The Nome nugget., 1932-10-15

did my old friend John Dunn | then member of the Senate from this Division and one of the best men who ever sat in the Alaska Legislature. And so did senator Charles Benjamin, of the i First Division. Senator Dunn, Sen ator Hess and myself were the i only Democratic members of the Senate Senator Benjamin was and as far as know, he is now. a Republican, but the other four members of the senate, namely
 senator Frame from the Third Division Senator Sundquist and | Anderson from the Second Division and Senator Steel, now Judge Wick ersham's secretary in Washington f then d member of the Senate from the first division, all of them Re 1 publicans and all of them int
 mate political friends and asso- ciates of Judge Wickersham voted against it. And so the memorial did not pass. The title of this memorial was Senate Joint Mem orlal No. l2 of the 1929 Session , of the Lesisature." Of courar had a pretty good idea why r Idid not pass. because Judge Wick iersham some time before had hir- led out his political influence to certain canning companies to lobby through Congress. if possible, bill which would have given these companies four year leases on their traps with rights of renew
 al. The effect of the passage of such bill would have been to
 make traps perpetual in Alaska and make it all but impossible to eliminate them, because after Ithe passage of this bill, any at
 tempt to eliminate traps or to linn it their number would have been called confiscation. and the rights of the trap owners would doubt less have been protected by the courts against any attempt to con
 trol them or abolish them, The scheme was put up rather ingen iously. The Nakat Packing Cor |the great Atlantic and Pacific Tea lCompany, several canneries then
 under the control of MT. Skin
 ner of Seattle, which later were incorporated in the Alaska Salmon Corporation. and 2 big fishing com
 pany represented by MT. Busch mann. hired MT. Wickersham to put this bill across in Congress
 MT. Wickersham thought 1t ad
 visabls to have some help. and
 so be sent for MT. William L, Paul Most of you probably have heard of MT. Paul. He's very smart man and very industrious. He and his brother have publish
 ed for some years monthly mag azine at Ketchikan called The Alaska Fisherman" MT Paul is now candidate for the office of attorney general for Alaska. I say he Is a candidate. but that
 may be d mistake. because he may have resigned. within the last two weeks. though I have not heard of it. There has been con siderable talk to the effect that he will withdraw from the race after certain demands of hls would be complied with by the Repub-
 lican organization don't know whether there is any truth in these reports In 1928 Mir. Paul
 was candidate for the legisla- . luIt III IHt T llSl DIV iSiVIi, I hdNV in my hand copy of his maga- z!ne, "The Alaska Fisherman', of the issue of October, 1928. and on the front page of this issue we find the following: The Republi- can candidates are not afraii to tell you for what issues they stand. Because of .he persona: at- tacks that are made ou me wish to tell the voters that I wil not rest until ALL FISH TRAPS ARE ABOLISHED. Let no one deceive you. My record is clear and op- en. If you will give me the power in this connection, I will swing the ax on fish traps" Now please remember that the statement I have just read was published in the October, 1928, issue of Mir Paul's magazine, but during Sep Itember and October, 1928, many rumors were extaut to the effect that Mir Paul and Judge Wick iersham were really behind bill then sought to be introduced in Congress which would give these permanent leases to the fishing lcompanies for their traps.
 | Paul Speaks
 A number of people in southeast fern Alaska claimed that Mir. Paul had received a considerable sum lof money and that Judge Wicker lsham had received another con- siderable and larger sum of mon ey to put the thing across. These reports So frightened MT. Paul that on November 3. 1928, and shortly after the publication of the Octo-