THE NOME NUGGET
Published Monday, Wednesday and Friday by the
NOME PUBLISHING CO.
NOME, ALASKA
Telephone 443-2381 $1.50 PER MONTH
P.O. Box 610 $16.00 A YEAR
E. P. BOUCHER .«... Managing Editor
CLINTON GRAY . Production Manager
Entered at second class matter October 14, 1943, at the
post office at Nome, Alaska, under Act of March 3, 1879.
Tomorrow is 96th Anniversary of
Purchase of Alaska from Russia
By W. B. Ragsdale Jr.
WASHINGTON UP! — Ninety
six years ago Saturday the United
States paid Russia $7.2 million for
Alaska — then Russian America.
A few years ago, just after
Alaska became the 49th State, So
viet Deputy Premier Frol Kozlov
said:
“We’d give you $200 million for
it — but I don’t suppose you
would sell. We have a proverb in
Russia, if something has fallen off
a cart, it is lost forever.”
When Russia gave up Alaska in
1867 after holding it for 126 years,
many Americans thought $7.2 mil
lion was far too much to pay for
what they visualized as an ice
bound wasteland.
There were rumors that the Rus
sian minister had bribed high offi
cials to secure congressional ap
proval of the deal.
Wits dubbed it “Seward’s Folly”
and “Johnson’s Polar Bear Farm”
and one writer described an
imaginary visit to Alaska:
“I visited all of the important
points along the coast and found
them covered with ice, and very
slippery indeed; I don’t think an
enemy could ever get a foothold
on these shores.”
In the mid-1850s, Russia’s
czarist government realized it
couldn’t defend Alaska if war
came and the colony would fall
eventually either to the United
States or Great Britain, and Russia
preferred having it belong to the
United States.
Sen. Charles Sumner of Massa
chusetts said shortly after the
Senate ratified the purchase treaty
that Russia had “wished to strip
herself of all outlying possessions
as Napoleon had stripped himself
of Louisiana in order to gain her
strength for her struggle with Eng
land for control of Asia.”
Russia had looked upon Alaska
as an investment rather than a
colony. The Russian American Co.
held exclusive franchise to exploit
its wealth.
Russians Felt Colony Bankrupt
Mismanagement had brought the
company to the verge of bank
ruptcy when the czar refused to
renew the franchise in 1862. The
Russians felt they had drained the
i
BRING YOUR
WATCH
to the
Nome Drug Store
for
EXPERT REPAIRS
INTERNATIONAL
PARTS
PICKUPS TRUCKS
BEN YOUNG
Guaranteed
Dependable
Fuel Service
fSTANDARD
LP Gas
and Appliances
Office: Dial 2561
■utibg OttJj
ZIEGLER
and
QUAKER
STOVE PARTS
AND REPAIRS
OIL HEATERS
Res: Dial 2417
DEAL WITH CONFIDENCE AT
n’s City Fuel and Transfer
illifc
country of most of its resources.
First overtures for the sale of
Alaska were made in 1859 during
the administration of President
Buchanan. This effort was swept
aside by the outbreak of the Civil
War.
In December 1866, Baron Edou
ard DeStoeckl, long - time ambas
sador to the United States, was
on vacation in Russia when he was
given orders to negotiate for the
sale of Alaska.
Returning to Washington, he
broached the subject to Secretary
of State William Seward. Seward
offered $5 million. Stoeckl demand
ed $10 million.
Soon they agreed on $7.2 million
and on the evening of March 29,
Stoeckl burst into Seward’s home
with the hews that his government
had agreed to treaty terms and
they could prepare a final draft
the next day.
With Congress on the verge of
adjournment, Seward insisted they
go right to work that night. The
treaty was signed at 4 a.m. March
30 and immediately sent to the
Senate. It was ratified April 9.
Congress appropriated no money
for payment before it adjourned,
but Russian-U.S. relations were so
cordial that Alaska was handed
over anyway on Oct. 18.
Payment Not Made Until 1868
Efforts to appropriate the
money were stalled by the im
peachment trial of President An
drew Johnson in early 1868. It
took an unlikely coalition of John
son supporters and the men who
had just tried to remove the Pres
ident from office to win 113-43 ap
proval of the House by July 14,
1868.
This strange partnership result
ed in rumors that Stoeckl had
bribed key officials. After the pay
ment, reports indicate that some
$135,000 of the $7.2 million never
reached Russia.
When he left the country a few
months later Stoeckl said he was
sick of the corruption of congress
men and other public officials in
the United States.
These rumors gained new life in
1905 upon discovery of a memo
by President Johnson detailing a
conversation with Seward Sept. 6,
1868, at a picnic.
Johnson said Seward told him
Stoeckl had admitted paying
$30,000 to Charles Forney, owner
of the Philadelphia Press, for his
newspaper’s support of the Alaska
purchase appropriation. Forney
had been a foe of Johnson.
Ralph Korngold, a recent bio
Dial 2631 For
Arctic Sanitary
Service
Russians Deny
Alaska Overflight
WASHINGTON Uf> — The State
Department yesterday termed “un
satisfactory” a Soviet note reject
ing U.S. claims that Russian air
craft violated American air space.
The United States had protest
ed to Moscow that on March 15
two Russia reconnaissance planes
penetrated 30 miles into American
air space over Alaska.
Wednesday the Soviets denied
this. They said in a reply that
their planes had never come closer
to Alaska than 350 kilometers (217
miles).
“The reply is unsatisfactory,”
Lincoln White, the State Depart
ment’s spokesman, told a news
conference.
“We are sure of our evidence
and take a serious view of any
unauthorized overflights of U. S.
territory.”
Washington authorities said the
Soviet denial, received late Wed
nesday, probably will end the for
mal diplomatic exchange on the
incident. But they predicted the
United States will continue to re
mind the Soviet Union at appro
priate times that air space intru
sions will not be tolerated.
The U.S. government was stick
ing firmly to its version, con
tained in a March 16 protest note
to Moscow, that two Soviet re
connaissance planes flew over the
southwestern corner of Alaska for
nearly a half hour.
The Kremlin responded with an
equally emphatic denial in a brief
note.
Moscow appeared to have no de
sire to make a big issue over the
incident. U.S. informants said the
Russian note was very short and
devoid of propaganda embellish
ments the Communists often in
clude in their diplomatic and pub
lic declarations.
Both Russian and American
planes often fly near the other’s
border in that area, and naviga
tion can be difficult. The March
15 flight was at night.
In recent months Russian planes
have flown over U.S. warships at
sea. The United States has not pro
tested, taking the position such
overflights are legal on the high
seas, outside of national territory.
grapher of House leader Thaddeus
Stevens, said Seward was “an old
gossip to whom the satisfaction of
telling a sensational story meant
more than a man’s reputation.”
Korngold said there also were
rumors current at the time that
Seward had received $250,000.
In December 1868, testifying be
fore a House committee investi
gating the rumors, Seward said,
“I know nothing whatever of the
use the minister made of the fund.
I know of no payment to anybody,
by him, or of any application of
the funds which he received. In
regard to all these allegations I
have no knowledge.”
B.C. Legislature Advocates
Enforcing of 12-Mile
Fishing Limit off its Coast
VICTORIA, B.C. W — A special
committee of the British Columbia
legislature has advocated that Can
ada establish a 12-mile fishing
limit off its coasts and be prepared
to enforce it.
The committee met with union,
employer and other fishing groups
during the sitting of the legisla
ture. The report said the present
three-mile limit is inadequate for
protection of Canadian fisheries.
It asked Canada take unilateral
action to establish a headland to
headland baseline along its shore
line as recommended by Canada
and the United States in a 1960
United Nations conference on the
Law of the Sea.
While recognizing the historic
fishing rights of the U.S. within
the fishing limit, the committee
recommended Canada “declare ex
clusive fishing rights for a dis
tance of 12 miles from that base
line.”
Several countries have unilater
ally established such a limit, in
cluding Iceland which clashed with
Britain over the matter.
The report said “all sections of
the industry expressed grave
doubt commercial fishing on the
high seas was in the best interests
of proper conservation and the
principle of sustained annual pro
ductivity.”
It noted “all countries had a
vested interested in those fish or
iginating within their respective
territorial waters.”
The committee’s greatest con
cern was the Japanese high seas
fishery. A proposed amendment to
the three - country North Pacific
treaty would permit Japan to fish
for halibut in the Bering Sea and
for herring off the Queen Char
lotte Islands.
B. C. fishing industry officials
expressed concern that herring
fishermen would cacth immature
salmon, decimating B.C.’s crop.
The U.S. and Japan have rati
fied the amendment but Canada
has not.
STRAUB
ice Center
Radio & TV
Appliance Repair
House Rentals
Phone 2260
Administering Gambling
In Alaska Costs More
Than Take from Permits
ANCHORAGE UFI — It costs the
state more to administer present
legalized gambling in Alaska than
it takes in from issuance of gambl
ing permits, and the Department
of Revenue feels a two per cent
tax on gambling gross would help
to offset the loss.
Gambling activities in the state
—which can only be conducted by
nonprofit fraternal, charitable or
religious organizations under pre
sent law — grossed $734,619 last
year.
The state issued 284 gambling
permits, and, at $10 a permit, real
ized $2,840. The Department of
Revenue estimates it cost the state
some $12,000 to administer the
gambling.
Acting Revenue Commissioner R.
D. Stevenson reportedly informed
House Speaker Bruce Kendall of
the situation in February, in re
commending that either permit fees
be increased or a two per cent tax
be imposed on gambling gross.
The Department of Revenue said
that a two per cent tax in addition
to present permit revenue would
yield the state some $17,500 a year.
There would probably be no sur
plus because, with a two per cent
tax, it would cost more to admin
ister gambling than now, it said.
One revenue agent works part
time in Juneau handling licenses
and doing “police work” in south
east Alaska. Another agent works
out of the Anchorage office, doing
the police work for the remainder
of Alaska.
Secretarial help is also required
to help with administration of
gambling.
Fine Job Printing at the Nugget
GLUE POT
Soda Fountain
Cigars—Cigarettes
Tobacco
Candy
Fresh Ice Cream
Every Day
ALL KINDS OF
SODA POP
10% OFF
By The Case
Let the People of Nome
VOTE FOR
A City Clerk
Keep Your Vote
v The People of Nome
Have Elected a City Clerk for 60 Years
VOTE NO
On
Proposition No. 3
Citizens For Good Local Government
—Paid Advertisement