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Ketchikan Historical: The King of Ketchikan, Circa 1940; Salmon industry lobbyist one of the most powerful men in Alaska By DAVE KIFFER - From the 1930s to the 1950s, Winton C. Arnold was the most powerful man in Ketchikan.  By some accounts, he was one of the most powerful men in Alaska.

"Judge" Arnold was not an elected official. He was an attorney and a lobbyist, a very good one. His steadfast representation of the canned salmon industry - then Alaska's largest industry - is credited by some with delaying statehood for Alaska by nearly two decades. The salmon canning industry opposed statehood because it preferred working with the federal government, which was much more easily manipulated in ways favorable to the industry.
 
Arnold was born in Walla Walla, Washington in 1903. He later moved to Idaho and studied law at the University of Idaho, graduating with a specialization in mining law in 1924.
 
In her 2017 book about Alaska territorial judges and lawyers "The Biggest Damned Hat," Pamela Cravez devotes a chapter to Arnold calling him "Alaska's most powerful lobbyist." She noted that Arnold quickly became discouraged by his prospects in Idaho and, while working for US Sen. William E. Borah who headed  the Senate committee that oversaw Alaska, decided to make his mark in the territory. Borah gave Arnold a letter of introduction to various Alaskan political leaders. Arnold came north in 1927.
 
"Arnold arrived in Juneau and used his political connections to get his first job as handyman and guard at the territorial jail," Cravez wrote. "But when gold was discovered at Hyder and the US Commissioner's post opened up there (Arnold) was appointed to the post."
 
Because his tenure in Hyder frequently required sitting as a judge to deal with mining disputes, Arnold was referred to as "Judge Arnold" for the rest of his life. His close friends called him “Bill.” His opponents often called him “Fish Arnold.”
 
When the mining activity slowed in Hyder after a couple of years, Arnold got himself appointed US Commissioner in Ketchikan, then the regional center for the booming canned salmon industry and briefly the largest town in the state. He also served as Justice of the Peace, Coroner and Magistrate.
 
"Arnold could see that while gold could be an unsteady commodity, salmon provided a constant source of income for the territory," Cravez wrote. "The entire physical and economic structure of Ketchikan rested on it, and Ketchikan was thriving....Arnold decided that Ketchikan's economy would not slow easily, as had Hyder's, and he scouted out a position in private practice."
 
In 1932, Ketchikan attorney Lester Gore was named district judge for Nome and he turned his Ketchikan legal practice over to Arnold. Gore had often represented the canned salmon industry. Arnold took those connections, ran with them, and soon became the industry's most indispensable advocate.
 
In short order he became a common face at virtually every governmental fisheries hearing, either in Alaska or in Washington D.C. He soon became such an expert on catches and seasons that he was often at the table when the regulators decided the rules under which industry would operate. He usually knew more than the people charged with managing the industry and, as a result, whenever new rules came out they almost always favored the industry.
 
Arnold was most aware of protecting the primacy of the Organic Act of 1912 which forbade the territorial legislature from passing any laws that would “alter, amend, modify or repeal any federal laws relating to the fisheries of Alaska.”
 
This was not an idle concern. As early as 1935, the territorial legislature began sending requests to the federal government asking it to ban fish traps. The territorial legislature approved the ban 24-1 in 1935. But with Arnold already whispering in its ear, Congress took no action
 
The State of Alaska history website mentions Arnold several times.

"John Butrovich, a long time territorial and state senator from Fairbanks, once told a reporter that Arnold was exceptionally capable," according to the website.

"You couldn't be that good and not be smart," Butrovich said. "He was the best I saw, in my time, and I was there for 30 years. And I'm looking at it from the other side."

"Butrovich opposed Arnold's work to continue the advantages of the canned salmon industry - including big tax breaks - in Alaska. Many said Arnold stopped any tax reform legislation for a decade in the territorial Legislature. He became the most effective and articulate opponent of Alaska statehood," the website concludes.

In the 1930s, Arnold often clashed with Alaska's territorial congressional delegate, Anthony Dimond.

"When it came to Alaska fisheries, Anthony Dimond and W. C. Arnold didn’t see eye-to-eye very often," Historian Ross Coen wrote on the Alaska Historical Society website in 2013.  “As the territory’s congressional delegate from 1933 to 1945, Dimond advocated local fisheries management, a hiring preference for Alaska residents, and the abolition of fish traps. As lawyer and lobbyist for the Seattle-based packing industry, Arnold opposed all of those things. On at least one point, however, the two men were in full agreement."

That point was a shared opposition to a Japanese fishery incursion into Bristol Bay in 1937 that both men feared, if unchecked, would allow foreign fleets to chase Alaska salmon runs all the wayt back to the mouths of the Alaskan streams. Their joint lobbying eventually persuaded the US government to step in and  extend territorial boundary limits to protect the fisheries.

Arnold also served on the Alaska Territorial Planning Council from 1937 to 1941 and from 1941 to 1945 as the chairman of the federal Salmon Consultant Committee, which made sure that the canned salmon was Alaska's significant contribution to the World War II war effort, especially for meals to the troops. Over fishing - primarily from the fish traps that Arnold so aggressively promoted for their "efficiency” - had caused the industry to retrench by the late 1930s, but the sudden market of millions of GI's allowed the industry to stave off collapse at least into the late 1940s.

In 1945, Arnold became the managing director of Alaska Salmon Industry Inc., a group formed with two specific purposes. One was out in the open, to promote the industry and to limit any attempts at "burdensome" "regulations. The other, delaying statehood,  was a little more under the table. That year Arnold moved to Seattle, but was still in Ketchikan and Juneau often enough to look after the industry interests.

The canned salmon industry had always been an opponent of the statehood for the territory. The big canneries preferred dealing with federal regulators far from the fishing grounds. It was always easier to lobby officials in far off Washington D.C. where the ravages of the fish traps were out of sight and out of mind. The industry also found common cause with the Republican leadership in Congress because Alaska was perceived in the 1940s and 1950s as a Democrat leaning area. It wasn't until Hawaii - then perceived as a Republican stronghold - came into the equation that Congress finally moved to approve Alaska statehood in the late 1950s.

"Arnold typically did not say he opposed statehood" the story about him on the state history website notes. "He made a habit, though of pointing out obstacles, such as transportation problems, and the need to settle Alaska Native land claims. He also said Alaska could not afford to become a state because of the additional burdens that it would place on its citizens."

A common Arnold tactic was to note that only 1 percent of Alaska had ever been surveyed and it would take decades to get an accurate accounting of Alaska lands to determine land grants that could support the new government.

"Alaska territorial delegate E.L. "Bob" Bartlett described Arnold as an ‘opponent of every progressive proposal for Alaska’ and  ‘a smooth operator -intelligent and with a pleasing personality ‘,"  according to the state website. "He hosted private lunches for senators, and made elaborate presentations to show the economic damage that statehood would cause Alaska. Mary Lee Council, Bartlett's administrative assistant, said that by explaining the problems with statehood bills before Congress in an attempt to stop statehood, Arnold's complaints forced Congress to resolve those issues. In that way, Arnold's stalling tactics improved the chances that the state would have the resources it needed for survival. The provisions eventually adopted by Congress gave the new state more than five times as much land as had been proposed in some of the early proposals."

Arnold's staunch defense of the canned salmon industry also brought him into conflict with the proponents of self determination for Alaska Natives. Arnold was particularly concerned that any movement toward Native self-determination would hurt the canned salmon industry's monopolistic control over the salmon runs. Arnold's numerous skirmishes with William Paul were particularly noteworthy, according to Diane Purvis, a historian of the Native civil rights efforts.  - More...
Monday PM - September 16, 2019

Thermometers at work everywhere in Alaska
By NED ROZELL
Prospect Creek in northern Alaska, shown here on a recent 80-degree summer day, has the record for Alaska’s coldest temperature of minus 80 degrees Fahrenheit, on Jan. 23, 1971.
Photo By Ned Rozell

Alaska: Thermometers at work everywhere in Alaska By NED ROZELL - Every Alaskan owns at least one version of a sensitive scientific instrument: the thermometer. But what is it measuring?

Because hot and cold are relative terms, sometimes our senses can’t be trusted to tell us the difference. For example, a tub of ice water will feel warm if you stick your foot in it after walking barefoot at 40 below.

Real hot and cold can be thought of as a measurement of motion: the temperature of water, air, motor oil or any other substance is a measure of the average speed of molecules and atoms within the substance. The faster the molecules are bumping around, the higher the temperature.

If we had a freezer capable of cooling air to minus 459 degrees Fahrenheit, for example, the oxygen, nitrogen and hydrogen molecules within air would theoretically stop moving. This point, known as absolute zero, is the starting point of the Kelvin scale, which was named after Lord Kelvin, a British scientist who lived from 1824 to 1907.

The Kelvin scale is useful for temperature measurements in space. The average temperature of the universe is about 2.7 Kelvins, or  minus 454.8 degrees Fahrenheit. Temperatures on Earth are much higher because of several factors: the sun’s warmth, the ability of Earth’s surface to absorb solar radiation, and the heat-trapping effects of the atmosphere, a 30-mile shell of gases.

Because Earth is tilted on its axis, the north and south poles lean away from direct sunlight for much of the year. Although we northerners tend to talk tough about our cold snaps, those on the other end of the globe feel greater extremes. The coldest temperature ever measured was minus 129 degrees Fahrenheit, at Vostok, a Russian scientific station in Antarctica, on July 21, 1983. - More...
Monday PM - September 16, 2019

TOM PURCELL: Our Cursed 2020 Campaign: 'F-bombs' Away!  - Some presidential candidates, past and present, sure have cursed up a storm.

The Washington Examiner notes Julian Castro said the "BS" word on HBO, Ohio Rep. Tim Ryan called on Republicans to "get their 's-word' together," Hawaii Rep. Tulsi Gabbard used the "b-word" to describe President Trump, and New York Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand told a group of activists that "if we are not helping people, we should go the 'f-word' home."

Then there's the queen mother of today's cussing campaigners: Beto "f-bomb" O'Rourke.

He has used the "f-word" as a noun, verb, adjective, adverb, pronoun, preposition, conjunction, interjection - pretty much everything but a dangling participle, whatever the "h-e-double-hockey-sticks" that is.

O'Rourke has been struggling in the polls since Mayor Pete "Trump 'P.O.'d' our allies" Buttigieg stole his thunder. O'Rourke's cursing appears to be a ploy for attention, which is all it's getting him.

I agree with political observers who cite two reasons for the increasing use of salty language.

Emma Byrne, author of "Swearing is Good for You: The Amazing Science of Bad Language," tells Smithsonian there is a science to why we curse. She says "peppering our language with dirty words can actually help us gain credibility and establish a sense of camaraderie" - if it's done properly.

She distinguishes between "propositional swearing, which is deliberate and planned, and non-propositional swearing, which can happen when we're surprised, or among friends or confidants."

O'Rourke's swearing comes across as contrived - a sign of weakness from an unserious candidate trying to make headlines. - More...
Monday PM - September 16, 2019

RICH MANIERI: Hold Your Applause, Congress is Back - In case you haven't heard, our lawmakers have returned from their six-week, summer sabbatical, ready to roll up their sleeves and get their hands dirty. Among the agenda items for this legislative session: firearms, keeping the government from shutting down, trade and, at least for some Democrats, impeaching the president.

The congressional recess is necessary. Not for members Congress, but for the rest of us. We need the break from them, even though, out of 261 work days, the House and the Senate will be in session together for just 121. Both chambers are actually scheduled to meet fewer days this year than in 2018. (By the way, senators and representatives make, on average, about $174,000 annually.)

You might be thinking this is a lot of time off for a legislative body that takes six months to come to a consensus on where to put the water cooler.But, considering a disapproval rating of about 75 percent, perhaps we'd appreciate them more if we saw less of them.

There might be something to this.

There was an episode of Seinfeld in which George decides his best strategy for promotion with the Yankees is to stay home from work and leave his car parked at the office.

"My presence in that office can only hurt my chances," he said. 

If only members of Congress were so self-aware.

With an election looming, there will be plenty of pulled hamstrings among lawmakers racing to the nearest TV camera to try to convince their constituents that they're not part of the problem. - More...
Monday PM - September 16, 2019

Political Cartoon: Democrat Vaping
By Rick McKee ©2019, CagleCartoons.com
Distributed to paid subscribers for publication by Cagle Cartoons, Inc.