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(OFFICIAL PAPER)
^oruwTp^
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SATURDAY, AUGUST 5, 1905.
WHY HENCHMAN SPRING
DECRYS GOOD ROADS
_J \ ;
Abb-spring, ex-city attorney and li
cense collector of Fairbanks, aho de
feated candidate for ^city councilman,
and travelling bandmaster for Judge
Wickersham’s well d< illeJ band of
henchmen, se ms to be considerably
agitated over the Nelson road bill. No
doubt he was voicing the sentiments of
his political boss, 'Judge Wickersham,
when he addressed the Alaska Club at
Seattle recently. Spring fully demon
strated his chief’s rule or ruin policy,
and illustrated how strongly th3 Wick
ersham gang are opposed to any or all
measures which tend towards depriving
them of power or prestige.
Spring explained how, prior to the
passage of the Nelson bill, all money
collected from business licenses and
fines was in' charge of the. district judge
v and that thejudge had the right to use ■
that money for what was known as
"court expenses.” He also acknow
ledged that the judge stretched the
meaning of the words * ‘court expenses’ ’
to a great extent. This is one of the
channels through which we claim Wick
ersham worked his grafting system.
Mr. Spring claimed that while the
judge had the handling of all the funds
so collected, no person , was permitted
to engage in business without paying
the required license, but now, such
money being placed in the road fund,
the officials would not care whether li
violated. This means that the officials
will not ^ttend to their duty of collect
ing license money, so long that it is ap
plied to the building of roads, thus as
sisting the miners in developing the
country, instead of permitting its ab
sorbed by corrupt manipulations of the
district judge.
Attorney Sparing knows whereof he
speaks; he has been under the careful
training of the judge for. several years.
Such statements coming from one so
to Wickersham bears out the charges
of graft and corruption which are made
against him. It is an acknowledgement
on their part that they will not enforce
the laws in a manner creative of good
40
government, and shows their lack of in
terest in the welfare of the district. It
is about time the government eeased to
allow these corrupt federal officials to
absorb the peoples' money by an organ
ized system of graft. Taxation in any
form would not be looked upon with
such horror, could the people ■ realize
they were getting something beneficial
in return for their money.
It will be much more appreciable to
have good roads and trails in the dis
trict, than such a bunch of crooked
stiff-collared, kid-gloved officials to look
at! It can be readily shown where the
officials connected with . Wickersham’s
administration• have, within the past
I two years, illegally grafted from the
people's money, through such channels
as “court expenses” and “support of
prisoners, ” in Rampart preeinct alone,
sufficient to construct a road from one
end of the precinct to the other. Thou
sands of dollars have been filched from
the government treasury by the deputy
marshal of Rampart precinct through
the channel of “support of prisoners.”
Hardly a dollar of this money has been
pit in circulation in this precinct. Since
1902 the government has furnished the
deputy, marshal of this precinct with
living quarters, wood, light and water
free.
SOME ‘-STRETCHED”
“COURT EXPENSES"
During the summer of 1903/ Judge
Wiekersham ordered two rooms added
to the court bouse at government ex
pense and since then these rooms have
been used by the deputy marshal as a
private residense. This private resi
dence has been furnished with wood by
the government, sawed and split by the
prisoners. The . deputy marseal has
monopolized the feeding of prisoners at
a profit of 300 per cent, and the gov
ernment has furnished the building,
wood and water free for his messhouse.
Hotel Florence
THE ONLY FIRST CLASS HOUSE
Fine Wines and Liquors
BILLIARDS_ POOL
TltE BEST ACCOMODATIONS
* t*-" • - . - *
Furnished Rooms
jSTABLES For Horses And Dogs
A. H. MAYO
"During the winter of 1903-4 the gov
ernment furnished Commissioner J.
Lindley Green with wood, gratis. It is
a fact that in no way have the people
been given any chance to receive any
benefit from money so illegally grafted
from their treasury.
Now that this money will go to build
good roads, Springs declares the offic
ials will not enforce license laws.