372 FUK-SEAL FISHEKIES OF ALASKA. 



answer made to the then pending charges can now be made to these charges of Gov- 

 ernor Swiueford. General Miller was asked by the committee the following ques- 

 tions and made the following answers : 



" Q. What have to say in reply to the charge of this pamphlet ? [indicating pam- 

 phlet] ; I believe it is anonymous. — A. Well, it purports to have been published by 

 the Anti-Monopoly Association of the Pacific coast, Charles Leisch, secretary. I don't 

 know of any such association on the Pacific coast. I could not find it. I tried to 

 find it. 



" Q. What have you to say in reply to that part of the pamphlet which professes to 

 give an account of the condition of the people there; your selling them whisky, your 

 oppressions, and your refusal or omission to carry out that portion of the law which 

 requires you to look after those people, and to exercise a kind of paternal government 

 for their moral improvement? — A. I say that those statements are entirely false from 

 beginning to end ; that the company on the seal islands found those people burrow- 

 ing in the ground, living in a sort of caves in the ground, in their own filth and 

 squalor and disease, and we began, as soon as we got this lease, the construction of 

 dwelling-houses for them. We have gone on until we have constructed a good, sub- 

 stantial, comforfable dwelling-house for every family on both islands. We have built 

 on St. Paul Island sixty-four dwelling houses for the native families, and on St. George 

 something over twenty. There is one for each family. They are all above ground, 

 and the houses are as good as the average houses that mechanics live in in your city. 

 They are warm, lined inside, filled in between the lining and the weather-boarding. 

 We give each one a stove. 



We charge them no rent for those houses at all ; we make no charge for keeping 

 them in repair. We have taught these people all we could of the benefits of civili- 

 zation; have tried to enlighten them; we have maintained schools on the islands 

 regularly; we have hired teachers. We have kept a physician on each island, a 

 regui r graduate of a medical college, all the time, with medicines free of charge ; 

 no charge for medical attendance upon the people ; we forbid the doctors receiving 

 any gratuity from the people whatever. They have surgical instruments of all kinds 

 there, so that if a man is sick or hurt or injured he can have the best kind of medical 

 attention at once. We sell as cheap as retailers sell them in San Francisco. Our in- 

 structions are, that in no case shall there be more than 25 per cent, added to the 

 wholesale cost in San Francisco. We make nothing at all out of the goods that we 

 sell them. Flour we sell actually on St. George Island cheaper than we buy it in 

 San Francisco. The reason of that is that the price was established there a long time 

 ago, and those people would think it was a sort of imposition if we changed the price. 

 The price was established when flour was low, and we used to give them that black 

 flour. We give them now excellent wheat flour, of good enough quality for anybody ; 

 as good as I want. The cloth, all that we send there, is of good quality. We have 

 done this because it was to our interest to do it. They are our laborers, and we want 

 them to be in a condition to labor. We desire to improve their condition in every 

 way. They make better laborers and they are better satisfied. It is our interest in 

 every respect to do this, and we have done it ; and all these stories about their being 

 maltreated in any way are all false ; there is not a word of truth in them. I chal- 

 lenge the whole world to show an example equal to this corporation in its humane 

 treatment of its laborers. 



" Q. What is the number of the native population on the islands ? — A. It is about 

 370. There are certain families there that have no male protector, no person to labor, 

 and we support those people free of charge. 



'' Q. Has there been an increase or a decrease of the population since your contract 

 went into existence ? — A. I don't think it has increased or decreased. The total popu- 

 lation of the two islands is put down here in Moore's report as 348. I suppose that 

 is correct. 



" Q. What other employments are there on the islands except what your company 

 furnishes? — A. None. 



" Q. You employ all the male population in your business ? — A. Yes, sir ; they work 

 during the sealing season. For two months they work pretty well; they make good 

 wages. They are quite prosperous; they have saved up a considerable amount of 

 money. We taught them to save their earnings, and we act as a sort of savings bank 

 for them. They do not know anything about the San Francisco Savings Bank, al- 

 though we explained the matter to them ; and they prefer to deposit their savings 

 with the company, and we consent to take them, and we are paying them interest. 

 I believe this report of Mr. Moore's, on page 13, gives the amounts correctly. In St. 

 Paul eighty natives are credited with $34,715.24, and the church with $7,969.17, mak- 

 ing a total of $42,681.41. In St. George twenty-four natives are credited with $6,623.96, 

 and the church with $2,006.91, making a total of $8,630.87. 



" Q. Have they any religious worship on the islands ? — A. Yes ; there is a church on 

 each island, a Greek Catholic church, established there by the old Kussian-American 

 Company. 



