The Daily Alaska empire., 1931-02-20
SUGGESTED CHANGE SEEMS
 UNSOUND.

great deal of fuss is being made in Wash ington over the conditions alleged to exist in the reindeer industry in Northern Alaska. Native Es- kmo owners are apparently, arrayed against the white of large herds of the animals and accusation and conteraccusation fly back and forth to the confusion of informed beholders. Just why all of this acrmony, should be present is more than little difficult to understand It is evident that the deer owners are troubled from an embarrassment of animals than from anything else. No has made profit on their stock and figures to indicate that the larger the herd the greater the loss, at least to the present time Deer up to now from commercial standpoint have been lia- bility rather than asset
 The Lomen interests admittedly the largest single factor in the industry. Their investment is said to be in excess of $20OOO00 And on this not cent has yet been earned in the shape of dividends They have poured out thousands of dollars in wages to Eskimo well white herd CTS more thousands in building corras, cold stor- ages. still in buying steamships to transport their deer to markets And in seeking to establish the markets they have expended sums great enough to retire many of the Eskimo deer owners in com parative affluence for the rest of their days Sue has been slow in this endeavor and even larger amounts may be required to attain the desired end. Without doubt, the Government should take into consideration the part they have played and are still playing to promote the industry from purely domestic one to exporting surplus stock to cen ters of population where profitable sale may be had
 There is grave doubt if the proposed transfer of the industrys administration from the Interior Department to the Biological Survey of the Depart ment of Agriculture will benefit anyone. There will be general agreement that the management should be taken out of the hands of school teachers. It must be conceded they, as a rule are not equipped by either training or experience to act as guides in business and herd management The Interior Department slowly to this realization but it did reach that conclusion last year. It acted i'm mediately transferring the administrative control to the office of Governor Alaska who has worked out plan of management which is now in the hands of the Secretary of Interior We believe that the new control should be given opportunity to demonstrate what it do The time elapsed since 1t took over the industry has been too short to permit it to do more than formulate a program for action Certainly it should not be condemned for the and shortcomings of it's predecessor the Office of Education
 The Bureau of Biological Survey is not an Ad- ministrative agency of the Government Its duties are technical and scientific It has rendered very valuable services to the reindeer interests in inves- tigating problems incident to grazing as well as to diseases It should continue to function in the same capacity. But to add to it's duties the man. agement of the herds would merely mean the crea- ton of another set of bureaucrats to be added to those which already have and would not hold out any promise of relief to anyone connected with the industry.