The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1924-04-28
BIG ALASKAN
SCANDAL MAY
RUIN HOOVER
$6O,OOO,OOO Sal m 0 n
Gift to Trust Exposed

WASHINGTON, April ~
Herbert Hoover, secretary of
the Department of Commerce,
may be driven from public life
like Fall and DENLY as the result
OF the sensational Alaskan sal
mon fishery expose that is inn
pending.
Charges brought before Sem
ate investigating committees
bare the fact that the 100000
900 salmon industry Of Alaska,
which produces the timed food
that all America and the world
uses, has been turned over to a
set Of gigantic corporations
dominated by the Alaska Pack
ers Association.
Just Like Teapot Steal.
Hoover's gift Of the nations salmon
fisheries to the plunderbund follows
Fall and Denby's gift of Teapot Dome
and the California naval oil reserve to
Doheny and runs side by side with
the attempt made by Secretary of War
Weeks and General Leonard Wood
to give away Philippine resources and
Weeks effort to turn over Panama
Canal zone concessions to New York
financial interests.
The political future of Herbert
Hoover seems to rest on whether the
senate win go ahead with the very
evident facts in their possession or
whether this titanic steal will be COW
cred over because it hits too close to
Wall Street.
Under the regulations of the Depart
ment of Commerce, drawn up under
the direction of Herbert Hoover, fish
ing grounds have been taken away
from the Eskimos, Aleuts and Indians
who have been living off them for
thousands Of years before the fore
fathers of the hundred per centers
inflicted themselves on America.
These fishing grounds were taken
away by Mr.. Hoover and his prede-
cessors on the plea of conservation"
and were then turned over to the
companies affiliated with the Salmon
Trust.
Poisoned Soldiers During War.
Among the favored corporations
are those that sold more than $4,000
cans Of decomposed salmon to mill
tary commissary departments for the
use Of American soldiers during the
war.
No 100000 satchel has yet turned
up-the senate has not looked for it
yet-but the accumulated evidence
shows that the Salmon Trust is
monopolizing the best salmon streams
with the official authorization of the
Department of Commerce and that the
government of the Territory of
Alaska, under Governor Scott Bone,
an appointee of Harding, retained by
Coolidge, enforces its decision.
Old Friends Of Hoover.
Hoover has long established per-
sonal friendship with the Bentley
family which is represented in the
Alaska Packers Association by r. I.
Bentley, vice-president, and c. H.
Bentley, director. His intimacy with
this family, which is unlawfully bene-
fitting by his executive acts as secre-
tary Of the Department Of Commerce,
is akin to the friendship of Fall and
Doheny.
Interlocked directories bind the
constituent companies of the Alaska
Salmon Trust to Wall Street. One
link is thru Libby, Mcneil & Libby.
which operates feet Of salmon ships
to Bristol Bay yearly and is inter
locked with the Swift Packing Com
pany member of the big Five" One
Of its vice-presidents is e. F. Swift
and among its directors are C. H. and
@. F. Swift.
The canneries dot the Pacific Coast
from Puget Sound north to Alaska.
They are especially numerous in the
thousands of miles of indented coast
In southeast Alaska and again in
Bristol Bay, just north of the Aleutiau
peninsula.
Fishermen and cannery workers 20
up there in scores of ships every
Spring, returning again in the late
Summer, the cannery workers go un.
der contract for the season. Condi.
tons are indescribably vile on these
ships and In the cannery grounds.
Working in slime fourteen hours a
day and sleeping in wooden hunks.
alive with bugs; eating ptomaine pro.
ducing canned goods is their lot Done
peddlers, bootleggers, and gambling
sharks abound with company per.
mission.
Especially vicious is the treatment
accorded the army of Cinnamon and
Filipinos. Packed like sardines in the
slow sailships northbound, meager
quantities of food and water-some.
times only pint a day-are doled out
to them. On the salmon grounds they