The Daily Alaska empire., 1928-12-31
THE COAST GUARD SERVICE AND ITS
 CRITICS.


 CRITICS.
 It is not often that we have cause to find fault with the Seward Gateway, but that paper has worked itself into such frenzy about the Coast Guard Service particuary the Unalga and the incident of the wreck of the Starr that it making 3 sort of spectacle that calls for rebnke
 h is issue of December 20 the Gateway said
 We have said little but pondered much what to be a hagrant violation of ethics upon the sea; namely the cutter Unalga which, as far as We know, is still holed up at Juneau while the steamship Alameda, passenger liner acted the part of good samaritan in assisting the disabled Starr to port.
 good illustration may be put this way: If the local fire department called upon to rush to house burning down, would it be proper for the fire chief to say he could not go until he filled the truck up with gasoline? We think not. Yet when the Unalga
 wireltssed to assist passenger steamer in dinieuty--the Starr-the answer is received that it will speed out just as coal has been taken aboardi
 We grant the Alameda would have
 been first to arrive at Dark Island where the Starr lay at anchor yet exposed to the whms of the clements but it would certainly seem the only cutter within a radius of thousands of miles would have
  gency which forever arising in these waters
 The Gateway discloses it's betrayal of the best newspaper ethics when it admits in it's first tenee, "as far know" No newspaper ought to attack the Captain and of a ship, Gov ernment otherwise. any branch of the public service or for that matter, anything else UNLESS IT DOES KNOW. The Gateway did not know and it's qualifying clause admits it. On the lat fff1 he of he Gnte cd 0ria the Unalga out errand of mercy. carrying medicines and aid to Indian villages that were suffering almost 100 per cent. attack of influenza
 Just as absurd are the complaints that the Unalga refused to sail until she had taken coal aboard and that she should always be prepared for any emergency that might arise out at the Westward The t1naga is a coal burning steamer and her Commander has discovered no way by which lie take coal while at Sea. She had exhausted her coal supply on her trips in search of the missing halibut schooners Brunvo and Imperial, of which she made two She had hardly returned from the first one until word received that wreckage had just been dis covered in the vicinity of Yakutat and she im- mediately proceeded to that point. She had only returned to porf and cleaning her boilers, when she got the radio from the Starr Wire lessing that she would sail at she could take on coal. she immediately, to time, swung alongside of the Latouche, which was in port, and was being rapidly filed with coal when she notified that the Alameda was her way to the Starr. Before the coang com pleted she received orders to proceed to Hoenah, Rake and other Indian villages where influenza rampant. She had just returned from this trip when she sailed again Christmas Eve to relieve the Starr and the Roosevelt, spending Christmas Day in the of the Gulf of Alaska. and performing her duties as well as capable officers and with courageous regard for duty could direct
 The Gateway was not satisfied with its first performance, so the next day it's editorial page carried this:
 How much damagsyand de-
 struction of property and how many lives of citizens must be i'm
 periled and sacrificed, before the Coast
 Guard Service will be extended to the
 Westward from the Alaska Gulf to
 Bristol Bay whose waters known to
 all navigators The Graveyard of the
 North Pacific instead of keeping their
 vessels resting sereney upon the calm
 and placid waters of land-locked
 harpor close to intense civilization,
 social activity, comfort and amusement
 is possible 10 find in the Territory?
 But perhaps are all wrong Per
 haps the reason for pacing these revenue
 cutters Alaskan waters is only to
 protect shores from foreign invasion
 However we have been lead to believe
 it also to give aid to vessels in
 distress and to human lives when
 in imminent danger If the latter be
 true, why IS not at least one cutter
 stationed in this vicinity. Cordoya,
 Seward, and Kodiak all have wireless
 stations. the latter, however, being in
 the closest proximity to all tho wreeks
 that have occurred during the last two