The tisancJpetkra of the working;
class must be the class- conscious work
Of .the working glass. - K^VRL MARJC
SOHALIST
-*— ' ■■ 1 —•— —~ t -— ...r.. ...... .. - ifrtin... ■ —
_ _FAIRBANKS, ALASKA, JANUARY, 30, 1914._,
DEMOCRAT POLITICIANS PLAY
THEIR TRUMP CARD
PIE! PIE! PIE!
“Hurrah! for the pie counter, boys,”
is the revived slogan of some Democrats
in Fairbanks.
“Down with Jndge Fuller! Down with
Jim Crossley! They are standing between
us and the pie that we fought and bled
and would have died for in the last pres
edential election when we fused with
most any one who promised us pie.”
“Pie! pie! pie! What’s the good of be
ing a Democrat if one cannot eat pie.
Socialists? Why they’re traitors to the
flag of our great and glorious country!
Pass the pie! We want pie!”
That, fellow citizens, is the whole es
sence of those part’s of the grand jury’s
final report which have caused so much
fommeut of late. The editorials i n the
News-Miner and the Alaska Citizen,
which followed so closely o n the heels
of this court drama, were but pie-hunter
cries taken up by the Democrat press.
And now, before we proceed further,
let us say that this political melee is not
a Socialist fight. Its only value to the
working class is in the object lesson that
it furnishes. For if old party politicians
will resort tjq jjlterior methods i n their
quarrels with each other over the spoils,
what will they not do against us who
seek to end the spoils system altogether?
Their qnarrel is only a question of div
ision. And about the only thing they
are interested in stopping, i s a Socialist
commonwealth which would cut all o f
them off from their pie.
No, it is uot our quarrel, but we can
use it for propaganda. We know the old
parties too well to take sides with either
We know to our sorrow that they would
unite to-morrow if it were necessary to
check the “menace” of Socialism. This
grand jury business i s a question o f pie
not principle.
JIM CROSSLEY
But against Crossley, the man, we
have no fight. His politics are the polit
ics of the exploiting class, he votes to
uphold a system of production :£whicli
rapes the producers and is the prime
cause o f about all the ills that afflict,
society, but h e i s more honest than the
most of them even at that.
We respect Crossley’s integrity, but
we do not respect his politics. The pie
hunters respect his politics, but they do
not respect his integrity. That is just
the difference between us, and the diff
eaence is mighty. We attack his politics
but the pie-hunters attack his character.
We would like to make a Socialist of
him. The pie-hunters would like to
make a fool of him. We want his vote.
The pie hunters want his office.
In passing we would say for the ben
■ff
efit of those who are beginning to gloat,
that it might be just as well not to reach
for the key to the district attorney’s off
ice today nor tomorrow nor the day after
that. Crosslev is a gladiator. He is a rose
growing out of the manure heap of pol
itics. He has more real friends than any
office-holder in the district. He will die
sword in hand, and he will go down un
der the cannister from political pie-hunt
ers with his colors nailed to the mast.
WOlMfOL GRAND JURY
It was a Fairbanks crowd. As was
pointed out by Dan McCabe in The Air
aska Socialist some weeks ago, but 7
names out of 23 were drawn from the
outlying sections. All o f these d i d not
qualify, so there were about 2 out of 20
which were from the creeks. Eighteen
from Fairbanks and 2 from the creeks.
And these were the “average citizens,
picked from the community a t large, ”
who spoke the ‘‘sentiments of the dis
trict they represented.’’
Pine and Menzie did not sign the re
port. Fisher signed, then scratched his
name. Now the only mention the papers
gave of these three, was to say that Fine
had been appointed as foreman at the
request o f Crossley, and they sought t o
make it appear that he felt bound to
stand by Crossley. Yet the bunch howl
their heads off when some one reverses
the argument and says that the most o f
the jury were there b v the grace o f the
pieman, and they felt bound to carry out
their pledges.
THE ALASKA CITIZEN
The Citizen, which has evidently heard
the voice of his master since it took the
pie away from the News-Miner, forgets
the laudatory editorial it had on Crossley
a month ago and proceeds to bay feebly
on the lion’s track.
At one time it looked as though some
thing might be expected from the Alas
ka Citizen, but i t has gone the way o f
the way’ of the pie-hunter now, and its
clarion voice which was once heard pro
claiming political purity will clarion n o
more. It is now “safe and sane,” with
N. C. pie crams reaching from ear to
ear.
The Citizen’s editorial on the grand
jury report, i s a joke. It says that they
represented the sentiments of the com
munity. What part of the community ?
Fairbanks, of course. This town is all
there is worth while in this district.
But did this jury represent the major
ity of sentiment in Fairbanks? What
authority have a handful of politicians to
say, or try to make it appear, that the
whole people are against Jim Crossley ?
That the newspapers (except The Alas
ka Socialist) are against him does not
prove anything, Capitalist newspapers
have their columns for sale have they
not?
But the best joke in the editorial is the
one about Bernard Friss. He was acting
on the grand jury as a citizen and not as
a Socialist. His signature does not show
that Socialists oppose Crossley’s admin
istration by any means. He was there
under no orders from his party, which is
probably more than can be said for all in
the body.
The Citizen says that it had not the
jury’s personnel at hand. If it had not it
was because it did not want to have
They are nearly all from Fairbanks. And
this fact, together with the report they
brought in, makes it look as though the
hidden hand of the political henchmen
of Louie Schloss had been making pie
signs. For the N. C. company were well
represented on the jury, better perhaps
than the people were. It was an N. C.
report that they brought in, and a close
between-the-line reading will show it.
T#E REPORT
;
This honorable body of Fairbanks cit
izens requested Judge Fuller to remove
three cirahrissicners. It did not reconi
end an investigation first. It ordered
them dismissed forthwith. From what
places ? From the very places i n which
the hooch peddling had been going on or
had been uncovered.
What charges did they bring against
these commissioners? Indirectly they
accused these officials of interfering with
the hooch peddlers ou the Yukon. That
seems to be the offense. To interfere
with hooch peddlers decreases profits.
And the N. C. company has stores on
the Yukon.
Why, one member of this noble body
was so carried away during the Horton
trial with the sentiment that the N. C.
lackeys had aroused against the mission
aries that he went on the witness stand
and swore that he had seen Mrs. Burke
■jT
nod her head to ah Indian while the nat
ive was giving testimony. He was so an
xious to serve the N. C, forces that he
attempted to swear away the reputation
| of a young woman who has given sever
al years of her life to nursing the white
prospector and the Indian trapper of Al
aska. He was so anxious to earn a pat
on the back from his master that he
clamored to swear he had seen her att
empting to corrupt a witness. He was an
average citizen, wasn.t he ? He w a s a
pippin. We shall have mon_- to say in
this connection bofore this article closes.
EXPENSE DEPLORED
The report bewails the terrible ex
pense this district has been put to. It
states that the Horton and McCanibridge
cases cost 518,000. The figures from
Crosslev show but 5H.390.45. Perhaps
the marshal’s office can explain the dis
crepancy of about 56,400 to you.
besides, if we are now to believe Hor
ton’s witnesses whom he is said to have
turned down, Horton was guilty as hell.
He has been corrupting the Indians of
both sexes for years and the government
was justified in trying to put a stop to it,
if we are now to believe Horton’s own
witnesses. Also, the government might
have succeeded haxl it yiot been for a
member of that noble body o f represen
tative citizens who fell over hemself to
get onto the witness stand and help the
defense put through one of the most con
temptible plays ever pulled off in a court
room.
The report states that the five cases :
Nora Moore, Horton, McCambridge,
Pearson and Goheen, cost the district
532,000. Crossley says they cost but 523,
437.45, and that most of the witnesses
testified i n five other cases besides the
one they were called for in the first place
Will the grand jury tell us where the
other 58,500 went to if anywhere? Ten
cases from Fort Yukon, Ruby and Fair
banks, cost $15,436.10 in witness fees
and expenses.
The report states that the case grow
ing out of the loss of two Indian dogs,
cost the district 51,300. The figures from
the federal attorney’s office show that
but 5323,30 was paid out for witnesses
and their expenses. Perhaps the mar
shal’s office, which was investigated and
found to be running in golden rule or
der, can explain what was done with the
other $975.
_
THE 01-SIDED TO
So a little honest investigation chang
es the face of things some, doesn’t it?
Did the “respectable" papers of this
town stop to make any inquiries before
they rushed away with the grand jury’s
report t o put i t i n print and scatter it
out over the country ? Did they go to
Jim Crossley and get his side of the
story ? Did they make any attempt to be
fair and square with Judge Fuller and
the district attorney’s office?
They did not. They apparently did not
want bnt one side of the story. They
treated Crossley, who has persistently
maintained a standard of decency i u his
office, like a lousy Indian. Yet there
was no political scheme about it. We
have the word of the Alaska Citizen for
this ; the paper that Thompson dubbed
"the W’hite Hope of democracy," No
politics, the Citizen says. Over and over
it says this until its very denials testify
that there was. In its zeal to serve the
pie-man the Citizen overdoes itself and
the glaring truth stands out between the
lines.. _
THEME
It must be plain to any one who has
eyes t o see, that i t i s a political move.
With Crossley and judge Fuller out of
the way, the Democrat riug, nnder the
leadership of Krwin with J. “Harmony”
Caskey as one of the many lieutenants,
would have everything their own way.
Why, if the N. C. mouthpieces want a
more economical management o f affairs,
why don't they talk this Douie Schloss
business house into paying that $2Q.000
of back taxes they owe or are reputed to
owe, the government ? Crossley took up
the case against them when the other
attorneys, who were so pleased at the
names drawn on the grand jury panel,
were dancing attendance on this mighty
octopus. He will be obliged to journey
down to Frisco before long to argue this
same case before the Court of Appeals
where this law-abiding corporation carr
ied it. How convenient it would be to
have him removed about this time. But
of course, there was no politics in the
jury’s proceedings. The “White Hope”
says so.
THE DlfFEftENGE
Jim Crosslev represents the people as
near a s a bourgeois minded man i n his
position cau under a cut-throat system
of society. The ring that is after his
scalp represents the young Guggenheim
outfit of Alaska. That is just the differ
ence. And the members o f the working
class who are taking sides against him
and the Judge are probably looking for
some more “bedrock” decisions, or the
importation of 6cab labor to cut the
wages.
TREASON
Another interesting phase of this ‘ ‘late
unpleasantness,” is the way the Denis
so unhesitatingly criticize ths court,
Why if the Socialists in Fairbanks were
to do what they are doing, we would be
called all the bad names .here are by the
patriotic gentlemen. The way they would
spread i n k to publish our infamy and
anarchistic utterances to the world
wouldn’t be slow.
And right now is a good time for
Judge Fuller to make a few mental cal
culations. Now is a good time for him to
salt down the knowledge that^it was-not
the working class and Socialists who
tried to turn-^a dirty trick that would un
seat a man because he enforced too much
law. Let him and Crossley understand
that it is not.thejSocialist party that has
opposed the enforcement of the law a
gainst hooch peddlers. It is not the Soc
ialist party which says that the N. C,
should not pay their taxes. Let them
both learn from this experience, that
whatever the faults of Socialists be, they
fight in the open and above board. Let
them keep this in mind when labor trou
bles arise, and the patriotic, press are
poisoning the news.
THF CHURCH
Also, let the good church people ajrd
missionaries>f Alaska,'cp u t a few facta
away in their memories for future use.
Let them make note of the fact that this
paper was silent when the capi.alist prasa
of the town:were echoing the hooch ped
dling element which cried out for their
scalps. 7Let*them, who have been taught
that Socialism would destroy their hope
of heaven,^remember tha|tt;he papers
j which tried to cast aspersion upon them
about a month ago, were capitalist papers
j doing it for pie at that. Let them put it
away that it was not Socialists who pull
ed off that unorincipled stunt in the
Horton trial. Wben we do anything, we
do it for the principle involved, and not
because the pie-man tells us to, Let the
missionaries, who are establishing hos
pitals and caring for the sick in Alaska
understand that the capitalist system
and the press which upholds i t i s their
enemy, and not Socialism, Let them re
member that i t was Democrat papers
that tried to make it appear that as good
a woman as ever came to Alaska corrup
ed a witness. Let them remember these
things when Father Donnelly or some
other father comes in here again to lect
re against Socialism.
Yes, this noble body did a lot of ex
posing. But did you read of any invest
igation which reflected upon any one
but Crossley- Did you read of them in
vestigating the $500 worth of work John
Wood dreamed h e had done on the
Vault road, as told dy Dan Me Cade i n
the December 5th issue of the Alaska
Socialist ? I s i t not a little strange that
they could |find nothing to investigate
but Crossley’s office? And yet you know
(continued on pag.i 4 )
Por Pine Watch Repairing
SEE
•«
The Live Jeweler