SELFISHNESS OF SALMON CANNERS 345 



and again of the similar throwing away of 10,000 fish. 

 At these particular times the salmon run happened to be 

 very heavy, and more were caught than could be con- 

 sumed by the cannery. So something like 700,000 pounds 

 of valuable fish was wasted. 



One of the best known salmon districts of Alaska may 

 be chosen as an example of what this wasteful method 

 will do for any river. I was told recently by a person 

 very familiar with the canning industry and with Alaska 

 that the catch of salmon in the Kadiak and Chignik dis- 

 tricts which put up nearly 44 percent of all the Alaska 

 canned salmon for 1896 was nearly 360,000 cases; for 

 1897 it was about 300,000 cases; for 1898, 90,000 cases, 

 and that up to midsummer in 1899 the fishing had been 

 practically a failure. And what is going on in the Kadiak 

 district is going on in other districts. Competition is so 

 very sharp between the great canning companies, as well 

 as between the smaller individual concerns which run 

 canneries, that each manager is eagerly desirous to put up 

 more fish than his neighbor. All these people recognize 

 very well that they are destroying the fishing; and that 

 before very long a time must come when there will be no 

 more salmon to be canned at a profit. But this very 

 knowledge makes them more and more eager to capture 

 the fish and to capture all the fish. This bitter competi- 

 tion sometimes leads to actual fighting on the water as 

 well as in the courts. A year or two since, one company 

 which was trying to stop another from fishing on ground 

 which it claimed as its own, sent out its boats with im- 

 mense seines, and dropping them about the steam launches 

 of its rival tried to haul them to the shore. This action 

 led to long litigation, which resulted in a verdict for the 

 company attacked. 



Thus the canners work in a most wasteful and thought- 

 lessly selfish way, grasping for everything that is within 



