384 FUE-SEAL FISHERIES OF ALASKA. 



scheme nof. iiulike that which Governor Swiueford now advocates. Congress, how- 

 ever, rejected it, and adopted the present plan. 



At the time the Congressional investigation referred to was had the system of leas- 

 ing had been in force and operation for nearly six years, a period quite ample enough 

 to develop all its advantages and disadvantages. The committee had before it quite 

 a number of witnesses, and among them the unrelenting enemies of the company, 

 who sought to profit by its downfall. Yet the committee found all charges of mis- 

 conduct and of breach of contract false, and unanimously sustained the wisdom and 

 policy of the system. 



The committee, in its conclusion, in speaking of the policy of the law under which 

 the lease was made, said : 



"A difference of opinion may be properly entertained on this question. It is quite 

 certain that the Government, as such, could not perform this trust. All experience 

 teaches that governments are poor factors, and rarely pursue any industry involv- 

 ing the manufacture and sale of products with success or profit. We think Congress 

 acted wisely in rejecting the recommendation of Mr. Boutwell to conduct this busi- 

 ness of seal catching on Government account, and establishing at these islands a 

 humanitarian institution for the care and moral training of the half-savage natives. 

 The contract, as made, was the best disposition of this interest that could have been 

 made, for it is certain that it has resulted in the receipt of very large revenue to the 

 Treasury, and in an amelioration of the physical and moral condition of the natives. 

 * * * The annual payment is $26'2,500tax, and $55,000 rental, making an aggregate 

 of $317,500 every year. This sum is nearly 4| per centum interest on the original cost 

 of the Territory of Alaska, including the two seal islands referred to. Certainly the 

 Government has no right to reproach itself for a want of mercantile shrewdness in 

 the purchase of this Territory, nor in the prompt advantages which it has been enabled 

 to obtain from it." (Page 12.) 



The testimony of the witnesses before the committee established the wise policy of 

 the act of Congress, and the concurring testimony of the various agents of the Gov- 

 ernment and other officers is to the same effect. 



We also respectfully refer to the other statements to the same effect contained in 

 the Appendix. 



We have in our possession the statements of a number of gentlemen engaged in 

 various occupations, who have promptly given their views of our operations in Alaska 

 and of the sections of the country with which they are familiar. This reply is already 

 so extended that we will present in the Appendix only a few of these as specimens. 

 They are by no means exhaustive of the evidence which can be presented. To those, 

 however, emanating as they do from gentlemen of the highest character in the busi- 

 ness community and official circles, and entirely disinterested, we respectfully invite 

 your earnest attention. The utmost reliance also is due to the letter of the Right 

 Reverend Edmund de Schweinitz, bishop of the Moravian Church, a copy of which 

 we also append (Appendix No. 11). The missionaries of that church have penetrated 

 to various points in the interior of Alaska, and frequently report very fully to the 

 bishop as to all matters occurring in the country. 



X.— Conclusion. 



The violent assaults and severe charges against the Alaska Commercial Company 

 in 1876 were so effective as to induce the House of Representatives, as we have seen, 

 to refer the matter for investigation to the Committee of Ways and Means, and yet it 

 appeared at last that all the complaints made were traced to the "persevering efforts" 

 of a " disappointed bidder for the contract," who even assailed the official integrity 

 of Mr. Boutwell, Secretary of the Treasury. Yet, as the committee announced, "he 

 failed to state any facts which could weaken a confidence in the integrity with which 

 the lessees had performed their agreement." It there appeared that the whole matter 

 was the result of a conspiracy concocted in San Francisco, and carried out by the 

 dissemination of false charges and libels through the medium of memorials, circu- 

 lars, pamphlets, and newspapers. 



The conspirators finally fell out, and the very one who wrote all the scurrilous 

 articles confessed it, and himself exposed the scheme. 



These false charges, though so thoroughly unsupported before the committee re- 

 ferred to, have from time to time been renewed, yet every time the honorable Secre- 

 tary has ordered an investigation or report upon the subject by an agent or Govern- 

 ment officer the charges have proved equally unfounded. 



Our " operations " have not only been open to the view of the world, but have been 

 under the immediate observation of the agents of tlie Treasury Department and other 

 officers of the Government at the immediate points of our operations. In their super- 

 intendence of our special transactions and personal observation of our general con- 

 duct for over seventeen years they have found no cause of complaint. Their official 

 reports to thje Government impute to us uq blame. The charges now made are asper- 



