The Wrangell sentinel., 1951-10-19


 msnt of the Interior, which con- trols g5 per cent of Alaska. has for Alaskans was again revealed the other evening in Wrangell when the Fish and Wildlifs SsrY- ice held it's fall hearing on propos- alH for the next fishing season. FWS, so the record will be straight, is a division of the Inter for Department which is headed by Secretary Oscar L. Chapman, whose top man in Alaska is the Governor who for the last Il years, in ease any of you can ever for get. is Ernest Gruaning.
 Local fishermen brought up the question of traps, their control. and their elimination as requested by the majority of voters of Alas ka. They asked some pertinent questions relative to traps and what. if anything, was being done about them.
 Said the officer of the Fish and Wildlife Service who was conduct ing the meeting:
 That Is a matter sntifely out Of our hands. The trap issue is up to Congress-"
 Asked if 1t wasn't a fact that the proposed bill relative to traps had died in a congressional com mittee and therefore nothing was being done, the presiding FWS of fieial said he guessed that was a. bout the way it was.
 In other words, the Interior De- partment's attitude toward Alaska interests is ever the same: To heck with them. Let 'em yell. Pass the buck. There's nothing they can do about it.
 The policy is to control with an iron hand and move as rapidly as possible toward state control over everything - people serfs to the government.
 Of course, the fact is that FWS does have, through authority vest ed in the Secretary of the Interior by Congress itself, complete control over traps as it does over any other kind of gear in the fishing indus try. The idea of tossing it back 10 Congress is a typical sample of the you Alaskans don't count" atti- Jude that Interior has heen throw ing in the faces of people living in the Territory for years.
 The Oscar Olson Case
 Came the auditors of the Arthur Anderson Company, employed byI the Territory to audit the Terri torial accounts, shortly after the 1949 Legislature. Ernest Gruening, the Governor, was absent from AL aska. a situation which, at the time, was becoming almost routine.
 After some delving, the auditors came in with a report to Acting Governor Lew Williams that things didn't look too good in the Treas ursr's office. At that time Olson was the Treasurer. As the acting head of the Board of Administra- tion and as Acting Governor charg- ed with the duty of seeing that the laws of the Territory of Alaska were upheld. this Periscoper asked the auditors to go back and come in with some concrete evidence. This they did in a couple of days.
 We immediately advised the Board, summoned the Attorney General and the U. s. District At torney to lay the matter before them. There was ample evidence of shortages in the Treasurer's off, flee.
 A resignation was drawn up. Meanwhile, Oscar, through his at tornsy, agreed to report to the '. s. Aarshal's office, although on that daf, May T, 1949, he was i'll in bed.
 Something had to be done about the Treasurer's office so the Acting Governor, being by Truman stand ards incompetent, climbed up the Seward Street steps in Juneau to Oscars house with the resignation in hand An old friend of ours, of Is years standing, 1t was a tough ehore, but Oscar signed without quibbling and turned over the keys to his office.
 It was a Saturday afternoon but sometime in the course of the week end we were able to get through another call to Ernest iu Washing ton, having previously reported the actual facts, ald asked for suggest .ons as to who to appoint to carry On the Treasurer's dut'es. He came up with the names of former At torney General Ralph Rivers and Billy Egan of Valdez, who was speaker of the House in the 1951 session.
 The appointive board, consisting of the Acting Governor, the Attor- ney General J. Gerald Williams and the late Auditor Frank A. Boyle