306 FUR-SEAL FISHERIES OF ALASKA. 



Mr. Felton. Tlie object of this investigation is for the benefit of the 

 Government, in order to enable it to determine in future what is the 

 correct policy to be pursued in regard to the seal islands. 



The Chairman. That was the object which the committee had in 

 view, and that was the provision of the resolution authorizing the in- 

 vestigation, but the question of the treatment of the natives outside of 

 the seal islands is a governmental one and the committee has no au- 

 thority to go into it. 



Mr. Jeffries. There has been an intimation during the proceedings 

 of the investigation that the committee would be likely to hold as the 

 chairman has decided, and I deemed it proper to submit this letter in 

 order that the question might be submitted, as I did not wish the com- 

 mittee to go to the expense and inconvenience of summoning witnesses 

 without knowing whether I could put them on the stand. You are 

 familiar with the fact that a great deal has been published in the news- 

 papers which does the company great injustice, by imputing to it acts 

 with which it could have nothing to do; could not possibly have. We 

 have in our employ to-day forty three men, mostly white men. At the 

 island of Attoo, as tar west from San Francisco as Maine is east of it,, 

 we have one man. Go 430 miles and we have another white man ; 200 or 

 300 miles from that we have another; another hundred miles to Oona- 

 laska we have four or six men. On Kodiak Island we sometimes have 

 two. From Kodiak to Nutchic is a great distance, the latter being 300 

 miles west of Sitka. On St. Michaels we have another station. It is 

 charged in the newspapers and officially reported by the governor that 

 we exert such an influence over the Territory as to drive out trade and 

 monopolize the business of the Territory. We have no interest in 

 Alaska except on those two seal islands. We have no connection with 

 any other business or manufacture, with no canning business, mining, or 

 anything else. We do not attempt to resist the teeming millions that 

 Governor Swineford talks about who are desirous of occupying that Ter- 

 ritory. I can show these facts, but I want to make it overwhelming, so 

 that there can be no mistaking the facts. 



By Mr. Jeffries : 



Q. Did you ever have any conversation with Mr. Gavitt, on the islands 

 or elsewhere, as to what he could do or would do, or had influence to do, 

 against the Alaska Commercial Company ? — A. I had several conver- 

 sations with him on the steamer on the way down to San Francisco 

 from Oonalaska. 



Q. When was that? — A. On the trip up. I started on the 14th of 

 May. It was on the trip up, and occurred about half way on the pas- 

 sage up to the islands. 



Q. State thatcouversation. — A. He stated that the Alaska Commercial 

 Company could uotaflford to have any quarrel with him. That he knew 

 that the company had given special instructions to every one of their 

 employes to let him have anything he wanted, and that the company 

 was very anxious to retain his good will because of the very great aid 

 that he could be to the company, since this lease was so near its termi- 

 nation ; that this was a very critical period in the history of the com- 

 pany, and that he knew that anything said about the company,whether 

 true or fals" anything published in the papers at this time especially, 

 would be very prejudicial to the interests of the company, and very 

 much against its chance of getting a renewal of its lease. He said that 

 the next President most likely would be a Democrat, and that as the 

 probable Democratic nominee would be Dan Voorhees or Joe McDonald, 



