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Show THE CITIZEN i , BY UNSCRUPULOUS HUNTERS Much Alarm Shown Over Fast Disappearing Seals; Other Game Has Also Been Destroyed. According to a story published in the Dearborn Independent, the fur ring threatens all seals and it appears that politicians have a great deal to do with the matter. That is nothing unfamiliar to the people. We all know that the market hunters, market fishermen, pothunters and poachers have destroyed nearly all our game and furbearing animals, birds and game fish in the United States. Utah has also had her fill of those responsible for her devastation of fish and game and now we have to replenish the depleted districts by domestic propagation. It is said there was a payment of $91,723.85 fees to the St. Louis law firm of Spencer and Donnell, of which the partners are United States Senator Selden F. Spencer and Forrest C. Donnell, by the Fouke fur concerns of St. Louis, a part of the international fur syndicate of the associated Eitington-Schil- d company and Moscow Fur Trading company of New York, and Chita and Vladivostok, Sibera (no house in European Russia being advertised); Mukden and Urga, Mongolia; London and Paris; Harbin and Tientsin, China; Meshed, Persia; Bombay and Constantinople and elsewhere during the eighteen months when the of patriotic citizens were threatening the hold of this crowd on the federal government, and Senator Spencer was doing yoeman work for his firm's client, suggests that these gentry believe In direct action in St. Louis as well as others do in Moson-slaug- hs cow. Bad Terms. The disgraceful results of the government permitting this group with Siberian, Chinese, Turkish and better or worse interests to retain the exclusive control of the Alaska furseal trade business of the government were disclosed at the recent hearing before the senate commerce committee of which Senator Wesley L. Jones, of Washington, is the chairman. The basis for this investigation was laid by Henry W. Elliott, of Cleves land, the authority upon the Alaska furseal, and the startling information wrung from the reluctant department of commerce by the combined efforts of Senators Hitchcock and Knuts Nelson, the old Viking, who bowled the protesting Spencer over. For the first time congress and the public learned the text of these contracts with Fouke and the sad results. Government Failure. The Alaska furseal business has been a government failure and scandal ever since the contracts were leased to the Liebes in 1890 for a twenty-yea- r term. The Liebes were wise enough to let several influential persons in on the contract and thepceforth Elihu Root, the corporation lawyer, exerted himself on their behalf while he was a senator and secretary of state. Although the government ostensibly policed the operations, it is easy to see how a firm that possessed such friends in Washington would flout the government. Senator Nelson on a surprise world-famou- seven-year-o- - -- pTf-v - . -- . ld ernment more than $280,000 after making comparative allowances. It required the sale of 35,313 skins at the October, 1922, and May, 1923, auctions, both normal periods, to net the government $260,000 under the present contract, this being the amount left for the government after the contractors visit to the Islands caught the government agent winking at the killing of females. The herds, which had numbered 4,720,000, had dwindled to but 132,000 when Senators Dixon, Nelson and Hitchcock, the Campfire Club of America, Henry W. Elliott and others ended their contract despite Elihu Roots efforts on behalf of the concessionaire. These fine citizens had the devils own time" getting rid of Liebes and obtaining the present seal protection treaty and the law of 1912, to quote the vigorous words of Senator Nelson. Law Evaded. The treaty with England, Japan and Russia established a patrol of the waters against pelagic sealing and poaching and put the entire control of sealing on the Probiloff Islands in the hands of the United States. England and Canada insisted that the private contractor must be eliminated and the government do the work. The law of 1912 suspended commercial killing for five years to permit the herds to recuperate from the devastation of Liebes which included the killing of 128,470 pups. At the end of this term the secretary of commerce was to handle the killing and marketing. While a copyist left out a proviso that no seal under two years of age was to be killed, the department and everyone else knows of this intent, which has been studiously evaded. are killed and The Alaska skinned at the government stations in the Priblioff Islands in the Bering sea. Only male seals should be killed and the minimum age should be two years. After the male seal is five years old he grows a mane or wig which ruins the skin for commercial purposes. The islands area is a closed federal reservation. Only the native helpers, the fifteen government employes and a like number of men, whom the contractor has got on the island in violation of the spirit of the treaty, live there. Tke incompetency of the commis- sioner of fisheries is evidenced in the fact that he was induced to supplant old classification the ninety-nine-yeof raw salted skins in world wide use by a new schedule based on the dressed size. Since a dressed skin can be stretched from two to twelve or more inches longer than the raw salted one, depending on the workman and the size of the rawr skin, it will be seen that if the lengths of the standard salted hides are using for classifying these dressed skins, a good-size- d regas a can classed be ular skin wig and a $20 dressing fee obtained instead of the regular $10 charge, and the skins of yearling pups can be stretched long enough to qualify as This ais just what happened. They advertise to trappers and other producers of furs and business men in general that the Fouke Fur company is Uncle Sams exclusive partner. No opportunity was given any one else to bid for the contract. The financial returns to the government of the contract have been pitiful, regardless of the bombastic and mis leading utterances of the Department of Commerce. The sale by the government at auction of 12,920 raw salted skins under legitimate arrangements in 1911, a normal year, netted the gov fur-sea- ls ar three-year-old- s. charges and kindred items had been deducted from the gross sales of according to Mr. Elliotts tabulation of the governments reports of the sales. When Senator Hitchcock introduced his resolution April 20, 1922, demanding the facts about the terms of the contract and the results of it, the resolution was referred to the Judiciary Committee, of which Senator Knute Nelson was chairman. Senator Nelson knew all the details of the Liebes era and was a leader in the effort to get rid of them, and he naturally wanted to know all about the Fouke contract. Senator Spencer went to Senator Nelson and asked him to delay his committees report on the resolution until he could get the former Secretary of Commerce, Mr. Nagle, who had always sided with Liebes, Root and Fouke, to explain why a report giving the text of the contracts and results of their operation should not be made public. The Old Viking paid no attention to Spencer, and reported the resolution immediately and favorably. After examining the amazing con$1,-106,00- tion was a personal concern of his although it meant neither votes nor retainers. It is said that Hitchcocks speech spread consternation in the Jewish fur trade interested in the ft Fouke bankrutcy being profitably FUEL CONSERVATION. 0, tents of the report on his resolution containing the contracts and their results, Senator Hitchcock made a stirring denunciation of the affair on the floor of the Senate since seal protec For the best paper on railway fuel conservation written' by a Southern Pacific locomotive engineer or fireman, conductor,' brakeman or yardman, the company has decided to send the winner to the annual convention of the International Railway Fuel Association at Chicago next May,1 paying all expenses including time lost. All papers must be forwarded to J. N. Clark, Chief Fuel Supervisor, by August 31, 1923, the closing date of the contest. Judges who will decide the winner of the trip are George McCormick, General Super- intendent Motive Power; R. J. Clancy, Assistant to the General Manager, and Mr. Clark. This contest was decided on in order to stimulate local interest in, the contest now being conducted by the International Railway Fuel Association. The association will give a cash prize of $100 for the best paper on railway fuel conservation. The closing date of this contest has been extended to Au- gust 31. It may happen that some Southern Pacific man may win the trip to the convention and the $100 prize also. IIHnUHNHmNHINNIHIMIMHNNIlHIHNHINMinHIIMMnHHIIIIMHIMIHHIHHHHNIIIimilHI j j The Range That Solves Your Cooking Worries j j j Hughes Hofpoinf Automatic Electric Range Super Just set the hands of the electrically operated clock for the time you wish cooking to start and stop. Then set the temperature regulator at the heat you desire. Now you need only place the food to be cooked in the oven, and spend the day as you choose the electric heat will turn on at the time set, reach the heat specified and keep at that temperature until the time you have set for off." 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