, are now either dead or broke so that particular phasel of conservation has passed mostly into odiferous history. The prevail
 ing view in official conservation cir cles is entirely different from what it was some years ago. Its meaning and practice shift to suit the exigencies of job requirement. The present-dayl purpose of conservation Is mostly tol supply pretext, sort of seemingi Justification, for the existence of bu- reaucratic jobs, and plausible excusel for the innumerable junketing parties with which we are favored every sum- mer under the guise of official busi-
 ness. Did you ever notice that this of fcial business needing inspection oc- CUTS only during the fishing season?
 Do you recall that our distinguished delegate regnant was recently pump ing sidewise to discover what Alaskan legislation was on tap. and in trying to horn in on. the play for-presumably aH of Jol1 "A
 member what happened, don't you? Some chap who had once fished for rainbows in Russian River spoke of those thirty-eight pounders. Immedi. ately ossa was piled on pelion for our distinguished delegate regnant by the determination of the official big wigs at Washington to pigeonhole all Alas kan legislation until the summer fish ing opens in Alaska, and they can come among us and mosey up and down the most promising trout streams and thus give more serious and, intelligent, consideration. to Alas ka's pressing legislative needs. In the course of its embarrassed history in Alaska conservation has served as a cover for many peculiar doings, and has received from its off, cial sponsors many definitions: all de- ceptive. all confusing, and all differing except in one uniform detailEthat 1t is a scheme matched in the altruistic in- stincts of its beneflciaries for the ex- elusive benefit of its victims. These various definitions began with the ori- ginal procurement that. conservation was a kind of glorious sacrifice in the interest of posterity but with this pe- culiar merit, that, like the quality of mercy, its blessings went double; in that 1t was actually beneficial to the
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