The
ALASKA SOURDOUGH
Published for the Sourdough and Che
chako as well, by
A. B. 0 ALLAH AM
Subscription $3.00 a Year.
Single Copies 10c.
DOUGLAS, ALASKA
Office, Bear Natatorium Telephone 435
A WORK AT THE START
The Alaska Sourdough explains it
self, and hopes for the patronage of
the residents of Alaska, and especially
the residents of Southeastern Alaska,
on its merits.
The time was, perhaps, when the
function of a newspaper was to teaeh
its readers what to think, and how to
think it. The American people have
acquired a habit of doing their own
thinking in their own way, and Alas
kans are probably more addicted to
this habit than any other people on
earth.
The Soordotyfjr jdtonteives that the
purpose of a newspaper is not to mould
public opinion, but furnish the newt
in its particular field. If the Sour
dough can furnish a better news ser
vice to its readers than any other
newspaper in its field, it expects to
succeed better than its competitors. It
hopes to succeed, therefore, as a pur
veyor of news rather than as a foun
tain of wisdom.
The Sourdough has no axe to grind,
and no special interest to serve. It
carries the name of its owner at the
mast head, and there are no stock
holders in ambush. It is not subsidis
ed. Its capital is small but there is
no mystery about it. It may be some
time before it owns its own plant, but
in the meantime it is printed as “ job
printing,” and has no connection
with any other paper.
Fully realizing that the people of
Alaska do their own thinking, and
without pretense that it is a moulder
of public opinion, The Sourdough will
have opinions to express from time to
time. The Sourdough may be often
wrong, but what it may have to say
will be sincerely said, without malice,
and we hope, also, without fear. Also,
The Sourdough will always be open
to the opinions of others, and will al
ways welcome, on timely subjects,
contributions that are reasonably brief
and to the point.
Especially does The Sourdough want
the assistance of its readers in the
matter of news. Contrary to what
seems to be the universal impression,
newspapermen are not gifted with
second sight, but depend upon their
friends for their stock in trade. Cer
tainly, in the last analysis, newspapers
are published for the money there is
in it, but this newspaper will regard
as its best friend, not its heaviest ad
vertiser, but the mkn who is its best
“news center.” The Sourdough be
lieves that the best asset of any news
paper is its subscription list, and ex
pects to survive, not through 1 ^eivie
pride ’ ’ but as a vender of live and
desirable information.
THE TREADWELL PRESIDENCY
Very few people on the Gastineaux
Channel hoped for such good fortune
as the selection of F. W. Bradley as
the new president of the Treadwell
Mining Company. There was little
doubt but that the successor of Mr.
Taylor would be from among his asso
ciates, and that there would be no
change from his policy, all of which the
Gastineaux Channel communities were
glad to know, but few thought that
the choice would come so near to us.
Mr. Bradley is to us one of our own
people. Aside from his interests here,
he has many friends and neighbors
who rejoice in the promotion of a per
sonal friend to the first position in the
gift of the corporation owning the
largest gold mine in the world, and
with which the material prosperity of
this community is so closely associated.
THE HASEY CASE AGAIN
Those were harsh words of Staurt
McNamara, the assistant attorney
general who investigated the charges
of jury bribery in the acquital of Ed
ward Hasey in the first case in which
he was tried for murder at Juneau. He
might be described as “sassy,” if
that adjective was not so frivlous.
“Their statements are loosely
made,” he says, “referring to us Al
askans, “and many of them are to my
mind not convincing, because of a
mental disqualification in a disposition
to accept rumors and form hasty and
unsound conclusions.
Well, now, maybe its true.
There is one thing about us Alas
kans, even if it is true that we have
a disposition to accept mere rumors,
and to form hasty and unsound con
clusions, and that is that we will
stand a little more criticism, just or
unjust, than any people on earth. Per
haps, in this instance, a little self ex
amination would not do us any harm.
And perhaps, also, in the matter of
forming hasty and unsound conclus
ions on rumors, we may be no worse
than communities in other parts of
the land.
It is an interesting fact, however, in
connection with the charge of bribery
of the jury in the first Hasey case, that
the jury was composed of men who
had the confidence of the communities
in which they live, and despite all
that has been said about them as jur
ors in the Hasey case, they still pos
sess the confidence, as individuals, of
the communities in which they live,
today.
Another interesting fact is that the
jurors never were banqueted, either
before or after the trial. It is also
an interesting fact that the jurors were
confined in the court house during the
trial, and always under guard.
It may be an interesting fact, too,
that Morrisey, whom everybody agrees
was such a scoundrel, was all to the
“good” in the sum which he got from
the Guggenheims for the ‘1 entertain
ment of the jury.”
It is also interesting to note the
“lead” which that enterprising paper,
the Dispatch, printed over the portion
of McNamara's report which it pub
lished. The report of McNamara
scores Bogle, the Guggenheim lawyer
who “O. K.’d” Morrisey's bill, and
scored Morrisey, but recounts how his
efforts to find any evidence of corrup
tion of the jury ended in failure and
leaves the impression that so far as
he could find, Hasey was honestly
tried by an honest jury in an honest
court in an honest way. In its lead,
the Dispatch says:
“The report of Stuart McNamara,
the assistant attorney general who con
ducted the Alaska investigation of the
first trial of Edward Hasey, acquitted
of deadly assault, is a scathing ar
raingment of the methods resorted to
before the Alaska federal court to
clear the hired assasins of the Gug
genheims. ”
Well, perhaps, as McNamara says,
our statements are loosely made, and
we have a disposition to accept ru
mors, and form hasty and unsound
conclusions.
TBS CITY nTiMETyp.T
Not long Since the Douglas Island
News editorially suggested that the
women of Douglas organize and take
charge of the city cemetery. So far
as The Sourdough knows, this sugges
tion has not been acted upon, but The
Sourdough still hgpes that it will be.
In nearly every city of the United
States, organized bodies of women are
taking a more or less active part in
civic affais, and so far no city is any
the worse for it. In Port /Townsend,
Wash., they have presented that little
town with a most beautiful city park.
As Editor Hopp has Baid, the women of
Douglas are eminently well fitted for
the task which he has assigned to them.
The Douglas City Cemetery is owned
by the town of Douglas, and? is admira
bly situated, and could be made with
out the expenditure of much effort a
spot of beauty. A number of lodges
own burial plots, and with a little en
couragement, would beautify these
tracts which are intended to be the fin
al resting place of their brothers who
may die here.
If the women would but take hold of
the project, there is no doubt but that
the necessary funds could be raise.d a
mong the men.
THE MAIL SERVICE
The Sourdough is informed that the
steamship companies’ contracts with
the United States government for the
carrying of mail to and from this port
provide that ships on their way north
should stop at Douglas before they stop
at Juneau, leaving the mail, and that
after touching at Juneau it must call
again at this port for mail for the
north. On their return from Skagway,
the contract provides that the vessel
shall atop to leave mail on its way to
Juneau, and then again on its way out
to pick, up the mail for the south.
The source of this information is so
reliable as to leave no doubt but tft&t
it is correct. Then if it is true, these
contracts have been violated all winter
and are being violated now. For every
one of the thousands of dollars which
the companies will receive “for faith
ful performance of its duties” under
the contract, it will be indebted to the
forbearawce of the people of Douglas.
HOME RULE
Alaskans want 4‘home rule,” and
there is every reason why they should.
The population of Alaska is very
largelv American, and the belief in
government by the governed has been
inbred in their political conceptions
for generations. There forefathers
fought, and .some of them died, for
home rule.
The but partly civilized Philipinos
have a legislature, and the Hawaiians
who were but yesterday savages have
a state government. With hereditary
ideas of his right to a say as how he
shall be governed and who shall govern
him, the Alaskan is humiliated by the
knowledge that the half naked Kana
kee is represented in congress by con
gressmen an3 senators, and that the
Igorote in his gee string has more to
say about the laws which immediately
concern him. Yet Alaska has more
college graduates in proportion to the
population, and a diversity of education
that makes college education look like
thirty cents, than any other country
on the face of the earth. To the aver
age Alaskan it is a plain case. It is
wholly a one sided proposition. He
has been told so. Politicians have been
elected to office by simply saying so.
and shouting it vociferously.
But for all the blustering there has
been done about it, there are many
practical obstacles which lie in the way
of home rule for Alaska, and the dele
gate who goes to Washington and
brings it back to us will take into con
sideration those obstacles, and sensibly
overcome them. No territory was ever
confronted with the necessity of so
much expense as the home government
of Alaska would entail. It is not alone
the extent of the domain, nor the spar
city of population, nor the scarcity of
taxable property which makes the arg
ument against home rule for Alaska so
strong in Washington, but all of these
things taken together. All the same,
Alaskans Want home rule, and there <e
eyecy reason why they should.
It should not be forgotten either that
the powers of territorial legislatures
always have been and always will be
circumscribed. The restrictions on our
public lands, for instance, the hundred
and one things that prevent the devel
opment of the country, ciin only be re
moved by congress, and even if admit
ted as a state an Alaska legislature
could do little to break the chains with
wbiqh a craze for ultra conservation
has fettered us.
MODERN IMPROVEMENTS
In other days, at every wreck,
The travelers got it in the neck;
They had to grab a leaky boat,
And take a chance that it would float.
And as they all grew peaked and pale,
Scanning the waters for a sail,
Others were battered on the shore—
It was no picnic, all hands found,
When those old liners went aground—
It’s different now; the smiling bunch
Provided with a savory lunch,
Is placed aboard another ship,
Gaily to finish out their trip.
And so their wild adventure ends,
With snapshots they can show theii
friends.
—Nome Nugget.
FISH, COAL AND BEARS
It is exceedingly unfortunate for the
Alaskan of here and now, that Alaska
fish, rather than Alaska coal, or Alas
ka bear, is not the fad of the ultra
conservationist.
There is no proof that the Guggen
heims ever got close enough to Alaska
coal to get dust on their fingers, while
Alaska fish are swimming into Gug
genheim traps, falling into Guggenheim
nets, and swallowing Guggenheim
hooks, every day in the week except
the Sabbath. The Alaskan is perfect
ly willing to have the fish conserved.
More than that, Alaskans as a rule are
convinced that the fisheries of Alaska
actually need conservation.
In spite of the fact that many people
believe that the supply of Alaska fish
is inexhaustable, many fishing banks
have been and are being abandoned be
cause the grounds have been depleted,
and the salmon catch in Southeastern
Alaska has been smaller this year than
ever before. The question of whether
halibut, B&lmon and herring may not
be in danger of extinction might very
well be looked into. Certainly the op
erations of the Guggenheim fish cor
porations are not contributing much
to the development of the country—
but probably the ultraconservationist
would not be much interested in that.
The fact that so (toothsome a fish as
the herring should be put to a pur
pose whieh cow manure would serve,
may or may not threaten the disap
pearance of that fish, but an effort on
the part of the ultraconservationist to
ascertain just what effect the re
moval from this vicinity of millions
upon millions of herring for fertilizing
Haiwain plantations may have on the
future supply, would not be regarded
as mischievious by any of us.
THE SPELL OF THE YTJKON
By Robert W. Service
I wanted the gold and I sought it;
I scrabbled and mucked like a slave.
Was it famine or scurvy—I fought it;
I hurled my youth into a grave,
I wanted the gold and I got it—
Came out with a fortune last fall,—
Yet somehow life's not what I thought
it,
And somehow the gold isn’t all.
No! There’s the land. (Have you
seen it?)
It’s the cussedest land that I know,
From the bid, dizzy mountains that
screen it
To the deep, deathlike valleys be
low,
Some say God was tired when he made
it;
Some say it’s a fine land to shun;
Maybe; but there’s some as would
trade it
For no land on earth—and I’m one.
The summer—no sweeter was ever;
The sunshiny woods all athrill;
The grayling aleap in the river,
The bighorn asleep on the hill.
The strong life that never knows har
ness;
The wilds where the caribou call;
The freshness, the freedom, the far
ness—
O God! how I’m stuck on it all.
There’s a land where the mountains
are nameless,
And the rivers all run God knows
where;
There are lives that are erring and
aimless,
And death that just hangs by a hair;
There are hardships that nobody rec
kons;
There are valleys unpeopled and still,
There ?s a land—oh, it beckons and
beckons,
And I want to go back—and I will.
There’s gold, amd it’s haunting and
haunting;
It’s Inking roe on as of old;
Yet it isn’t the gold that I’m wanting
So much as just finding the gold,
It’s the great, big, broad land way up
wonder,
It’s the forests where silence has
lease;
It’s the heauty that thrills me with
wonder,
It’s the stillness that fills me with
peace.
NEAR BY MOUNTAINS
The Olds mountain, back of the Ju
neau Basin, is the highets mountain in
this vicinity, being 4450 feet high.
Next in height is the Sheep Creek
mountain, 4200 feet. The peak of Mt.
Roberts, which is nearest Sheep Creek,
is 3800 feet high. Mt. Juneau 3600,
Mt. Jumbo a little over 3300 feet, and
McDonough mountain, above Ready
Bullion Creek, on the Island, is a lit
tle over 2800 feet.