Seward daily gateway., 1930-03-07
ROUND-TABLE DISCUSSION

Over at Kodiak they tell us, the pool halls and ho- tell obbies have practically given up pangingi and solo while the boys gather rouna the stove ana % organze nightly debating societies. the subject being Resolved that Kodiak Island be made big game preserve for the wealthy big game hunters while the cattle and sheep go to H."
 It all started of after that article by Stewart Edward White in the December 21 number of the Sat urday Evening Post called Kidding Ourselves Along" He talks mostly about fish but he has something to about Kodiak bear and it's good people might even say good and rotten.
 "Take the case of the Kodiak bear' says Mr. White. He is the biggest of the bear family. He is most tricted in his range of any of the bear family Poor bear) On Kodiak Island alone is he be found in the purity of his speces though his first cousins may be encountered very few other islands or very small portion of the adjacent mainland. He is of greatest natural curiostes. We have small number of him in cages here and there and there preserve him carefully and do not permit anyone to kill him. We have most of him this comparatively small island off the Alaska coast There permit anyone who wants to- to kill him under such liberal regulations that his numbers have been decreasing quite rapidly. But there IS growing agitation to all regulations; to permit indiscrimnate killing with the idea of getting rid of him.
 "Why? Because certain men or groups of men think they can raise cattle with advantage to them selves Kodiak sland and they believe profess to believe that the bears will destroy the cattle There places all the world, hundreds of thousands of square miles of them where cattle being raised and hundreds of thousands of square miles where cat tie could be raised to better advantage than up the Arctic Circle There is just place in the world where Kodiak bear be raised about 100 miles long by 60 wide If arrived at that point in evolution wherein capable of thinking with the collective mind we would not hesitate for moment in deciding the sensible thing to do We would tell wouldbe cattle men to go elsewhere if they wanted to raise cattle and we would keep our unique little island for our unique big bears just as we keep apart park in city for zoo"
 There you have 1t right from the shoulder. just like that Take 1t leave 1t. However Kodiakers and The Gateway are not taking it laying down.
 Don't know whether MT. White has ever been on Kodiak but If he has he would know that cattle have been raised on that island for hundred and forty years and that cattle and sheep are still multiplying there lie would also know that bear do kill cattle and nave driven several stockraisers of business He would know that nearly everyone of the 500 inhabitants of the island signed petition to do away with the clos ed season on bear He should know that there are thousands of big Brownies the peninsula adjacent to the island where they can hunt all they want to and where stockrasing would be impossible
 lie should also reflect that Kodiak Island is nearly 1000 miles from the Arctic Circle and not "near it, and that lies in practically the same latitude as that o the Peace River country of Canada where our neoh DOTS raise the prize wheat and where the government of Canada IS proposing to increase it's bison and cattle nerds, even tho the climate is no where near as mild as that of Kodiak He should know-but shucks what's the use? Let's make game preserve out of the whole territory with only very short closed season on cat uemen farmers, fur ranchers sourdoughs and editors