412 ALASKA INDUSTRIES. 



A BILL entitled "An art. io provide Tor the protection of the salmon fisheries of Alaska." 



SECTION 1. That from and after the passage of this act every person or corporation 

 engaged in the business of taking salmon in the waters of the Territory ot' Alaska 

 for salting or canning purposes shall, on the first day of December of each year, iile 

 with the Secretary of the Treasury of the United States a sworn statement of the 

 number of barrels, packages, or cases of salmon so packed, salted, or canned by him 

 or them, and shall pay annually to the Treasury of the United States the sum of five 

 cents per case of forty-eight pounds or less, and ten cents per barrel for each case or 

 barrel of salmon so canned or salted by him or them. 



SEC. 2. That the returns provided for in section one shall be made under regula- 

 tions to be prescribed by the Secretary of the Treasury ; and all provisions of existing 

 law as to omitted or false returns of persons or corporations and as to penalties, civil 

 or criminal, for such omission or false return under the provisions of the law providing 

 for an income tax, act of August twenty-eighth, eighteen hundred and ninety-four, 

 8hall ; so far as the same may be applicable, be in full force and virtue as to this act. 



Bill No. 1 was drawn as nearly in conformity with the Oregon statutes 

 as the difference in the size of the Columbia Biver and the salmon 

 streams of Alaska would warrant; and a glance at the bill and at the 

 Oregon statutes will show that a yearly close time of three months and 

 a weekly close time of twenty-four hours during the season in Oregon 

 is much more oppressive, in comparison, than a weekly close time of 

 thirty hours in Alaska. 



I have no desire to injure the men who pack salmon in Alaska; on 

 the contrary, I wish to see the canneries nourish and multiply and tbeir 

 owners prosper so long as there is no danger of destroying the source 

 from which their prosperity is derived. But I do know that the history 

 of salmon in America is a history of hurried devastation and extinction 

 of the species, and 1 am anxious that the Government shall step in in 

 time to prevent its destruction in Alaska, and, like Scotland, enact laws, 

 and enforce them, by which the salmon may increase and multiply and 

 be perpetuated for all time. 1 



Bill No. 2 was drawn at the request of Mr. Barling and other large 

 canners, and it has been warmly indorsed by B. 13. Hume & Co., the 

 Alaska Improvement Company, and others who are deeply interested 

 in the Alaska salmon industry. 



The question of its constitutionality has been raised in certain quar- 

 ters and may possibly vitiate it for all practical purposes, for which 1 

 should be very sorry indeed, for, looking at the matter from the practical 

 standpoint solely, I say there ought to be full and ample protection given 

 to the food-fishes of Alaska; and if those who make millions out of 

 them and have millions invested in the business are willing to pay for 

 such protection, they ought to be allowed to do so. 



Should those who are opposed to legislation looking to the protection 

 of salmon in Alaska succeed in defeating the proposed bills, however, 

 it will still be the duty of the Department to do everything within the 

 existing law that can be done for the perpetuation of the salmon. 



History teems with evidence of the fact that from the tenth century 

 till now the Scotch have had to wage a continuous legal battle for the 

 constant protection of their fisheries, and that their immense salmon 

 interests of to-day owe their origin, growth, and world-renowned suc- 

 cess to the tireless efforts of the men who labored for their protection. 



1 A comparison of the American and Scotch systems of salmon culture is given by a 

 friend, who says: "From the time of the settlement of the State of Maine by the 

 whites until there was not a salmon left in the streams, which, previously had always 

 been full of them, was about two hundred years; and the population was not yet 

 1.000,000 souls. Scotland, on the contrary, with a population of 3,000,000 souls, has 

 more salmon now than she had one thousand years ago, when she very wisely enacted 

 laws, which have always been enforced, to protect them ? ' 



