Seward daily gateway., 1931-06-02

Saturday Evening Post, and Rob- ert Frothingham, in several jour- nals, and other writer -sportSmen took up their trusty pens and type writers and hurled maledictionS at us poor, benighty nuts up here for wanting to kill off the Kodiak brownie-the biggest carnivora in the world They said he was a gigantic specise of Ursus, some thing-or- other, and it would be a gigantic shame to kill them all off so nobody could hunt him in the future They said we couldn't raise cattle and sheep on Kodiak Island and if we could, there was plenty of range elsewhere to fol- low our foolish pursuit. They said Kodiak Island should be set aside as a game preserve for Kodiak bear just like a zoo in a park. They laughed at the idea that the big brown bear is a killer. They wanted him protected up here, 1 notwithstanding the fact that the government and the Stockmen | of the West have been conducting campaign of many years against the bear as a predatory animal. This controversey stirred up other waters. Shall we say shall lower or deeper? The rocking chair Nature Lovers of Way Down East sat up and began to take notice. Some one recalled that Alaska is paying a bounty on eag- les. What ho! and horrors! The grand old national bird. Think of 1t! Should that noble emblem of our national state be sacrificed on the altar of the greed of few misguided souls who are trying to develop Alaska, a Territory one- fifth the size of the United States? No, a thousand times no. Those people up there don't know what they are doing. Pretty soon, if we ever make that trip to Alaska, we won't see that noble bird soaring above the beetling crags with his eagle eye cooked.
 Everybody got cock-eyed then it seems. The Audubon Society start ed a nationwide movement to force the Alaska Territorial Legis- lature to repeal it's law on eagle bounty. Those birds must be saved although they pack off lambs and fox puppies and fish till Hell won't have it. Then they got to talk ing out sea lions. For some un- known and totally unexplainable reason the nature lovers put through a protective measure on sea lions. Its an animal that has absolutely mo decorative or com- mercial purpose in life but each day gorges 30 to 50 pounds of fish good for human consumption.
 These ideas originated in the eastern States from people who had never been in Alaska or who had made a brief sightseeing trip. They now go ahead as calm ly as though we Alaskans don't exist Although we are trying to develop this country and make our homes here we are ignored and our feeble protests that we know our wn business are dismissed as so much wushwah. We are SUD- posed to have no word in the matter although the bears kill our cattle and sheep, the eagles clutch our fox and lambs and the sea lions swallow our fish. The bears, the eagles and the sea lions are noble animals and must be pre- served for posterity.
 If one has a sense of humor it would give him chuckle.
 Supposing, for instance, that we Alaskans way up here should pro- test against the killing of rattle snakes in Arizona or Utah or New Mexico. Suppose we should insist on a period of protection on them SO they might be preserved to pos terity? Suppose eagles were SO l plentiful in New England that the