IKTESTIGATION OP THE FUR-SEAL INDUSTRY OF ALASKA. 31 



VI. July 80-31. — The subject of- the best and most economic plan 

 or system of purchasing and distributing supplies for the seal islands, 

 the patrol fleet which guards them, together with the wireless sta- 

 tions of the Navy established on them, as well as for all the light- 

 houses of the Department of Commerce, in Alaska, for the Alaska 

 teachers and schools of the Department of the Interior, and general 

 mail service outside of the limited lines of contract on Bering Sea— 

 this important subject was carefully studied by us. We find that 

 an annual saving of about $100,000 will result if the following plan 

 is adopted: 



(a) There should be a single United States transport ship, capable 

 of carrying 1,000 to 1,500 tons of freight, which could and would bring 

 up all the coal, food supplies, oil, gasoline, hardware, etc., and 

 every article required by these Government stations to one common 

 depot in Bering Sea for distribution therefrom to the various seal- 

 island stations, the lighthouse points, the Fisheries Bureau, Coast 

 Survey, the Bureau of Education, and the United States Revenue- 

 Cutter Service in the waters of Bering Sea, the Arctic Ocean, and 

 the North Pacific, and that depot should be located at the Dutch 

 Harbor, Unalaska Island, as the most central and best fitted port. 



(b) This owning and use of such a Government transport ship 

 would enable the Government to purchase coal in the best markets 

 at wholesale rates and then put it in a large "bulk pile" at Dutch 

 Harbor at just half the cost per ton which it is now compelled to 

 pay for coaling the several Alaskan stations of the wireless, of the 

 lighthouses, of the seal islands, and the United States Revenue- 

 Cutter Service on patrol duty in those waters. 



(c) This depot of supplies could and should be placed entirely 

 under the control of the United States Revenue-Cutter Service, 

 which could and would distribute all of those supplies by that trans- 

 port ship aforesaid without adding a single man to the public pay 

 roll. It would do that work promptly and most efficiently on the 

 several requisitions of the Navy, Treasury, Commerce, Interior, 

 Post Office, and Department of Justice authorities. 



{d) This Government transport ship aforesaid could and would 

 bring in bulk all of those stores and supplies such as coal, live cattle, 

 sheep, foodstuffs, clothing, etc., and discharge them in bulk at this 

 central depot; then in turn could distribute them from her decks to 

 those several Government stations aforesaid, and also receive and 

 transport such persons as may be designated. As it is now done, 

 it is in a most irregular manner to a vastly greater cost and extreme 

 disadvantage to the Government under the present system, due to 

 lack of united or full concert of action by the several departments 

 above cited. 



(e) The United States Navy has large supply stations at Bremer- 

 ton, Wash., and Mare Island, Cal. They purchase their supplies in 

 large quantities at wholesale rates,' and which supplies are stored 

 there, and these are precisely such supplies as are needed and used 

 to-day in the several Alaskan Government stations as stated above. 



Then should any additional supplies be needed for the Alaskan 

 service, they could and would be easily purchased by those naval 

 buyers at the same reduced rates which they obtain for their other 

 stores. 



