518 



Senator Wirth. We appreciate your being here. We thank you 

 very much. 



Now, our sixth panel consists of Mike O'Brien, Shop Foreman, 

 Whitestone Logging Company; Frank Roppel, Executive Vice-Presi- 

 dent, Alaska Pulp Corporation; Bud Stewart, Owner/Operator, 

 Whitestone Logging Company; Bernice Brown, a member of the 

 Alaska Women in Timber; Larry Beck, Mill Foreman, Chilkoot 

 Lumber Company and Dennis Jacobs, an employee of Chilkoot 

 Lumber Company. 



If you all will come up and join us, please, at the witness table. 



We thank you all very much for being here and if we could have 

 our final panel be ready to come up, give copies of their statements 

 to the staff, if you would. That would be Dixie Baade, Florian 

 Sever, Lee Schmidt, Alice Johnstone, Margaret Calvin, and K. J. 

 Metcalf. 



Thank you all for being with us. And, Mr. O'Brien, we will start 

 with you. 



[No response.] 



Mr. O'Brien is not here and so we will start with Mr. Roppel. 



STATEMENT OF FRANK ROPPEL, EXECUTIVE VICE PRESIDENT, 



ALASKA PULP CORP. 



Mr. Roppel. Mr. Chairman, we appreciate the opportunity to ad- 

 dress the bills. 



Alaska Pulp Corporation bid on its long-term timber sale in a 

 competitive bid offered by the U.S. Forest Service in 1957. It was 

 awarded the bid and proceeded with bid requirements, the main 

 one being construction of a pulp mill. 



In the 1950s, many of our shareholders and others in Japan 

 really wanted to buy round logs rather than build a pulp mill. This 

 government could have made a lot more money then, as today, by 

 selling round logs from the Tongass, as compared to the longstand- 

 ing policy of the U.S. Forest Service which requires manufacture of 

 the logs before sale. 



We have faithfully performed on our part of the contract for 25 

 years. The social infrastructure benefits, and other benefits, antici- 

 pated by the government appear to have been achieved. Many 

 thousands of man-years of employment have been provided. Mil- 

 lions in income taxes, stumpage payments, and property taxes have 

 been collected by various government entities during our nearly 30 

 years of activity in the area. 



In addition to the original investments required, the company 

 has continued to invest in the operations to keep the mill modern 

 and meet changing government requirements. As an example, this 

 year alone we are midway into the construction of new pollution 

 control facilities at a capital cost of nearly $19 million — all bor- 

 rowed funds. 



It is upsetting to our shareholders, bankers, management and 

 employees to find that now, half-way through our contract, the gov- 

 ernment is seriously considering legislation to walk away from its 

 part of the bargain. It is especially distressing because there are no 

 provisions to provide for the employees and communities adversely 

 impacted by S. 346. 



