The Daily Alaska empire., 1951-06-09

5rally happy to put up fishermen sports or commercial. bewhiskered or olean-shaven, plain or crooner 1 variety.
 Copper prices are apparently go- ing up despite the best efforts ot the Office of Price Administration. And every time the copper price takes jump, the prospects for re- opening some of Alaska'S copper mines is brightened.
 Although the OPS put a ceiling 1f 24l2 cents a pound on domestic copper, recent State Department agreement with the government of Chile set a price of 27l2 cents on every pound of copper that country sells to U. S. industry.
 With our government attempting to hold down prices with one hand while raising them with the other, he domestic ceiling on copper is almost certain to be punctured, if not blown wide open.
 Alaska has produced great deal of copper in the past and could do so again, and perhaps in the not too distant future.
 Chuck Herbert, who is president of the Alaska Mining Association, is running a test tunnel on a cop- per property at Port Fidalgo, be- tween Valdez and Cordova.
 That is in the heart of the Prince William Sound copper area, where Ellamar and Latouche once pro- duced thousands of tons of ore.
 There has also been a revival of interest in the Copper River coun- try, particularly around the Mo Carthy-May Creek section.
 Southeast Alaska also has copper deposits, mainly on Prince of Wales Island Several mines produced ore there in early years of the century and a couple of copper smelters were built. The smelters are now long gone, hut much ore remains and may be profitably mined if the price of copper continues to climb.
 Probably the best out for all con- cerned would be to sell the notor- ious Palmer airport for a housing development and to start again from scratch with less of what Senator Clyde R. Hoey termed "subterfuge, misrepresentation and collusiol."
 No matter how you feel about the pending statehood Bill, the minority views of Senators Hugh Butler, George w. Malone, Arthur V. Watkins, Russell B. Long and George A. Smathers merit the1scru- tiny of every Alaskan and evefyone interested in the statehood Ques- tion.
 These senators came out in the very beginning of their report with words that leave no one guessing how they feel about the Bill.
 They say: Arguments for grant, ing immediate statehood to Alaska are based on tenuous and illusionary theories which will not stand ex- animation. The proposal is a chim- era. (Webster says this is a fright ful, vain or foolish fancyD. It has been advanced as a means for speeding the Territorys develop ment, increasing it's population and placing it on sound economic footing as member of the Federal Union."
 Passage of the pending legislation will accomplish none of these things, the Senators argue.
 Tt will not they continue, be cause Alaska currently is suffering
 rom grave economic ills. This bill is not an economic bill It makes no pretense of solving any of the Ierfitory's fundamental problems.
 King Salmon caught by trollers n Alaska waters frequently were sraTned and matched in the Col dmbia River and it's tributaries, ac- cording to studies made by the Alas "a Department of Fisheries.
 The construction of power dams and other factors have decreased the supply of Columbia River sal mon, but trollers have been able lo keep going because of the high prices received for their catches.
 High prices, however, are also Jeopardizing efforts to revive the salmon runs. The cost of hatchery food has scared clear out of sight or beyond practical use," as the Fish and Wildlife Service puts it Experiments are now being made in the use of waste from salmon canneries for hatchery food.