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In Juneau, the Alaska-Juneau (A-J)gold mine, the largest of its 

 type in the world, was indeed a sight to see. The A-J mine produced 

 10,000 tons of crushed rock daily. It employed 1,000 men and operated 

 three shifts year around. Most of the labor ccune from Europe. Irish, 

 Russians, Finlanders, Serbs, Greeks, and others made up most of the work 

 force. Most of the miners were either single or left their families in 

 the old country. Labor was cheap, working conditions difficult and 

 dangerous , yet people stood in long lines waiting for someone to get 

 killed or injured so they could take their place. This, incidentally, is 

 what brought my family to Alaska in 1928. 



Sitka had its economy built around fishing, a sawmill, and some 

 small mining activity in the area. There were two fairly large mines 

 operating on West Chichagof. They used Juneau more than Sitka for a 

 supply source for materials and labor. 



In 1947, Harry Truman was President and Alaska was an organized 

 Territory, more than ten years away from Statehood. Our trade was almost 

 totally with the lower 48 states. Our biggest industry, the fishery, 

 produced only 20 million dollars in sales. Contrasted with the current 

 trillion dollar federal budget and high deficit, at that time, the federal 

 budget was 37 billion dollars with a one billion dollar surplus. 



In the same year. Congress passed the Tongass Timber Sales Act. 

 This committed Southeast Alaska's future forest products industry to 

 dependence on the dissolving sulfide pulp mills, still in operation 

 today. Congress was also moved to assist the pulp mills by a desire to 

 promote "the national defense through increasing the population and the 

 industrial capacity of Alaska" and the desire to make "available to the 

 national economy valuable and sorely needed products from the great 

 forests of Southeast Alaska" . 



Since Statehood, fishing has rebounded because of strong 

 enhancement programs and because of the 200-mile limit control given to 

 the United States from the Laws of the Sea Conference. 



Written Testimony 

 April 25, 1988 

 Page 3 



