The
ALASKA SOURDOUGH
Published for the Sourdough and
the Chechako as well, by A. B. Calla
liam.
Subscription price, $3.00 a year;
Six Months, $1.60; Three Months, $1.00.
Single Copies Ten Cents.
Issued Every Tuesday
Application made for admission to
the Mail as Second Class Mail Matter,
.and Conditional Permit Issued.
Home Office, Old Methodist Church
Building, Douglas, Alaska. Tel. 36.
A DOUGLAS CLUB
The Sourdough wishes to propose the
organization of a Douglas club.
A year or two ago, there was organ
ized here, an organization known as the
Douglas Island Mens club. It was in
many ways a success while it lasted.
Its first meeting was especially success
■ful. It gave a dinner, and following
the dinner, there were toasts by the
governor and a number of Douglas men.
There is no question but that it was
thoroughly enjoyed.
The completion of the Alaska Labor
Union hall will give Douglas island an
'excellent place to hold such meetings
Its banquet room is amply large for
such a purpose. Such au organization
should combine the features of a Com
mercial club, and w'ould undoubtedly
get the business men of Douglas, and
the boys from Treadwell together once
a month. It is idle to say that a com
mercial club is not helpful in a growing
town, and wdiere one is a success, it is
combined with some feature of this
kind.
ALASKA—HOME
The Sourdough does not altogether
agree with all that Rev. G. N. Ed
wards says in his sermon printed on the
first page of this paper, but he is in
full sympathy with any effort to make
Douglas ‘ ‘ a home town.
Many people do not realize that Al
aska has come to stay. Douglas will, in
all human probability be a thriving
town, when most of us have gone, not
below, but above. The idea of regard
ing the place as temporary, is too much
of a fad. It is as permanent a com
munity as Butte, Montana, and prob
ably Seattle. In every Alaska town,
more or less, there is too much thought
of grabbing money and getting away,
instead of making a better place to live
out what is, in many respects, the
best place on earth.
Except to “mollycoddles” Alaska
has a climate which is, for the most
part, capable of being thoroughly en
joyed. There are, it is true several
days in every winter when only the
hardiest enjoy the out of doors, but
they are but few. At its best, for
thousands of men and women who are
yet to come, Alaska has, most of the
year, a delightful climate, hard as it is
for those whose ideal of life includes a
hammock and palm leaf fan, to realize
it.
There is more fun in a cold winter
than in a warm one, if one knows how
to enjoy it. The first requisite, of
course, is a good house in which to live.
Already in Ketchikan, they are begin
ning to build houses of concrete, and
tie Sourdough confidently looks for
ward to a time in the immediate fu
ture when concrete, instead of our wet
and shrinking frame houses, will be the
rule with new houses in all thriving Al
aska towns.
Good houses will pay in Douglas, qs;
well as anywhere else' :in ttye world. A
good house, built for a teal home, is
an excellent investment. This is a
country in which fireplaces should be
the rule, and because the winter even
ings are especially long, houses should
be especially cozy and comfortable.
Houses built in Douglas, or any other
Alaska town where the future is as
sure as it is here, should be built
to last a lopg time,.whether the builder
expeets to remain a short or long time..
It is a safe assertion to make that no
one who has built a house in Douglas
and then sold out anjl went below, has,
lost money on the Thyestment.
CITIZENSHIP AND THE INDIANS
The meager news, sent out from San
Francisco, that the JIagle liquor case,
in which the defeJfo was made that
the Indian to whom the liquor had
been sold was a citizen, and therefore
the law did not apply to him, had been
remanded for trial, has aroused much
speculation in southeastern Alaska.
For all the speculation, little is known
about what the decision was, and what
its full purport may be. Since the pub
lication of the claims made by the de
fense, printed for the first time in the
Sourdough in its first issue, the white
population of southeastern Alaska have
realized that the case suggested' many
possibilities. Whether the court has
gone the full length of Arctander’s po
sition cannot be known until the full
text of the decision has been received
here. All that is known is that the
court of appeals holds that evidence of
the Indian’s citizenship should have,
been admitted.
There can be no doubt that a decision
which would admit to citizenship
wholesale the Indians of southeastern
Alaska would be a very great evil. The
strongest believer in home rule, never
included the Indian in his calculations.
The hope of citizenship has never been
held out to the Alaska Indians, and it
can hardly be claimed that the most in
telligent is ready to receive the voting
privilege. Not half a dozen Indians
in southeastern Alaska take a newspa
per, hardly one of them has ever dis
cussed politics or taken the slightest in
terest in it, and yet, if the Indians in
Alaska are permited to vote, the In
dian vote would greatly out number the
white vote.
Yet that practically all the Indians
of southeastern Alaska are about to
have the franchise placed within his
reach is probable. It would be hard to
say that Indians in southeastern Alas
ka have not abandoned their tribal re
lations. Most of them are following
the ways of the white man—not all of
them the ways of the best white men,
but the “ways of the white man” are
various ways. Perhaps the commun
ity house, where it exists could be offer
ed as proof that the Indian who lives
in one has not adopted the ways of the
white man, and probably, in determin
ing what Indians were citizens, the
courts would expect an Indian to be
extremely civilized before it would
hold that he had “abandoned his tri
bal relations.”
Tbe law which makes the Indian a
citizen, as it relates to the Indians of
Alaska, will probably undergo some al
terations at the coming session of con
gress. But for the first time the In
dian has the hope of becoming a citizen
field out to him, and it is not probable
that that hope will be wholly destroy
ed by any new act of congress. It is
unquestionably unjust that Indians
should be denied the right to locate
claims, to act in any capacity on a boat
where qualified, it is undpubtedly un
just that in the land we have taken
away from them, the United States
should say that he can _ never be good
enough to enjoy the ordinary privileges
reserved for citizens. But certainly
citizenship o.ught. $o be a Reward of
merit, and not bestowed carelessly be
cause the Indian wears store clothes
and has a taste for whiskey.
In any case it will not be safe just
yet for any man to ask for a saloon
license based upon his hope for the In
dian trade. Saloon licenses have to be
renewed from year to year, and they
are easily forfeited. It is still a mat
ter in which the judge can de pretty
much as he pleases. Any saloon .fiediper
who does not -wish to have his license
slip from under him, will continue to
be very sensitive about any . little
wishes the judge may have, and none
of the Alaska judges are willing to
have whiskey sold to the Indians—yet.
BISCUITS
The price of cows milk has been
raised to 12 and one half cents a quart
at Wrangel. There is a below-the-belt
blow for the bottle baby.
Sixteen mules arrived at Fort Sew
ard the other day, for use about the
Fort. Heretofore Haines has been
comparatively free from kickers.
There was a social function at Haines
the other evening and the Pioneer
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