The Daily Alaska empire., 1939-05-20

cal grandstandng by each succeeding legislature that such procedure has come to be accepted as matter of course with no apparent thought given the fact that this type of harassment added to the natural hazards of the industry make long time planning and financing almost impossible
 We know that prior to 1924 when conservation measures were made effective that the annual pack for 10 years had averaged 3O00O cases and we know that it has been steadily increasing since that time until, during the past four years it has averaged 6,7640O0 Accepted value those figures would seem to indicate steadily improving and prosperng industry certain to increasingly swell Ter rtoral coffers, enrich the business men and fill the pay envelopes Of the workers But those figures show nothing as to steadily mounting costs which have forced the packers to sell their canned salmon at a loss n order to compete with other foods subject to such conditions. They make no mention of the intensive competition with which the market has been faced-a competition which is growing keener with each succeeding season and more difficult tc lace as costs go upward and strike losses pile up each year. In commenting this phase of the industry A w Brindle of the Wards Cove Packing Company recently said:
 As example of the competition which ha grown up consider the canned fish industry in Cali fornia In 1912 California canned 7 900 cases of una and l8774 cases of sardines total of BETA cases In that year. mackere had not yet been put into cans. Now look at what the region did las year. The California tuna pack 2,537 977 cases The sardine pack 249 cases And mackere amounted to 945593 cases. total in California alone of 591OS19
 Tn addition to this California pack a large amount of tuna in from Japan and Hawaii All in all, canned salmon went into domestic market shared by than six million cases of other canned fish last year"
 Brindle pointed out that the price competition from these fish items particularly severe Cali forna sardines packed 48 ore pound tails are sell ing at S265 per case, and mackere at 30 per case
 Such low prices create very severe competition Tor Alaska pinks and chIims which in the main are eaten by the class of consumers as now use sar- he said Tr,,o ficl,; homes has supplanted to some extent the previous demand for such items as red salmon echoes and chnooks
 Those not propaganda figures They repre- sent simple, provable facts. They mean that while rival unions argue control of Aaskas fisheries and packers retrench in their operations as costs rise beyond any possibility profitable operation Cali fornla Japan and Hawaii continue to pack fish and to flood the market with products which sell to the oober at less than the cost of producing Alaska sal mon
 When we see Pollyanna stories telling of the perpetuation of the salmon industry through conser Vatlon measures we fail to get at single cheer It is one thing to perpetuate of salmon and quite another to perpeuate salmon packing industry and all the flsh that can crowd their way up stream are not worth plugged nickel to Alaska without organi- zations which can pack and market proper propor- ton of them at profit That is the planest sort of piam truth which neither political labor rack eteer may successfully refute
 Yes. bought. Bought by the fact that we know that the protection and perpetuation of the salmon packing industry is the important prob lem With which Alaska is faced today It has been proved that the raw material supply may not only De perpetuated by increased It has also been proved that the industry which turns that raw material into wealth for Alaska is seriously threatened This is not question of sentment-it is question of cold buSi- ness It IS time that every Alaskan from fisherman to banker and from longshoreman to merchant rec ognized the condition and joined hands in aeviating it.