| Summary: | Ketchikan's Mayor Scourges Both Parties. Ketchikan's Mayor Scourges Both Parties. SAN FRANCISCO, Jan. 21. (AP)—Destitution threatens a large portion of Alaska's 60,000 people unless the west coast maritime strike is soon settled, said J. A. Talbot, mayor of Ketchikan, who yearned today to return to the "temperate" climate of his home city. Industry in the territory, he said, is virtually paralyzed because of the tie-up of ships which bear the burden of Alaska's communication with the United States. "The people of Alaska are not starving to death at the present time," he said, "but they can see nothing in the future to bring them any hope." Seeks Mild Climate. Mayor and Mrs. Talbot plan to leave tonight or tomorrow morning for their Alaska home. "It will be pleasant," the mayor said, "to get home where the weather is temperate." The thermometer has registered around freezing here for the last couple of days. Until the strike began, Mayor Talbot said, Alaska citizens "faced a bright industrial year." "They do not know what the strike is about—they are not greatly interested in the statements of either labor or capital," he observed. "They feel it a crime that both sides will not arbitrate and settle their differences." "As a result of this stupid shilly-shallying," he declared, "mines will soon be closed down for lack of material. Our cold storages in Ketchikan, Wrangell, Juneau and Sitka are filled with frozen fish which should be moved into the market at once." He added that if Alaska fish products can not be moved now "in the normal manner," Alaska fishermen will "be unable to get any prices for their fish next summer, because it must be remembered that Alaska is almost completely dependent on water transportation."
|
|---|