Page:The Pacific Monthly volumes 1-3.djvu/566

 men, many of whom are skilled mechanics. The architect's work was done by Mr. Franz Wilson, a fisherman; the pile driving, an important part of the undertaking, as the building is set over the water,—was done by Victor Sanderson, a Finnish contractor and builder, not a fisherman, but of the same class and race as many of them.

The cannery has now been in operation two seasons, packing 44,000 and 26,000 cases respectively for 1897 and 1898.

Mr. Sofus Jensen.

There have been no strikes, or troubles of any kind on the river the past two seasons. The price of raw fish has ranged from four to five cents per pound. This has been affected somewhat by the demand for shipments East of fresh salmon, shippers paying a little more than the canners in order to obtain the choicest specimens. If the co-operative cannery, therefore, sustains the price of fish to the fishermen at the cannery, it also sustains that paid by the cold-storage shipper, giving the fishermen a fair share of the proceeds in any case.

As a result, the officers of the Union feel that they have been able to run the cannery at a good, honest profit, and that they have attained their object in maintaining the price of raw fish at a figure that could be judiciously paid. Though their pack is not one-fifth of that on the river, still the other canneries must pay the same as they for fish, and they are able to take a controlling part in fixing this price.

Price, however, is not the only object the Union has had in view. They look upon salmon fishing as their permanent business. Many of the fishermen are well-to-do, owning comfortable homes in the city, and perhaps a "ranch" in the country, and look upon salmon fishing as the chief means of livelihood for themselves and children. They desire, therefore, to build up the business, provide salmon hatcheries in order to maintain the supply of fish, secure proper laws for protection of young salmon, and regulate the methods of fishing so as to enable all the fishermen to have a measurably equal chance at taking fish.

On account of operating an independ-