(OFFICIAL PAPER)
“forunTK
James B. Wingate, Editor and Manager
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SATURDAY, OCTOBER 7, 1905.
LONG DEFERRED PROMISE
OF THAT “SQUARE DEAL”
Congress will meet in regular ses
sion in less than sixty days. Then the
lawmakers of the nation will again lock
horns with the president. The person
al experience obtained by quite a num
ber of the members of both houses of
•
congress, in touring Alaska the past
summer, will enable the district to re
ceive more deserving recognition from
these legislative bodies than has here
tofore been granted. It is claimed at
Washington that the president, having
been so engrossed for months past with
questions of great national and inter
national moment, has been prevented
from making a personal examination of
charges preferred against federal offic
ials in Alaska. The president now an
nounces that there will be a thorough
overhauling of every branch of the fed
eral service m the territory.
It is a plain fact that that something
is rottenly wrong with the federal ser
vice in Alaska, and especially so in the
Third judicial division. The people, en
mass, have been praying the president
for two years for the removal of Gov.
Brady, on the grounds of incompetency
and improprieties of office. Numerous
and serious charges of graft, corruption
incompetency and improprieties of of
fice have been standing on file at Wash
ington for more than a year against
Judge Wickersham and other federal
officials connected with his administra
tion in the Third division. The senate
has deliberated over those''charges and
proclaim Wickersham unfit for U. S.
district judge; still President Roosevelt
has seen fit to override the action of the
senate,. and has arbitrarily retained
Wickersham as judge. This enabled
the accused corrupt federal officials of
N
the Third judicial division to continue
their nefarious work of harassing the
people and filching from the govern
ment treasury.
If the proofs of the corrupt manipu
lation of ‘Investigator’ Day were suf
ficient to call for Day’s resignation, and
the charges before the senate sufficient
to justify that body in turning Wicker
sham down, the president, on behalf of
good government, should have dropped
Wickersham’s name before this. He
well knew that such serious corruption
as has been exposed against Wicker
sham’s administration could not long be
protected. The president’s action in
the matter was only giving the accused
sufficient time, to perfect and( execute,
through his judicial power, his financial
plans and manipulations at government
expense.
HE LIKES THE GRAFT,
DOES JUDGE WICKERSHAM
In a recent interview at Fairbanks,
in answer to the question if he intend
ed to visit his home in Tacoma during
the winter. Judge Wickersham said:
“Do you know, I was just thinking
last night that I don’t feel any more
that my home is in Tacoma. I have
been weaned away, as it were, and my
life is wrapped up in this country. . . .
I like the country; I like the people; I
like the climate. ... If ever I do leave
it, I will do so reluctantly.”
The 'home rule for Alaska’ political
bee was buzzing in Wickersham’s hat
that night to make him think his home
was no longer in Tacoma. The govern
ment pie he has been receiving in Al
aska for over five years, and the pro
perty he has secured in the Third div
ision, through his judicial power and
corrupt manipulations, has ‘weaned’
him away from his farm near Tacoma;
—like the jingle of gold wins smiles
from the bar maid. He likes Alaska
for the gold it has given him; he likes
the people for their willingness to fall
into his political snares, and submission
to his corrupt, grafting methods.
He likes the climate! but preferred
that of the coast to the interior, while
the judicial manipulation of Valdez
'coppers’ materialized more value than
did Yukon gold stock—until Fairbanks’
excitement put him on the road to quick
wealth. He need not leave the country
just because he loses his judgeship. If
as a civillian, he commits no felonious
crime, he need not leave ‘reluctantly’.
Alaska
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