The Nome nugget., 1932-10-15

1Oh rom the CdnneTleS to secure
 the enactment of the fish trap
 bill, he immediately thought of
 MT Paul and realized that he
 would be obliged to call upon Mir
 Paul for help, because Mir. Paul land Mir. Sutherland were intimate
 political friends. In fact, Judge
 Wickersham, Mir. Sutherland, and
 MT. Paul, at that time. really lar
 gely controlled the Republican pol
 itical affairs of Alaska. So, as Mir.
 Paul says, he received $6.00O. He
 received it for his political in- fuence. not for his legal services. and he went back to Washington and tried to get Mir. Sutherland | to introduce the bill. But MT. iSutherland in spite of his friend ship for MT. Paul and Judge Wick ersham, would not introduce the
 bill And he also knew, of course, that there was plenty of political dynamite in 1t and that no man who. as Delegate. permitted the passage of such a bill could have any hope to be reelected Delegate to Congress, and Mir. Sutherland was then candidate for re-elec- tion as Delegate. MT. Sutherland avoided the bill as he would pois- on. But Mir. Paul was not satis- fled with that.
 Bill Rejected
 He had to do something to earn his S5,OU0. and 90, as he said, he went arCunu to tit. other members of Congress and tried to get them to pass the bill over MT. Suther- lands opposition. But they told him it was impossible. And then Judge Wickersham comes into the scheme again and he talked to MT. Paul from Seattle, as MT. Paul says, at the rate of about $50.00 per minute, and he demand ed that he see MT. Sutherland and ask him to introduce the bill. Mir. Paul says that he didn't do this, and he intimates that he was too high minded and virtuous to trade
 upon his friendship with Suth- erland. He forgets that the only reason he was ever employed was because of his friendship with
 Sutherland and because of Suth- PolltlSal lo AllI
 Now what did Judge Wickersham get out of this? There were var ious reports at that time: that Judge Wickersham received s15,- O00 that he received $1O,0OO and that he received sS.OOO. In speech made in Fairbanks more than two years ago he denied hay ing received s10,0O0, and he den- jed having received s9,O0O: but It Lever denied having received SS.000. And so I think we can safely assume that he actually did receive SS.OOO We are justi- f, q in believing this because of another fact: MT. Paul says that he himself received s6,1o0, and We may be entirely certain, cer- tain beyond any doubt that Judge
 i:ci ersham got more money out of tue affair than MT. faui did. So these two gentlemen sold their political influence to the canning for a total of s14.- 900. The bill, whoever drew it, could easily have been printed On one sheet of foolscap paper. The bill was very simple in it's terms and no lawyer in or out of Alaska would have charged more than s250.00 for drawing the bill itself. No. it was not legal services that these people render ed; they sold their political in fluence with the people of the Territory of Alaska, and they got s14,000 for 1t between them. and the canning companies who employ ed them got nothing except the I am not bit sorry for the canning corporations, be cause they were trying to put over. It would not have hnrt my feeling any if they hdd paid Mir Ni,kersha,n and Mr. Paul $4O,OOO instead of S14,OOO. But I have often wondered what real service Mir. Wickersham and Mr. Paul performed for the mon- ey they got. They got $14,Ooo and they accomplished practically noth ing. And the worst of this thing |s that we don't know the situation existing with regard to these gen. E1emen, MT. Wickersham and MT. Paul, and these canning corpora. lions at the present time. For all we know, they are still on the payrolls of these corporations, and that may be the reason why Jud- gc Wickersham has never done anything during all of his years in Congress to transfer the con- trol of the fishing industry to the Alaska legislature. And while Mir. Paul is still advocating the aboli- ton of fish traps, it may be that he, too, is drawing s6,000 every year in order to see that no real harm is done to the fish traps. you know how much to