The Militant(logo) 
    Vol.62/No.36           October 12, 1998 
 
 
25 And 50 Years Ago  
October 12, 1973
TACOMA. Wash. - The Washington game and fisheries departments are on trial here for robbing 14 Indian tribes of their fishing rights. The federal government has filed suit on behalf of the Indians, who are fighting to regain the right to fish outside their reservations.

Despite a 1968 Supreme Court decision upholding the off- reservation fishing rights, the state of Washington says the Indians can fish only on their reservations and then only for a limited amount of fish, "so as not to deplete the resources."

State officials have continually charged that the tribes do not know how to regulate their off-reservation fishing and thus threaten the conservation of steelhead and salmon.

Fisheries expert Dr. James Heckman testified to the contrary. The Indians "know much more about the fish and fishing than many of us learn in college," he said.

Over the past 50 years the annual salmon catch has dropped from 16 million pounds to three million.

The Indians have pointed out that construction, the removal of gravel from spawning grounds, flooding, and agricultural and industrial pollution have depleted the fish runs - not the tiny amount of tribal fishing.

October 11, 1948
Henry Wallace, presidential candidate of the Progressive Party, has added his name to the growing list of prominent liberal and labor leaders who are demanding a full presidential pardon and complete restoration of civil rights for the 18 leaders of the Socialist Workers Party and Minneapolis Truckdrivers Local 544-CIO who were convicted under the Smith "Gag" Act and imprisoned during the war.

In an answer to a letter from SWP presidential candidate Farrell Dobbs, one of the 18 Minneapolis Case victims, Mr. Wallace on Sept. 21 wrote that the 18 who served prison sentences of from 12 to 16 months "were not convicted on the basis of any acts of violence but solely by reason of their expression of political views and opinions."

Among the signers of the pardon appeal for Dobbs, Grace Carlson, SWP vice-presidential candidate, and the other 16, are Norman Thomas, presidential candidate of the Socialist Party, Roger Baldwin, John Haynes Holmes and Arthur Garfield Hayes of the American Civil Liberties Union; August Scholle, president of the Michigan CIO Council; Willard S. Towsend, president of the CIO United Transport Service Employees; Irving Abramson, CIO Eastern Regional Director, and John Dewey, eminent philosopher and educator.

 
 
 
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