40 ' ALASKA INDUSTRIES. 



Another great obstacle to the success of the business if controlled 

 entirely by the Government would be encountered in disposing of the 

 skins after they had been brought down from the islands. It would 

 not do to sell them up there to the highest bidder, since that would 

 license the sailing of a thousand ships to be present at the sale. The 

 rattling of their anchor chains and the scraping of their keels on the 

 beaches of the two little islands would alone drive every seal away 

 and over to the Russian grounds in a remarkably short space of time. 

 The Government would therefore need to offer them at j)ublic auction 

 in this country, and it would be simjDly history repeating itself — the 

 Government would be at the mercy of any well-organized combination 

 of buyers. The agents conducting the sale could not counteract the 

 effect of such a combination as can the agents of a private corpora- 

 tion, who may look after their interest in all the markets of the world 

 in their own time and in their own waj', according to the exigencies 

 of the season jlnd the demand, and Avho are supplied with money which 

 thej'^ can use, without public scandal, in the manipulation of the mar- 

 ket. On this ground I feel confident in stating that the Treasurj^ of 

 the United States receives more money, net, under the system now in 

 operation, than it would by taking the exclusive control of the busi- 

 ness. Were any capable Government officer supplied with, say,- 

 $100,000, to expend in "working the market," and intrusted with the 

 disposal of 100,000 seal skins wherever he could do so to the best 

 advantage of the Government, and were this agent a man of first-class 

 business abilitj" and energy, I think it quite likely that the same suc- 

 cess might attend his labor in the London market that distinguishes 

 the management of the Alaska Commercial Company. But imagine 

 the cry of fraud and embezzlement that would be raised against him, 

 however honest he might be. This alone would bring the whole busi- 

 ness into positive disrepute, and make it a national scandal. As 

 matters are now conducted there is no room for anj' scandal — not one 

 single transaction on the islands but what is as clear to investigation 

 and accountabilitj' as the light of the noonday sun; what is done is 

 known to everj-body, and the tax now laid by the Government upon 

 and paid into the Treasurj' every year by the Alaska Commercial 

 Company yields alone a handsome rate of interest on the entire pur- 

 chase money expended for the ownership of all Alaska. 



It is frequentlj^ urged with great persistency by misinformed or 

 malicious authority" that the lessees can and do take thousands of 

 skins in excess of the law, and this catch in excess is shipped sub rosa 

 to Japan from the Pribilof Islands. To show the folly of such a move 

 on the part of the comjjany, if even it were possible, I will briefly 

 recapitulate the conditions under which the skins are taken. The 

 natives of St. Paul and St. George do themselves, in the manner I 

 have indicated, all the driving and skinning of the seals for the com- 

 pany. No others are permitted or asked to land upon the islands to 

 do this work, so long as the inhabitants of the islands are equal to it. 

 They have been equal to it and are more than equal to it. Every 

 skin taken by the natives is counted by themselves, as they get 40 

 cents per pelt for that labor, and at the expiration of each day's work 

 in the field the natives know exactly how many skins have been taken 

 by them, how many of these skins have been rejected by the company's 

 agent because thej' were carelessly cut and damaged in skinning — 

 usually about three-fourths of 1 per cent of the whole catch — and 

 they have it recorded every evening by those among them who are 

 charged with the duty. Thus were 101,000 skins taken, instead of 



