VALUE OF THE FISHERY 355 



plants that have been established at so many points. 

 Even if the government is too indifferent to interfere to 

 regulate the fishing, it would seem that as a mere matter 



O O7 



of business policy the corporations and individuals inter- 

 ested in the industry would get together and devise plans 

 for their own protection; but small jealousies and the fear 

 of being overreached by competitors have hitherto pre- 

 vented this. 



The question of the protection of these fisheries is not 

 one of sentiment in any degree. It is a question as to 

 whether the material resources of Alaska are worth pro- 

 tecting. Beginning twenty years ago in a very small way 

 Alaska has produced up to this time about 7,500,000 cases 

 of salmon in addition to large quantities that have been 

 salted in 1897 15,500 barrels. The output of the sal- 

 mon canneries according to the official report of the U. S. 

 Treasury Department was in 1899 valued at $3,850,346; 

 in 1900 $6,219,887. Certainly such a resource is worth 

 saving and making perpetual. 



