238 COUNTER-CASE OF GREAT BRITAIN. 



pany, the lessees of the Pribyloff Islands, exercised au 

 altogether uudue amount of influence there. This is 

 particularly evidenced by the following remarks in his 

 official Report: 



H. R., 44 th A citizen of long standing on the coast writes me that the Fur Com- 



Coiiff., 1st Sess., pany who have leased the seal business from the United States 



p^'^g/*"' "■ 'Government make millions of profit; and that their operations are 



concealed as much as possible; that vastly greater numbers are killed 



annually, more than their agreement allows, and that large amounts 



of hush-money are paid to keep the matter quiet. 



Ibid., pp. 154, General Howard transmitted with his Report a document 

 ^^^' ^^^•. entitled " A History of the Wrongs of Alaska, " which 



was reprinted with that Report as a Congressional docu- 

 ment. In it, numerous grave charges, concerning the 

 granting of the lease of the Pribyloff Islands and the con- 

 duct of the lessees, were made. Most of these are unim- 

 portant in the present connection, but the practices of the 

 Company complained of are said to have been rendered 

 possible — 



principally through the assistance of the United States revenue 

 officers. 



Amongst those specified are Samuel Falkuer, at one time 

 Acting Commissioner at Sitka, and H. H. Mclntyre, Spe- 

 cial Agent of the Treasury Department, who both after- 

 wards became employes of the Alaskan Commercial Com- 

 pany, and both now also apj)ear as prominent wituesses in 

 connection with the Case of the United States. 



DANGER OF MONOPOLY. 



General Howard observed that he was personally unable 

 to judge of the character of the statements contained in 

 this document, but added : 



[I] do believe it to be a mistake, and a dangerous precedent, on tlie 

 part of the Government, to give into the hands of any Company, how- 

 ever benevolent in its intentions, so vast a monopoly. 



GOVERNOR SWINEFORD'S CHARGES AGAINST THE COM- 

 PANY, 1887. 



In his official Report for 1887, A. P. Swineford, Governor 

 of Alaska, writes as follows of the operations and power 

 of the Alaska Commercial Comi)auy, which he professes 

 himself to be unable to control : 



"Eeportof the 279 While all this and much more is true concerning its treatment 



Governor of of the native people, instances are not lacking where it has boy- 



A as a, 1887, p. cQtted and driven away from the islands Government officials who, 

 intent upon the honest, faithful discharge of their duties, have incurred 

 the disjileasure or refused to do the bidding of its Agents. In fact, it 

 possesses the power to compel compliance with its every exaction, and 

 wherever it has obtained a foothold neither white man nor native can 

 do more than eke out a miserable existence, save by its sufferance. 



HIS COMPLAINT OF ITS AUCTION. 



The actual relations of the Governor and nominal Execu- 

 tive Head of the Territory of Alaska to the Alaska Com- 

 mercial Company are well illustrated by the fact that he 



