"Our Motto is truth and accuracy”
JESSEirsaiUEEKL?
I "The All-Alaska Weekly"
(NATIONAL EDITORIAL INCORPORATED
5^1lA#c6T,gN
i.T.u. FAIRlJAJNino,
I.P.U.
“For the cause that lacks assistance; for the wrong that needs resistance
for the future in the distance, and the good that we can do.”
Home Owned, Controlled, and Edite^. Jessen's Weekly was established Jan. 22, 1942.
Published every week at Fairbanks. Alaska; Pdst Otfice Box 970. Entered at the Post
Office at Fairbanks. Alaska, as second class matter under the Act of March 3. 1879.
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I EDITORIAL I
Vote YES On Water Bonds . . .
Next Tuesday registered voters in the City of Fair- ■
banks whose names appear on the 1961 tax assessment
rolls go to the polls to vote. The proposition that will ap
pear on the special election ballot concerns the issuance of
$2,000,000 in General Obligation Bonds for our municM
pal water system.
The monies will be used to supplement Revenue
Bond funds already authorized. Together, these monies i
will provide water main extensions to South Fairbanks,
Slaterville and the Mooreland Acres-Taku-Westgate area,
along with an urgently needed expansion of facilities at
our water treatment plant.
This newspaper believes that the water works im
provement will be of benefit to all the residents of the,
Fairbanks area. The proposal shows progressive vision
and a firm faith in the future growth of our community.
i A good water system for AIL residents of our
j community is an absolute necessity. We urge Fair
i banks voters to vote YES on Proposition No. 1 next
Tuesday.
Assessment Method Unfair ...
In connection with the financing of the water im
provements the City Council is considering assessments
against property owners in the areas to which mains are
Jo be extended in the amount of $1,000,000.
The assessment idea has nothing to do with next
| Tuesday's election, it will be an entirely separate
1 question to be decided by the City Council after no
\ Vices and hearings have been held.
While this newspaper supports the Water Bond prop
osition in next Tuesday's election, we stand opposed to
property assessments that will discriminate against those
property owners not yet fortunate enough to have City
water service.
We feel that the water main extensions should be
financed from Sales Tax monies added to water revenues,
just as previous water works extensions have been fi
nanced. After all, the original idea of the Sales Tax was
that it should be primarily utilized for capital improve
ments.
The benefits of a COMPLETE City water system far
transcend a small handful of property owners. The method
of uttfizingithe revenues of the water system itself, sup
plemented by Sales Tax monies, has worked well and
equitable in the past.
I THE; SAME METHOD SHOULD BE USED IN THE
| FUTURE!
Let the property owner continue, as in the past, to
bear"the cost of connecting to the water main, but let the
mains themselves continue to be financed generally.
For certain areas of the City presently without wat
er service that for many past years have been helping to
finance e-water service for others, to now have to assume
a DOUBUr BURDEN through the levying of assessments
seems capriciously unfair.
We urge the City Council to reconsider their plans
to assess this: minority group for a service the majority
have received without assessment. ___
Caught In
The Sluicebox
(Continued from Page 1)
ly gonna be a big shoiv. After
u,k 1/ icent for that idee of mine
to build a space needle, 1 knew
it wnz gonna be somethin exter
special.
Oh, there is lot of things com- '
ing up soon. Even the Easter
Bunny is due for his annual trip. '
Wonder if we’ll hav a blizzard 1
agin, like we used to hav on 1
Easter Sunday in the good ole :
days? 1
Speakin about the weather,
this■ slow runoff is- shore makin
ole buck’s predickshun about
the flood look good, in spite of '
Colin Mick an his ole dike. Re- i
member, May 13th is the day. '
(An please don’t mention the
Chena Ice Pool).
Speakin about the 13th, last 1
Friday wuz shore quiet. Even 1
the legislature quit on the 12th
. . . wonder if they wuz bein
suoerstitious or had jist plumb:
run out of per diem money?
In fact, it wuz quiet all over.
Back in Washington, President j
Jack called up all the Steel mill '■
owners an wished them a happy
Friday the 13th. The next day
they decided they dint need that
price increase after all. . . .
All I got to say is that Jack
is a pretty tough guy. If he kin
beat up on U.S. Steel, a small
time operater like Khruschev
should be a push-over.
See where the News-Miner
Carpinter’s strike never hape
pined. Them fellers over there
ought to read my new book what
I has jist writ to solve all labor J
disputes. I am gonna /call it
“Collective Bargaining”.
Boy, it shore is hard sittin on
this seat since April 16th, which
is the day I paid my income tax
es. Sort of miss that paddin
where my wallet used to be.
Wat, the Democrat State Con*
riention at Nome starts up on
the 28th. In honer of the event,
and by popular demand (from
Re%mblicws) I hav whipped up
a SPESHUL . . .
DEMACRAT CONVENTION
KIT; The kit will contain th|
follerin items: (1) One hunert
governer campaign buttons
(each of em different); (2) Sa
muri swords for each delegate
to fall on when the convention
is over; (3) An axe for State
party boss Wendil Kay; (4)
Knives of assorted sizes for the
diffrunt campain managers; j
AND (there is still more) . . .
(5) A “We Did A Good Job” i
speech for each legislater to give
while the committees is all
meetin; (6) An applause re- j
cording and recerd player: (7)
A box of cigars for Alex Miller;
(8) Ten copies of “How to Win
PTA Elections” by Ed Or beck;
and (9) a portable smoke filled
room.
There is one more item we is
tryin to git to fill out the; kit,
but we is havin troubles gittin
permission frunv the author. It
is a pamphlet called “How To
Smile On TV And WIN” by
Shnilin Jim Binkley, author of
the best seller science fiction
book “Minority Report”.
PASSIN PRADE: Dutch Derr
wuz in town the other day say
in hello to all his frends . . .
Doc Fritz is in town figfferin
out how many he has . . . Purty
soon we Jcin fly frum Juneau to
Pt. Barrow on a F-27 (maybe).
See where Harry Underwood has
bin watchin that “Bus Stop”
program on television . . . Next
Tuesday is that day we vote on
whether or not to shut the City’s
water off . . . Today is our edi
tor’s birthday an he is shore
a much loved feller ... by his
Mother, that is . . .
Wal, I got to be gittin back
to my letter to Jack. I jist had
a wonderful idee that he should
build about a dozen minutemen
missle sites in Alaska. I am
shore he will go for it after I
explains to him how close we is
to all the places what makes
him nervous frum time to time.
c-)ie Washington
Merry-Go-Round
ty DREW PEARSON
irrr
Pearson visits North Dakota, scene of the great so
cialist experiment; State provides lesson for those worried
shout communism in America* Democrats remaking State.
BISMARCK, N.D.—I have been ,
raveling across the Great Plains of j
he Northwest—a land where the
umbleweed rolls lazily along the
'ence lines, a land which lies brown
ind sleeping in the April Sunshine,
vhere the rivers are blue and still
'rozen despite the April sunshine; a
and where men sometimes pray for
•ain. but where if there were more
ain the rich black soil would burst
vith enough crops to drive Orville
freeman crazy.
Today it’s a land where farm ma
:hinery, once in great demand, sits
jutside the machinery dealers,
jrightly painted red, yellow and
»reen to entice farmers. But there
ire few takers.
It's also the land that Wild Bill
Danger once made famous. Bill
Danger is dead now, but the sky
;craper state capitol which he helped
to build as governor stands straight
up from the prairies like an Empire
State building transplanted from
Fifth Avenue. Inside, the brass col
umns and burnished doorways are
reminiscent of the senator who at
ane and the same time was one of
the brassiest and most kindly men
aver to chomp a celophaned cigar on
the floor of the U.S. Senate.
Outside the state capitol stands
an old French 40-and-8 boxear. part
uf the Merci Train sent to the 43
states as a gift from the French
people for the Friendship Train.
It's a symbol that the people of
North Dakota are by no means as
isolationists as their political critics
contend.
It’s also a land where Pierce Sal
inger got his training directing the
volatile news policies of JFK by
editing “Slope Teacher,” the weekly
publication of Dickinson State Col
lege, an energetic institution of
higher learning on the western slope
of the North Dakota Badlands.
Socialist Experiment
This is also a land which in the
years following World War I, start
ed a great socialist experiment. The
Nonpartisan League launched a
state bank, community granaries,
community gasoline stations, and the
marketing of crops on a community
basis.
For many years that socialist ex
periment exercised great political
power. The Nonpartisan League
elected or defeated senators.
The main aspects of that social
ism are gone now. The community
co-operatives have been taken over
by the Farmers’ Union and the po
litical aspects, much less burning
than in the old days, have been
channeled into a moderate, liberal
program under the leadership of the
new Democratic governor, William
Guy, and the revived and revitalized
Democratic party.
Therein lies a lesson of interest to
those worried about Communism in
the USA.
For North Dakota is a state which
once tried Communism. It did so
by the process of the ballot, without
a revolution; then gradually, de
liberately rejected it.
The John Birchites, the Rev.- Billy
Harglises, and the Dr. Schwartzes
who have been drumming up such
a frenzy of fear on the part of many
hitherto sensible Americans, might
well take note.
What they should especially note
is that North Dakotans rejected
their Communist experiment for the
same reason Communism has made
no headway in the United States,
and in my opinion, never will—
namely because of the deeply in
grained democracy of the American
people, plus the factor which makes
it so difficult for Russian agriculture
to compete with ours—love of the
land.
When a man owns his own land,
as do the farmers of North Dakota,
he loves it. When he plows a furrow
he caresses it. When he plants a
crop he prays for weather that will
nurture it. But when the state owns
the land, the love, the care, the
| prayers are missing.
This is one reason why Molotov
and the Stalinists are so skeptical of
Mr. Khrushchev's 20-year plan giv
ing the Russian people more and
more material welfare and personal
benefits. These benefits come too
close to capitalism, they argue. Com
munism can succeed only through
adversity.
North Dakota, which has the same
! rigorous climate as Russia, the same
rich soil as Russia, the same meagre
, rainfall as Russia, and some of the
| same Russian. German and Slavic
peoples as Russia, could conceivably
demonstrate that Molotov and the
Stalinists are right.
Quiet Guy
The men who are leading North
Dakota’s old socialism into a de
mocracy are Gov. Bill Guy and Sen.
i Quentin Burdick.
Guy is one of the .three youngest
governors in the United States: a
quiet, methodical, unspectacular
I farmer-politician who doesn’t be
lieve in straddling issues. He has
met the issue of John Birchism
I head-on.
“The issue in the coming cam
paign.” he said, “is liberalism ver
sus conservatism. Liberalism is a
! willingness to adapt ourselves to the
problems of the day—not stand pat. ’
| Carrying out this philosophy. Gov.
Guy came out for the UN bond is
I sue at a time when he didn’t have
j to and when Milton Young, the Re
! publican senator from North Da
; kota, and its two Republican con
' gressmen. Short and Nygaard, were
i straddling.
He proposed strengthening the
I workmen’s compensation act at a
time when his Republican opponents
wanted to turn it over to private
business. He is strong for the com
mon market, firmly against railroad
mergers, proposed national railroad
policy before Kennedy did. He urges
the regional development of western
rivers.
These policies may not all be
popular in North Dakota. But Gov.
Guy has demonstrated that a man
who takes strong stands and stick*
by them can be popular. He was
elected by a slim 13,000 margin
while Kennedy lost North Dakota
by 40,000. When Guy cOmes un next
November, however', he will win
easily—again.
MASONIC TEMPLE
Masonic Temple, 809 First Ave. Dial GL 2-2836
Tanana Lodge No. 162 F&AM
First Degree Wednesday, April 15, 7 P.M.
First Degree Wednesdays April 25, 7 P.M.
Elmer A. Lanstra Worshipful Master
Forbes L. Baker, Secretary
Midnight Sun Chapter No. 6, O.E.S.
Second Friday of Eadh Mdnth
Pearl Scherer, Worthy Matron
Mary Helen Chaddon, Secretary