The Daily Alaska empire., 1930-06-09
WHITE IS UNREPENTANT.

Tn letter to the Editor of the Saturday Evening Post and appearing in that magazine of June ' Stewart Edward White pleads technical guilt to having mis-stated the facts when he charged, In an earlier Post article that all protection had been removed from the Alaskan brown bear which was faced by extinction that account
 Seeking to alib himself, MT White takes the position that for all practical purposes his original statements hold good that the protection accorded the brown bear is to all ntents worthless; that to be worthwhile such islands as Kodiak, Chichagof, Baranof and Admiralty should be put on the protected list.
 What are the facts? Within the Territory today there are variously located mainland and island areas aggregating some 900 square miles in which protection is guaranteed to brown bears. Of that total 15000 square miles, in round figures are absolute sanctuary This includes Mt Mckinley National Park, sitka National Monument, Glacier Bay National Monument Katmai National Monu- ment and the Aleutian Islands The other 50O00 square miles comprise the Alaska Peninsula Cook Inlet. Renal Peninsula, Shuyak Hawkins Hinchinbrook, Montague, Yakobi and Kruzof Islands Tn these areas, residents and duly licensed non- residents alike may kill as many as two bears each during the from September 1 to June 20. In the other regions of the Territory where the brown bear is found, residents may kill the animals at any of the year, but non-resi- 0St'NSN~~ l and June 20.
 Clearly then, MT. Whites position is untenable. When the brown bear is protected such a great range of country, there is possible danger of any serious nroads being made it's numbers. The greatest bear country in the Territory, the Alaska Penonsua, is embraced within the protected area. There, alone, thousands of square miles where hunting 1t really a sport because of the nature of terrain that must be hunted Even ctfop uara Bp,ftpd tn that dtctr md open hunting permitted throughout every year in all other areas, that would be adequate provision against extermnation of the species
 Of course it wouldn't satisfy Mir White There conviction after perusing his several AL aska articles appearing during the past year, that nothing short of permitting him to fix regulations to suit himself governing Alaska game and fish cries. open and close seasons, repeal legislation and make more, will be satisfactory to him. His favorte argument is: "The buffalo have disappeared next will go the brown bear" What if the buffalo did vanish? On every acre of valley and plain that sustained buffalo, wheat is being grown to feed the hungry of the world; cattle and hogs are being raised; sheep graze; and a great civilization has erected itself.
 The buffalo has not vanished He was saved from extinction at not inconsiderable cost. And today the Federal Government is begging for someone to take the surplus animals off its hands
 
 tion.
 What if the brown bear does go, except natural curiosity maintained in regions where he is accessible to those interested in such relics of more primitive age? The world will not have lost anything of substantial value But 1t will not go until industry crowds it out. Sportsmen, local and foreign, do not take sufficient toll to keer down the natural increase. Alaskans do not hunt bears as vacation pasme Only when it becomes FoIf,, the woods and hills given over to the bear will that animal be wiped out There is vast ares in Alaska where this process will be delayed longer than the most prophetic foreten. Yet wher that time comes, there is already reserved a sane tuary which is extensive enough to house man, thousands of the species that extinction is 1T fact an utter impossbility.
 Surely that should content the most arden conseryationist It must be apparent to any reason able man, taking the trouble to investigate thu whole matter that Alaska is not undertaking tt slaughter the whole brown bear race. Unfortunately Mir White cannot be longer listed under the "rea sonabgc" classification Through his writings ther