438 

 Senator Wirth. Mr. Thad Poulson. 



STATEMENT OF THAD POULSON, EDITOR, DAILY SITKA 



SENTINEL 



Mr. Poulson. Thank you, Senator. My name is Thad Poulson. 

 My wife and I are the owners, managers and editors of the Daily 

 Sitka Sentinel, the Sitka newspaper. Before coming to Sitka in 

 1969, I was the Associated Press correspondent for the State of 

 Alaska, stationed in Juneau. 



I am testifying today as a journalist, a businessman and a 20- 

 year resident of Sitka who prizes the unique values symbolized by 

 this community. 



I am in favor of the Murkowski-Stevens bill. I speak in favor of 

 the compromise approach endorsed by the Southeast Conference of 

 Cities. I speak against the Wirth and Mrazek bills that propose uni- 

 lateral cancellation by the U.S. Government of the 50-year Federal 

 contracts with the two Southeast Alaska pulp companies. 



If the government has difficulty today in fulfilling these con- 

 tracts, with safeguards to all long-term uses and values of the 

 forest, it is because the Congress has repeatedly changed the 

 boundaries of the playing field in the course of the game. 



With all due respect. Senators, this, in the immortal words of 

 Yogi Berra, is like deja vu all over again. 



In my 20 years in Sitka, I have seen and experienced the trans- 

 formation of Sitka from a provisioning economy where there was 

 generally one place in town that might have what you want and if 

 they did not you went without into the sophisticated and multi-fac- 

 eted economy that we enjoy today. Naturally, my business, along 

 with my debts and my payroll obligations, has grown with the for- 

 tunes of the town. Successful merchants advertise in my newspaper 

 to promote their business and sell their merchandise, not to make 

 a charitable or goodwill contribution. I am not ashamed to tell you 

 that the latter motivation was all we could count on in my early 

 days in Sitka, before the community achieved the critical mass of 

 population and economic activity to truly sustain a daily newspa- 

 per. 



University of Alaska economist George Rogers refers to the pulp 

 industry of Sitka and Ketchikan as the anchor of all other econom- 

 ic activity of the region. Of course, that was the purpose of the 

 long-term contracts in the first place. You will hear others with ex- 

 pertise testify that the timber and pulp industry is the economic 

 foundation of one-fourth of the Sitka population. Loss of that criti- 

 cal one-fourth would be disastrous to our business community, and 

 the shock waves would touch every resident of this town. 



I am deeply troubled by the fact that neither the Wirth nor 

 Mrazek bill addresses in any meaningful way the economic havoc 

 that would visit upon the people and economy of Southeast Alaska, 

 and, more particularly, upon Sitka. 



These two bills, I believe, can only be characterized as punitive 

 in effect, if not in intent. Punitive to innocent people, whatever 

 their political views, whose only offense is to live, work, own prop- 

 erty or do business in Sitka, Alaska at the time the U.S. Govern- 

 ment reneged on a solemn obligation. 



