The Seattle Star Newspaper, November 4, 1922, Page 12

* * *% * ‘4 Max Vivid descript! ag oath the “hell ships” are bro } chapters found him, a | way North. The sea has bean heay 4 She days drag on in endless misery. rock follows the ship and is of he's sick because vermin leave Wureed but an aged Mexican ts left The same double standard weeks I went to bed at | @hines ringing tn my care and awoke %o Charlie's “bundie o' hay” at 5:15 fm the morning. As some of us would gather in the Biackemith shop to keep warm, I Jearmed that several of the crew Planned to winter it in Alaska, tn- etead of returning. Byery year the salmon fleet drives & few of its fishermen to become Alaskan squawmen. One of these had not been to San Francisco in 20 i Tt wus the call of the wild, and. the fortnight of soulkilling j@ of factory life, I could un- the appeal. Here was ad . On the trap line in the ter and in the open seas the salmon season, a simple liv could made, and at the same the is if be savage instinct of the hunt still so near the heart of could be gratified. And in Alaska what the city r—security from want Guggenheims have not yet fled (ragirtg auf 5°¢ finished and came for us were rest fs if before fish started running. | Beome of us were put to making ao as the Chinese workers were getting $350 $600 a season, com 3 BS : Fa 43 [ a bonus of lc a box the Mexteans claimed. f i qs Ey One of was we ate to g natty I apent the i g dream I had tn when le | reine Beulah had been blown moorings at the salt sta- badly damaged. 20 of our gang had been to the salt station, leaving $2 of us. We had been promised meals when they went, but little tmprovement. this time there was tacked Dunkhouse door a notice Alaska government that school tax of $5 was due. All over 18 working in Alaska at time had to pay the $5 tax, and meant us. The Chinaman paid it out of our wages. Now the Chinese gangs of the Alaska fisheries are naturally highly interested in the education of young ij iy out of their $170 season wage had ities re EXTRACTION FREE DAILY << 4 OHIO PAINLESS 508 Our whalebone rubber, which does Bot gover the roof of the mouth if you have two or more teeth. . $5.00 Gum Lyke Rubber, a perfect re- Bresection of the human gum. i $10.00 $4.00 he GOLD CHOWN ; BRIDGEWORK.... patronage ts early custom- Most of our present il giving good Natural Rubber, set of teeth recommended by . Whose work | satisfaction. All work guaranteed for 16 years. Examination free. OHIO CUT RATE DENTISTS Established 20 Years and Ave. and University Open © to 6 Daliy—0 to 12 8 aye On “Hell Ship” How Alaska Squaw Men Are Made Chinese Gang Taxed $5 on $170 Alaska Packers’ Bunkhouses Clean Stern Plans Escape From His Prison Stern, newspaper man, has written for The Star and sister papers ion of a trip he took on an Alaskan salmon ship, proved bad and the ship undertaker had no luck. Stern discov Alaska country and men are taken ashore, A sick pup is up. Wretched outlook is despairin, to get left-over delicactes.—Kditor, | BY MAX STERN [have walked, The only other way - | daged $200 in greenbacks on my leg} THE SEATTLE STAR "ONE,OF THE GREAT PIGTURES OF ALL TIME EN men and a woman trapped in a cellar cafe while a torrent rages through the streets of the city outside. The guttering candles on the mahog- any bar tell the story of the oxygen slowly draining from the air. Their death by suffocation is only a matter of hours. * * * 8 & The Stern's forceful styte. hinese gang, y, the food ix unfit for human ‘Throats are dry for lack of water, A regarded as an omen of iil luck, But him, Bark at last reachey cannery- to die, Reoms in bunkhouse so low Men finally get ehance| exists here as aboard ship and Stern) Already come a big slice for Moyer and another big cut for the China man's store and for many there | would not be much left. The $5 tax | meant nearly five days of hard work for these already highly-exploited | workers | CHINESE GANG | PAY SCHOOL TAX The salmon cannery owners pay $200,000 a year In territorial taxes on @n annual income from the can. | neries of $34,000,000. ‘That means | that one-one hundred and elghtieth of what they make goes to the Alas. kan government, while onethirty }fourth of what we made would go | for taxes. The salmon canner pay to the government from three to seven cents a case and 1 per cent of their net earnings, but they bring back their ships laden with an argosy of ltens of thousands of dollars’ worth of “gold fish.” } | We who were being taxed $5 on | our $170 earnings would be lucky if | we brought back our health and $100 to see us thru the winter, Several of the Chinese crew were Jalways ailing, but one Mexican was suffering excrutiatingly from sick headaches. We wanted to get him to the doctor, located at one of the Alaska Packers’ association canner | | lea, five miles down river. | | Had he not been so week and had lhe owned rubber boots, he might In the eleven who now await their doom are four men who have been deadly ene- mies all their lives. Now they join hands, embrace, and cast all hate from their hearts. The bum who has been kicked out of the place a hundred times is now given food and drink. The young broker who has forgotten the chorus girl he once amused himself with, looks into her eyes and sees there the true love that is reflected in hi heart. But the climax is yet to come. A series of most unusual situations will be seared for- ever in your memory. You can’t afford to miss “The Sin Flood,” the picture all Seattle is going to talk about | } } | | | GOLDWYN PRESENTS was to borrow a boat, and the only | way to get a boat wae from the com. | | pany. | | It seems incredible, but we were two days getting permiasion to use «| dory and carry a sick Mexican to a, doctor, Our motives were of the beat, but we were treated as tho we) were trying to impose on the com- pany. The beach-gang boss tenued | jan angry warning along with his firet refusal. “and remember,” he ahouted, “it's a $10 fine for anybody to take a boat outa here without permission.” While there we accepted an invitation from one of the Mexicans the biggest company operating tn Alaska, and fe financed by the same people behind the California Pack ing corporation, the great fratt-can ning concern. Tts biggest holdings are in Bristol Bay, where !t operates nine out of fta 18 canneries, These canneries are among the best in that part of Alaska. | For the Chines crews they have in | stalled good bunk houses, with elec tric lights, showers and sanitary equipment, all quite different from our place. But they stM persist in the eame outworn Chinee contract system, and among their common laborers ie the same seething discontent as the result. In the cannery we were visiting. the same Chinese contractor held the contract as “owned” us, and, of course, similar conditions prevatied on thelr ship and at thelr cannery such as we were complaining of. In fact, while the housing condi. tions here were of the best, the food was worse than ours, and several | colored boys had come over to our | cannery on purpose to ¢at of our | good bread. PLANS ESCAPE FROM THE BOSS I had been in Alaska about three weeks, and I had een cannery life at Its worst. To met a fair idea of }it, I would have to vistt many other | canneries. To do this, I must “es. | jeape” from my Chinese boss and | |come back by steamer, | T was up against a tough venture I had the money, a thing that most would-be refugees Iack. 1 had ban } before I left the city. But there were two other big obstacles. 1 belonged to the Chinaman by virtue of my contract, and T must in «ome manner | break this “chain.” The second obstacle wag the can- nery boss, Joe, and his assistant, Hector. For some time TI had sensed & growing hostility on their part, and I knew I could expect no favors from that quarter, The cannery boas rules supreme | in Bristol Bay. He controls the only | source of news, the wireless, and the | |only means of transportation, power | boats. Once a month there comes into | Bristol Bay the only meang of es \eape. It is a ittle steamer up from | Seward, the mall boat. It costs over | | $150 to get down to Seattle from Nushagak, and to board the steamer one must be some ten miles down the river from where we were lo- cated on the day #he arrives, for she anchors there for only one tide. LEARNS BOAT DUE IN WEEK If I were successful in getting away from the Chinaman, how was I| to know when the boat was due, and, lit I knew, how was I to get down the river to “Clark's Point"? I lay awake nights worrying over my problems. ‘To mins the boat meant another month in Alaska, and the chances were not even fair of my making it. In fact, there was not @ case on record in our cannery of a man's being able to quit the China man and return home One day 1 overheard two of the squawmen talking. One of them was telling the other that the mafl boat had been heard from and was due at Clark's Point in a week. (More Monday) FOR A LIMITED ENGAGEMENT x —