, «.
• • . ■ !- •,
. . ’ . The emancipation of the working
' • j
class must be the class-conscious work
i j of the working class.—KARL MARX.
THE ALASKA S0( IALIST
no. 27-_ FAIRBANKS, ALASKA, OCTOBER 30,1914. _
IN THE GRIP OF THE MONSTER
__j__B___‘_■■
Are The People Going to Submit to be Strangled
Without A Struggle
THE MONSTER
At last the curtain has been drawn a
siile. The long slimy hand of the mon
ster can be seen reaching out to grab
the Alaska legislature in its terrible
clutch. The people, realizing there dan
ger, are at last awakening from the
stupor in which they have so long lain.
This evil beast has now almost complete
control of the public offices. It has three
of its tools in the Alaska Senate, Tanner
Bruner and Millard. Will it be able to
put in its other tool McGowan ? The
people must answer on November 3rd.
The Northern Commercial Co. is in
corporated in New Jersey. The North
ern Navigation Co. is a subsidiary com
pany of the N. C. Co., and is also in
corporated in New Jersey. McGowan is
attorney for the N. C.-N. N-White Pass
combination. These companies are in
Alaska to make money. They are in the
transportation, trading, grocery, liquor,
hardware, clothing and other businesses
and, to better fortify their position, in
the political business, and sometimes
in the jury business.
TAXATION
The income of the National Govern
ment consists of revenue collected main
ly from the liquor and tobacco trade,
and of import duties. The expenses of
State and Local povernments are met
by taxes levied upon the real estate
within the respective borders and upon
the personal property of the inhabitants.
Some additional income is derived thru
the collection of a variety of fees and
fines.
A minimum amount of personal prop
erty, sueli as necessary household effects
and so forth, is exempt from taxation.
In politios the question oi taxation,
the manner and method in which the
taxes are collected and the way the real
ized money is expended, has become a
perpetual issue. There is not a political
campaign but what the tax-question
looms up in some way or another. Can
didates for office will promise, and
pledge themselves, to work for “just
and equal distribution” of the tax-bur
den and also see to it that “the peoples'
money” in the govenmental treasuries
is economically expended” and the
largest possible results obtained. Rich
and powerful corporations, whose de
mands upon the Government for pro
tection of their interests are the heavi
est and always the first considered, are
the most unscrupulous tax-dodgers on
record. As a rule, they manage to roll
quantities of their share of the taxes up
on the shoulders of others. The vast
ness of their possessions, together with
the nature of their holdings in proper
ties that are in the form of stocks, bonds
and mortgages, gives them ample opp
ortunity for concealment and enables
them to successfully side-step the more
or less watchfull eyes of the assessor.
Downright fraud and perjury they com
mit with impunity. But the expenses of
government must be met and it natur
ally follows, that that amount of taxes
which the big interests dodge must be
borne by those whose possessions are
smaller.
The N. C. Co. has spent thousands of
dollars to defeat the collection of its just
share of the tax burden. This law-abid
ing corporation has compelled the U. S
Government to spend thousands more to
enforce the collection and if J. J. Cross
ley had been a pliant tool, and accepted
free passes to ride around the country
on, it would not have sought his remov
al, but instead would have lauded him
to the skies through its subsidized and
venal press.
TRANSPORTATION THE MONSTER
Ail early traveler in Alaska relates
liow a certain tribe of natives near Nome
were affected with a mysterious disease
that wa s slowly but surely killing off
the tribe. The medicine men were cal
led in to give counsel but all to no pur
pose. The traveler immediately saw the
cause. He conve>ed the information to
the who was not a little surprised at the
simple remedy. He further relates that
when he returned several years later he
iound the tribe in a healthy and flour
I
The FAIR .
is now located
at its New Quarters opposite Orpheum
Since About Monday Oct. 19.
We carry all Kinds of fancy Rugs, Cut Glass
fancy China, Pianos, Piano Players, Edison & Vic
tor Phonographs & Phonograph Records.
Second Avenue Opposite Orpheum Theatre
The following letter taken from the
Alaska Citizen, the official organ of the
Democratic club, of the data of January
2nd, 1914, and shows McGowan in the
role of a jury fixer.—Ed.
Eva Creek, Jan. 29, 1914.
Editor Alaska Citizen:
Dear Sir:- If you will kindly allow me
J
a little space in your purely Demon atic
paper, I would like to make a few re
marks as well as to give you a few facts
concerning the last grand jury, since it
has caused so 'much comment.
In the first place, I fail to see the ob
ject of some of the assertions made by
the Citizen, as well as the two dailies,
unless it is for the purpose of mislead
ing their readers, and as each one of the
above mentioned papers was furnished
with the copy of the final report taken
from the grand jury room, such mis
takes can hardly be credited to misin
formation.
Now, out of the twenty-three regular
ly drawn jurors, only fourteen served.
With an additional six special venire
jurors, making a total of twenty, the
newspapers say the report was signed
by every member except the foreman
(according to their way of looking at it
he was the fall guy).
Now, this copy that was furnished the
press (and which was not a true copy of
the original handed to the district judge)
has only eighteen signatures to it. Mr.
Menzie never-signed that report, and
after the preface w-as attached to it, Mr.
Fisher erased his signature. Now that
■ i
leaves but seventeen, and some five or
six of the seventeen objected to certain;
paragraphs in the report and signed it
isliing condition. The simple remedy
that he made the chief acquainted with
on his former visit was sanitation. The
ignorant natives could not think what
was the trouble with them, but as soon
as they discovered the cause of their
misery they abolished it.
The people of the Tanana are in a
worse plight than were the above men
tioned tribe at Nome. They are in the
grip of a bunch of non- resident trans
portation parasites, whose freight-rate
schedules, the highest in the world, are
slowly but surely sucking the life blood
from them. The people of the Tanana
boast of having a rich country, and
properly so. They have gold mines, coal
mines, fur reserves, forests, farming
lands equal in the richness of its soil to
any yet known. But there never was a
gold mine, or ever will be, or any other
kind of a mine for that matter, or farm
rich enough to stand the transportation
rates that Eouis Schloss Ole Eicknon &
Co. -have imposed on the people of this
Valley.
From Seattle to Fairbanks
Weight Rate per ton
125 pounds £157.50 £9.S5
119 “ 112.00 6.70
550 “ 78.00 13.40
Skagway to Fairbanks
235 “ 82.00 $9.65
Compare the above rate with the rate
l
under protest, so that leaves only a
dozen brave and courageous men instead
of twenty-three, or even twenty, as
mentioned in your paper.
The chairman of the committee on
final report says the foreman Was ap
pointed at the instance of Mr. Crcssley,
but he fails to tell you how Mr. Griffin
happened to be one of the special ven
iremen. But perhaps he doesn’t know,
and for his benefit I will state that I
am told that the deputy' marshal that
served the subpoenaes went to the Nor
dale hotel and got him out of bed to ap
pear in court at 2 p. m., Monday, Nov.
17, and he sure was there.
I can’t say that this is true, but it
sliouldbe given as much credence as the
assertion as to the manner in which the
foreman got his job. Grand jury duty
was all new to me, and being neither a
law student nor college professor and
master of some dozen or more languages
*
and but just familiar enough with one
to be able to do business honestly and
to mush dogs, there’s no doubt but I
was handicapped. But I will say this
much: if the committee on final re
port HAD DRAFTED THEIR REPORT IN
THE GRAND JURY ROOM INSTEAD O F
SEEKfiSG THE AID OF THAT KING OF DIC
TATORS, Thomas McGowan, the
WORDING OF THAT REPORT MIGHT HAVE
BEEN DIFFERENT.
Thanking you in advance, and trust
ing for the publication of this, 1 am re
spectfully yonrs,
CHARLES C. PYNE,
Berry, Alaska.
charged in the year 1913, and the mis
leading statements of the kept press to
the effect that “rates would be much
the same as last year, etc.’’ The follow
ing shows the rate for the year 1913:
3825 25.00 48.00
THE DISTRICT ATTORNEY’S OFFICE
In districts such as we have here in
Alaska where the government officials
are appointed and tli“ people have little
voice as to who should occupy those off
ices, it is not surprising that special in
terests who are engaged in lawful and
unlawful businesses should seek to con
trol those offices. The District attorneys
of the four divisions of Alaska can be a
great force for good or evil, much de
pending on their honesty' and integrity.
The district attorney’s office occupied by
a puppet of the N. C. Co. would be a
great force for good for the corporation
and evil for the people. A puppet of
theirs would probably have been of the
opinion that it was not liable for the tax
cases which was prosecuted against it to
a successful conclusion by the retiring
official, in the federal and circuit courts,
and consequently would have refrained
from bringing suits to compel it to pay
its just dues. It is little wonder the®
that it seeks to control the District at
torney’s office through Its machine the
Democrat Club.
Those who remember the grand jury
stunt ot last spring, when Griffin, (the
same who rtow seeks election to the leg
islature) Menzie, and several others of
this corporation’s regular and occasion
al employes, sat as grand jurors, and
as such, acting under the inspiration of
McGowan, sought the removal of the
federal attorney who was prosecuting
suits against it, and the subsequent re
solution passed bv the Democrat club to
the same effect, realize that the slimy
beast is in complete control of that par
y, and the people must, as a matter of
self-protection, slay it at the ballot box
on Nov. 3, or it will poison them with
its corrupting influences.
THE PRESS
There are two newspapers in Fair
banks which print telegraphic news
from the outside world. The Ntws-Min
er is owned and edited by Mr. \V. F.
Thompson and is decidedly the abler
edited of the two. The paper, however,
is yariable in its support of a given
cause and cannot be relied on lor any
length of time. This is, generally a
source of regret to the better element
ami thinking people, for Mi. Thompson
is really a superior journalist. Were he
more stable and untrammelled and un
der no obligations and embarrassments
he could be a power for good in the
camp. It is difficult for an honest news
paper arraigned on the side of right and
justice to exist in Fairbanks where the
power of the beast is iar reaching, and
tor that reason which is generally un
derstood the people are inclined to be
indulgent.
The Fairbanks Times has a good «ut
side news service but its present policy
is with the gang and it now brazenlv
approves nearly everything which it for
merly opposed. It is without influence.
The Citizen is a sort of weekly scrap
book being made up chiefly of clippings
from other papers. It is owned by a per
son who is not a citizen of the country
and who has no interest in its affairs.
The paper is destitute of principle and
devoid of any continuity of purpose or
plan, a sort of political beachcomber
that watches for anything that may be
washed ashore by the political surf,
without influence and represents noth
ing whatever except the desire of the
owner,--and perhaps the red light cl
ement. ’ -
Of course,- all of these papers are es
pousing the cause of the beast’s repres
entatives—McGowan as Territorial Sen
ator and Grifiin, and such policel liigh
ivayman for the house of representat
ives. They have to. Such is the influ
ence of the beast. The slighest allusion
adverse to the beast and its interests
and the journalist is confronted with a
view of its teeth and claws. Existence
is precarious and tew are able to make
material sacrifices necessary to an in
dependent press.
(Coetinueu cn pa^e 4j
f