320 APPENDIX TO CASE OF GREAT BRITAIN. 
Alaska was purchased, it was undoubtedly designed to be for the benefit of the 
masses, and probably not to create a monopoly for the benefit of a few men only, 
thereby retarding the growth and development of this very valnable Territory. We 
also think the laws should be so amended that a person could acquire a title to prop- 
erty, and so changed that a white man could have the privilege of killing a mink or 
an otter for its skin without first marrying a squaw; as the law now reads, no white 
man is allowed to kill any fur-bearing animal unless he marries a squaw. This is 
not commonly understood, but is a fact, and is a queer state of affairs, and one that 
would not be relished by parents having sons that would like to go to Alaska, more 
especially if they should have seen the Reports of Miss Kate Field on the women of 
Alaska. 
It should not be forgotten that this is the first instance in the history of the Goy- 
ernment of the United States in which it has ever pursued a policy tending to create 
amonopoly. All its laws relating to other portions of the public domain have been 
framed with a view to invite competition and prevent monopoly. Such is the spirit 
which has actuated and governed the pre-emption, homestead, mineral, and other 
laws relating to the public property. The theory has been that such public property 
has been vested in the Government, in trust, as it were, for all its citizens. The 
proposed legislation with respect to the Alaska seal fisheries will be the first excep- 
tion to this universal policy. . Indeed there is no species of the public property which 
has been more peculiarly regarded as the common heritage of all than the fisheries. 
Thus our Government has been for years past expending the most elaborate efforts, 
in time and money, to bring about such an adjustment of the Fisheries question on 
the North Atlantic coast as will open them to all American citizens. It is at least 
singular that, the moment we cross the continent, this established public policy 
should entirely change, and the waters of the Pacific be erected into a monopoly for 
the benefit of a single Corporation. 
In conclusion, we cannot help but review the fact that it would be vastly to the 
best interest of the Pacific coast, and to the whole of the people of the United States, 
that the Government should take charge of the seal islands, restrict the killing to 
50,000 seals per year, abandon the present bad policy of the jurisdiction ot. the 
whole of Behring’s Sea, and open the Territory to its full development. 
Our Eastern friends might ask us how it would benefit them. In the first place, 
it would open a profitable. field for the employment of your idle capital. 
In the second place, half of the articles necessary to develop this Territory would 
be drawn from your manufacturers, such as hardware, canvas for sails, ship chan- 
dlery, guns, clothing of all description, such as waterproof and oil clothing, and, in 
fact, all branches of trade would derive some benefit from it. 
In the third place, it would open a field for the profitable employment of hundreds 
of your young men who are always on the watch for new fields to enter, so as to 
acquire wealth and a competency. 
We ask your careful attention of the facts set before you, and trust our efforts 
may not be in vain, 
Copies of this can be obtained by addressing C. D. Ladd, 529 and 531, Kearny 
Street, San Francisco, California. 
Salmon and Seal. 
THE PROVISIONS OF THE LAW TO BE STRICTLY ENFORCED. 
In referring to the order, as reported, of the 15th March,* in regard to the salmon 
fisheries, this mention of dams would be supposed to apply to the present method 
*Washington, March 15.—In company with D. Brown Goode, of the United States 
Fisheries Commission, Senator Stockbridge, Chairman of the Committee on Fish- 
eries, to-day called upon Secretary Windom with reference to the Act recently passed 
for the protection of the salmon fisheries in Alaska. The Act makes it unlawful to 
erect or maintain any obstruction in the rivers of Alaska with the purpose or result 
of impeding or preventing the ascent of salmon to their spawning grounds, and 
affixes a minimum penalty of 250 dollars a day for violation thereof. Last year, it 
is said, certain parties, by the aid of dams, captured millions of fish, and they are 
reported to be making ready for another campaign this year. The matter has been 
referred to the Law Officers of the Treasury Department, who will at once prepare 
the necessary orders for carrying into effect the provisions of the Act. The last sec- 
tion of the Act, Senator Stockbridge says, will be carried out by the President in 
due time. Its adoption was a matter of serious concern to Congress, and its phrase- 
ology was changed by the Senate on Foreign Relations, and it was enacted into law 
as follows. 
