III l·
MEMBER ASSOCIATED PRESS
VOLUME XXI, NUMBER 246.
• SEWARD ALASKA, WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 27, 1926.
PRICE TEN CENTS
!
v
Navy Day
Today, the twenty-seventh day of October marks the anniversary of the
birth of a great statesman, the late President Theodore Roosevelt. He was
a man of foresight, a great leader, interested in naval affairs, and spent
* a great deal of his time endeavoring to make clear to our country the im
portance of sea power. So, for the fifth consecutive year, this twenty sev
enth day of October, nineteen hundred and twenty-six, the navy league of
the United States will hold its observance of Navy day. What could be a
more appropriate way to honor this great man than to continue to make clear
to our country the importance of sea power. Monuments could be erected,
clubs and societies formed in his honor, but there is one way, and only one
way, to show appreciation of his past services, and that one way is to con
tinue year after year, until there is no doubt in the minds of the American
people that sea power means peace, good will, and a prosperous nation. Sea
power—in the minds of some people means great powerful fleets of fight
ing craft, that visit the four corners of the globe, inciting trouble and burn
ing up money, in the way of fuel, oil and gun powder. But wrong concep
tions in the minds of such people must be eradicated. We do want a large
navy, in fact, as Theodore Roosevelt advocated, we don’t want just a large
navy, but we must have the largest navy, and a modern navy; one that
can go forth on the sea, over the sea and under the sea, for defensive pur
poses only.
Some contend that history has proven that the weaker has been victorious
over the stronger, and that size means naught. Yes—but years ago; how
^ times have changed. This was proven by that Poloponnesian leader who,
after the battle of Naupaktis finding himself the weaker, except numerically,
said: “Against their greater skill set your own greater valour.” It was an
swered by Alexander the Great when he made his historical rmark “It mat
ters not to the wolf how many the sheep number.”
It has been layed down as a general theory that fortifications, save to a
few arsenals and bases, are undesirable. Extremists tend to carry this a
considerable distance, but the extremist school is not worth consideration
here. That an important place like the navy yard and base at Puget Sound,
Washington must be heavily defended is accepted as an axiom. Forts able
to repel any method of bombardment are usually admitted as quite neces
sary. The extremists, perhaps, would argue that provided the fleet is intact
and victorious, no serious attack on a main base is to be expected or indeed
possible; and it is difficult to argue that this is untrue. To those who con
tend that ‘the fleet might suffer a reverse,’ the extremists reply ‘All the
more reason why money should be spent entirely on ships and not be devoted
to bricks and mortar. Build enough ships, and your contemplated reversp
cannot occur. Undoubtedly there is a very great deal in this argument, and
it might be accepted as conclusive were it not that base attack is likely to
* ’be recognized sooner or later as the main objective of naval warfare, and to
^eave bases open to attack would court such a state of affairs. If the base
be weak then a fleet must be tied to it to protect it, and so the extreme op
ponents of ‘bricks and mortar’ would, were they given rein, probably defeat
their own ends.
It has been asked time and time again, ‘Oh, why does such a peaceful
nation as the United States of America need such powerful fleets of dread
naughts, cruisers, destroyers, submarines, and seaplanes. The answer is
this, ‘take away our naval fleets, and you must give away our island posses
sions, Alaska, our merchant marine, and in addition you win have obliterated
that all-important item in case of a national emergency, ‘our dear countries
first line of defense.’ So long as men have the will to fight, or even regard
fighting as a possible solution of their problems, they will find weapons to
fight with, and further, as long as other countries have the will to war, our
country must be prepared.
Sea power in its entirety does not mean vessels of war only. Our mer
chant marine on which the International transportation independence of our
country depends, and its value as a vital element of national defense, must
not be overlooked. Our fleet is merely a form of national insurance that
* protects our rapidly expanding commerce and our merchant marine. It is
necessary that our people realize that ships overseas are but the continua
tion of our railroads, and that the farmers and manufacturers are keenly in
terested in the delivery of their goods under our own system of transporta
tion. This to insure a fair opportunity in the markets of the world, botl
during peace, and during time of world trouble. Our country also depends or
the merchant marine for the importation of a considerable list of essentia!
commodities, on w'hich our present day standard of living largely depends.
The fact that Alaska went over the top during the campaign! to save “Old
Ironsides,” the historic old ship that so well personifies the early struggle o
the Republic for its rights upon the high seas, and the freeing of its com
merce. proves conclusively that Alaskans do appreciate the value Alaska, ant
Alaska’s only defense at present is in the navy. What would be a bette:
base and better prize than this Territory with its vast natural resources, t<
countries not possessing iron, copper, coal, timber, without even mention
ing gold, silver, and other minerals, and water power possibilities.
We do have a permanent Naval activity in Alaska; the Naval Radi<
communication service, which consists of five traffic and three compass sta
tions, located along the coast from Sitka to Saint Paul island in the Berinj
sea.
^ The traffic stations at St. Paul, Dutch Harbor, Kodiak, Cordova and Sit
ka reach out to isolated communities, commercial radio stations, canner:
d radio stations and radio stations connected with mining, oil and other activi
ties, in the southeastern, southwestern and western sections of Alaska, ii
an effort to serve them with a communication service. The naval communi
cation service realizes that modern business cannot operate successfull;
without efficient communications. Our policy is accuracy first and spee<
second. Continuous efforts are being made to increase speed of deliver;
consistant with accuracy. Trading vessels going into the far north to Poin
Barrow also depend on naval radio for service in communicating with thei
owners.
The naval radio station at St. Paul can communicate with certain ves
sels laying alongside of the dock at Japan. St. Paul is the first radio statioi
to communicate with vessels from the far East and have received man;
\ commendations from ship masters and corporations. Not only does the nav;
protect shipping when required but also serves it with an efficient commun
ication service.
The only radio stations to hear the signal from the airship Norge wer
three Alaskan Naval radio stations located at St. Paul, Seward and Cap*
Hinchenbrook.
The naval service not only stands ready at all times to defend our met
chant marine, but also provides a continuous form of insurance for al
shipping in general, by providing and maintaining a complete chain of radi<
compass stations extending from St. Paul to San Diego on the west coast
eastward along the gulf coast and northward to Bar Harbor, Maine on th
east coast of the United States.
All of you in Alaska feel a great confidence in the captains of vessel
plying in Alaskan waters who learned their business when aids to navigatioi
were nil. And now that wre have a few aids, some might think that thes<
captains would scoff at such new fangled things as radio compasses am
could get along without them. If you do, you have a wrong conception o
these officers, because they are practical sea-faring men as well as real prc
^ gressives intererested in all scientific progress. Their excellent opinion o
the services rendered t-lieir vessels by naval radio compass stations locatei
in Alaska at St. Paul, Cape Hinchenbrook and Soapstone Point, is WTorth con
.sidering as in order to take advantage of every device known to safe-guar<
you while on theif vessels they have these naval stations take and furnisl
many radio bearings -on their vessels position- each trip during good wreathe
to keep these stations checked from error, so that they will be dependabl
when they absolutely need them during fog, rain, snow and general bai
weather, to get you to your destination on schedule time. This service ha
also speeded up the delivery to you of your mail, freight and other commodi
Vies during bad w-eather. If you are a passenger waiting for a boat you re
Continued on Page Four
EMERY VALENTINE BRANDS ALLEGED
AFFIDAVIT AGAINST TOM MARQUAM
AS FALSE, SCURRILOUS DOCUMENT
“THOSE COWARDS, THOSE VILE TRAITORS CIRCULATED THIS PAPER
WHEN THEY THOUGHT I WAS GOING TO DIE,” VEHEMENTLY EX
CLAIMS VALENTINE ON JUNEAU PLATFORM PRECEDING MARQUAM
SPEECH—STATES HAD ACCIDENT AND WAS FLAT ON BACK AT HOME,
ILL AND HELPLESS, FOR FORTY SEVEN DAYS — ASSIGNS AUTHOR
SHIP OF ALLEGED DOCUMENT AND EQUALLY NOTORIOUS S. HALL
YOUNG LETTER TO WICKERSHAM
BITTERLY ASSAILS CHARACTER DELEGATE SUTHERLAND
“I Want You to Understand That There is but One Man in Alaska with Vocabulary
Sufficient to Enable Him to Write Such Stuff and That Man is James Wicker
sham,” Valentine Concluded
JUNEAU, Oct. 27. (Special to The. Gate way)—Emery Valentine, former cam
paign manager of both Wickersham and Sutherland, last night denied any knowledge
of the alleged affidavit against Tom Marquam being circulated by Sutherland in an
effort to defeat Marquam for delegate to congress from Alaska. In a brief address
preceding Marquam’s address he assigned the authorship of that scurrilous docu
ment and the equally notorious S. Hall Young letter to Wickersham declaring “Re
ferring to this dirty sheet of an affidavit, »s it is called, I positively deny that I had
anything to do with it or that I had any knowledge oi it.”
SEITTLE
LUNCHEON
EN ROUTE TO COAST, RUMANIA’S
QUEEN ADMIRERS NIAGARA
FALLS
SEATTLE, Oct. 27. (£>)—The Sun
! set club, Seattle’s most exclusive wo
' men’s organization, will not receive
- Queen Marie at luncb for the invita
] tion extended to Marie has been de
clined because of a previous engage
> ment to lunch. It was suggested to
* *
r Marie that ‘‘she look in fo£ a tew
minutes for a brief reception.” The
’ invitation has been withdrawn. The
- engagement to dine with business and
1 professional women’s clubs has been
r uncancelled.
I -
£ (Special train)—NIAGARA FALLS,
r Oct. 27. (JP)—The falls interested
Queen Marie who stopped for a few
t hours before going to Canada. Marie’s
f cold is improving.
I
i TROTZKY IS OUSTED
: FROIUI POWER, RUSSIA
' CENTRAL COMMUNIST COMMIS
3 SION DICIPLINES THREE
\ LEADERS
1 -
f MOSCOW, Oct. 26. (/P) — Leon
f Trotzky and Leon Kameff were oust
* ed Saturday night from all powerful
1 political bureaus and of communist
i party. Gregory Zino.vieff was expel
[ led from the third communist Inter
3 j
1 national Central executive committee
3 and the Central Controlling commis
. sion disciplined the three men for
their fractional activities.
“I had an accident at home tFo
months ago and was flat on my back
for 47 days and it was during my ill
ness and helpless condition that those
vile traitors circulated this paper—
at a time when they thought I was
about to pass out—those cowards,
those traitors—circulated this paper!
That is the kind of a man we have
representing us in congress. I want i
you to understand that there is but
one man in Alaska who has vocabu
lary sufficient to enable him to write
such stuff and that man wrote it and
he also wrote the slanderous letter
Rev. S. Hall Young was accused of
writing and he is that man, Jame*
Wickersham!”
Biggest Rally History Juneau
(Special to The Gateway)
JUNEAU, Oct. 27.—Juneau stag
ed the biggest political demonstra
tion in its history last night in wel
come of Thomas A. Marquam, In
dependent candidate for delegate to
congress. The rally was preceeded
by an old fashioned torch light pro
cession. The marchers were headed
by a band and followed by a long
line of automobiles. Eleven hundred
and twenty people by actual cqunt
gave him a tremendous ovation when
he began to speak and applauded him
frequently as he piled up point after
point in his indictment of Sutherland.
| It was the largest crowd ever attend
ing a political meeting here, drawing
alike from the ranks of business men,
miners and fishermen.
Although Emery Valentine and Hen
ry Roden had completely refuted the
slanderous charges made against him
Mr. Marquam merely referred to
them in a passing voice saying, “I
will meet the charges made against
me and my family by James Wicker
jsham in the only place where civilized
men can meet such remarks, in the
court of law—before a competent
jury of his peers.” His decision to
(Continued on Page Eight)
SURVIVORS RELATE
HEROISM OF CREW
ON S. S. Eism
CAPTAIN WASHED OVERBOARD;
COAL SHIFTED; VESSEL
SANK QUICKLY
HAMILTON, Bermuda, Oct. 27. (/P)
—Twelve survivors from the British
freight steamer Eastway reported the
tieroism of the engineers, firement
and radio operator. When the storm
struck the Eastway Friday, the oper
ator started S. O. S. calls and answer
ed calls until four o’clock. The cap
tain was washed overboard; at six
o’clock coal bunkers shifted. All
but one life boat was smashed and
but one life boat was smashed and the
twelve sought safety in this. The
Eastway sunk at 7 o’clock. The men
in the engine room and stokeholes
and the wireless operator never at
tempted to reach the small boats.
HERBERT DUNLOP TELLS OF BIG
SAVING IN TIME MADE IN
TERIOR
SEATTLE, Oct. 27. (/P)—Herbert
Dunlop returned from ten thousand
miles of travel by steamship, train,
river launch and airplane to provide
the fur traders of North America
with food. For a dozen years he has
been making the northern territory
and said “I saved from seven to eight
weeks this year by an hour and fifteen
minute flight from Fairbanks to Fort
Yukon.”