The Daily Alaska empire., 1940-11-04
COMMUNICATION |)|I

Editor, Daily Alaska Empire, Dear Sir:
 I wish to call to your attention a condition which has arisen ana which is going to work extreme hardship and partial starvation on approximately 6,OO0 people in South east Alaska.
 The Game or Wildlife Agents have taken upon themselves the closing of trapping for fur-bearing animals in Southeast Alaska. At the same time, they are well aware of the fact that approximately 5000 people most of them flsher- men, have depended for many years upon trapping during the winter to help eke out meagre hveli- hood. And now, they are being de- prived of this right by dozen or so men of the Game Commission and Wildlife Agents.
 I ask you, the heads of our gov ernment, and you, the people ol Alaska, if it is a fact, if it Is right that these few representatives O. a Bureau, with the Chairman Of the Game Commission owning the biggest fur farm in Southeast Al aska, can so go against our consti- tutional rights as to make rulings which, enforced as laws, can de- prive 6.O00 people of the right to eat This number includes the de- pendents of the trappers.
 You. the Game and Fur De- partment, claim that you are clos ing the trapping season at the request of most of the trappers. l contradict you there. I have met and asked 100 trappers so far If they had made such request and they said most emphatically No, and they are very much incensed a. the statement. know that we have a few sore heads and also some envious ones who become riled and will write to you because some ether trapper happens to get lo- cated on their trapping ground first
 I myself have been in this South east Alaska district for 27 years. It is we'll known to. a large part of the people of this district that I have fished, trapped, and traded from Cape Spencer to Portland Canal I can say, without boasting, that no man living in Southeast Alaska today has covered more of the coastline bays, inlets and rivers than I.
 also ask you heads of our government, and people of Alaska, if the money that is spent by out side sportsmen is worth the life of one of our Alaskan people. know you will say no. Nevertheless, it is a fact the Kodiak or brown bear also found in Southeast Alaska has torn up maimed, killed and crip- pied many of our people. There are four people right here in Sitka now, and they were so badly torn that they will never be the same in health again, yet the bear are protected by the Game Department. If you kill more than two, you can be arrested and fined and inn prisoned. These bears are a men ace to human life. They, the bears, not only break the game and fish, ing laws, for they periodically throw out many salmon on the banks of streams that us fisher men, if we did the same, would be arrested for, and also have had occasion to watch them after the deer and state on oath. that they are a great killer of them.
 Next we have the black bear, also protected. They are in South east Alaska in great numbers and anyone who cares to go up the fish streams in the fan will find winrowS of salmon thrown out or the banks. Is it just that a preda- tory animal should have preference over the people of Alaska?
 If it is a question of the income received from the sportsmen. let me state that were we. to sell the fur of the bears, the money spent by the sportsmen would look in- finitesimally small.
 The fishermen of Southeast AL aska have not netted $500 each this summer, and 80 percent of them had to pay it out to merchants who helped them during the winter. But 1 if there is no trapping here this winter, the already overburdened merchants are not going to be able to carry them. Remember, the fur