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Toyland in all its Splendor |
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Opens December 1,1924 At %
Graef s Hardware
Stoves and Ranges
Mechanical Toys, Electric Railroad
Trains, Tinker Toys, Teddy Bears,
Dolls, Large and Small Mamma
Dolls, Kiddy Cars and Toys
For the Babies
Electrical Goods and Percolators
Safety Razors and Cut Glass
Toasters and Flat Irons
MAIL ORDERS PROMPTLY ATTENDED TO
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55
ANNUAL MESSAGE
GOV. S. C. BONE
( Continued from page 1)
a monthly allowance limited to
$12.50 was provided for impoverished
men over 65 years who had lived in
the Territory for fifteen continuous
years and a maximum allowance of
$25.00 for women of 60 years like
wise qualified, but these amounts
were subsequently increased to
$25.00 and $45.00 respectively and
today 183—161 men and 22 women
—are carried on the Territorial pen
sion roll, drawing various sums ac
cording to their need. A substantial
addition to the annual appropriation
of $30,000 is now required to meet
steadily growing appeals for aid.
The average number of inmates of
the Pioneers’ Home is 82, all men,
making a total of 265, who receive
Territorial bounty. Alaska in pioneer
days was essentially a man’s coun
try, which explains the small number
of women pensioners.
0. K. BARBER SHOP
Clean, Santiary Baths, Expert
Barbers and Reasonable Prces
Keep Us Busy.
Thomas Jasper, Propr.
HOTEL OVERLAND
GORDON SHEA, Propr.
SPECIAL RATES BY WEEK
OR MONTH
New Heating Plant Just Installed
---8
F. B. MOORE
Gore Bldg. Adams 145
WALL PAPER PAPER-HANG
ING, and PAINTING
TINTING
SEWARD CLUB
CHRIST LARSON Prop.
POOL, SOFT DRINKS, HIGH
GRADE CANDY
Charities and Education.
Approximatel $250,000 is expend
ed biennially toward charitable ends.
Considering the Territory’s scant
population, 30,000 whites, and its
necessarily limited revenues, these
liberal public benefactions are ren
dered possible only by the simplicity
and utmost economy of administra
tion. Every dollar appropriated for
relief goes to the beneficiaries with
out administrative cost. Whether
such a liberal system of paternalism
could be maintained with a growth
of population is problematical.
The Territory is equally generous
in meeting educational needs. Its
public school system, although yet
in the formative stages, is main
tained at a high standard and is the
pride of the Territory. A paring of
the budget invariably excepts the
schools. With an enrollment of only
3500 pupils, the cost of educating
the children exceeds $100 per capita
per year. The sum total of ap
propriation for the current biennium
was $801,700.17, including $90,000
for the Agricultural College and
School of Mines at Fairbanks, in
addition to the annual government
endowment of $50,000.
Wards of the Nation
Indians and Eskimos, commonly
called natives, who comprise almost
one-half of the population, do not
share in these Territorial benefactions
and educational advantages.
Occupying the status of wards of
the nation, the Government, thru
its Bureau of Education, conducts na
tive schools and maintains hospitals,
and otherwise generously, if not al
ways efficiently or adequately, pro
vides for them. As these wards are
scattered over a wide domain the
difficulties attending their care are
manifold, and the aid given them
falls far short of the Territorial care
extended to the whites, whose needs
are under more direct supervision.
Tribal customs are largely of the
past and native life has undergone a
transformation from savagery and
heathenism to civilization and Chris
tianity. Notable progress has been
made in Southeastern Alaska, Kake,
Bayview and Hydaburrg, which are
model Indian villages. They have lo
cal government, wuth a mayor and
council, and compare most favorably
with communities of like size in the
States. At Bayview the natives own
and operate the cannery and sawmill
and otherwise exhibit marked enter
prise and ambition. Electric lighting
plants have been installed in these
villages and other modern conveni
ences provided. Motion picture thea
tres are maintained and phonograph
and radio apparatus are in use. Each
of these villages as well as Angoon
and Yakutat, has a Brotherhood Hall,
built by the natives, which consti
tutes a community center where en
tertainments and athletic contests
are held. Kake on lonely Kupreanof
Island, with only four white inhabi
tants—a storekeeper, two Govern
ment school teachers and a nurse—
is an especially clean, attractive and
well-ordered community.
The more progressive of the native
element, as typified in the villages
named, believe that direct contact
and competition with the whites
would further promote the welfare of
the race and, therefore, favor the
opening of the island reservations to
white residents and settlement. A
visit by the Governor to these com
munities during the Summer was
heartening. Certainly native ilfe as
there exemplified is full of promise.
ILLITERATE VOTERS
A reverse side of the picture, how
ever, is constantly in evidence. In
dians living is less favored localities
are still a primitive people, many of
them densely ignorant, unable to
read or write aand eking out a mis
erable existence. The “community
house,” so-called, wherein several
families abide in squalor, still exists
in backward villages and such degre
dation naturally serves, while not typ
ical, to create a prejudice against the
natives as a whole. The fact that
many of this class exercise the right
to vote without the least qualifica
tions, and hold a balance of power
politically has aroused a deep resent
ment and produced an urgent demand
for a literacy test law to preserve the
integrity of the ballot. It is contend
ed that in exercising the right of cit
izenship the Indians automatically
forfeit the special privileges of kill
ing game out of season for food, and
the catching of seal, accorded them
as wards of the nation, and place
themselves on the same footing with
the white and become subject to tax
ation, but this phase of the burning
question has not been judicially pass
ed upon. Enlightened Indians in
considerable number, in order to re
voluntarily pay the Territorial school
tax.
Father Duncan’s Colony
Metlakatla, founded nearly forty
years ago, by the celebrated mission
ary, William Duncan, on Annette Isl
and, near Ketchikan—where Presi
dent Harding first landed on Alaska
soil, July 8, 1923—set the original ex
ample of Indian progress and has
fairly kept pace with the later ^colo
nies, although a deplorable religious
division, following “Father” Duncan’s
death, has tended to retard commu
nity effort. The use and occupancy
of Annette Island, by his followers,
British Columbian Indians, the Tsimp
seans, was granted by act of Congress
in 1921, and under his wise leader
ship—at times somewhat despotic—
the colony thrived amazingly upon a
cooperative basis and became one of
TOYS! TOYS!
TOYS!
TOYLAND IS IN
OUR BASEMENT
DOLLS, large and
Small,
MECHANICAL
TOYS,
ELLSWORTH‘S
■See Window Display
ANDY’S EXPRESS
MEETS ALL BOATS AND
TRAINS
Prompt and Reliable Service
Phone Madison 143
SEWARD GRILL
PRIVATE DINING ROOMS
Pleasant Surroundings
Courteous Treatment
OPEN DAY AND NIGHT
the missionaary achievements of his
tory. The largest and most impos
ing church edifice in Alaska stands
out in the foreground of the pictur
esque village as a monument to his
memory, and he rests in the church
yard adjacent. By the terms of his
will a cash estate of some $150,000,
accumulated for the colony, was be
queathed to perpetuate the work, but
this has not been turned to any use
because of ensuing factionalism. A
Government school building, the best
of its class in the Territory, is suc
cessfully maintained at Metlakatla,
and another mission church has been
established. The village now has
500 or 600 souls, a decreased popula
tion due to the tendency of the
younger element to seek larger fields.
The Metlakatlans are justly asking
that they may be made secure in
their property rights acquired on the
island and the required legislation,
limited to the town-site should equit
ably be enacted. Annette Island as a
whole is not used or occupied by the
colony and should be opened to pros
pecting and development as it is be
lieved to contain mineral deposits. As
the Tsimpseans are of British origin
and descent, their status is unique in
that they are unable to qualify for
citizenship, and they look to Con
gress to recognize and define them
as Americans.
Eskimos Not Dying Out
The Eskimos, whose habitat is in
the far north and along the Yukon
aand Kuskokwim Rivers are not the
fast vanishing or dying race as pop
ularly supposed, but still number
approximately 10,000, in spite of the
toll taken by thd influenza epidemic
of a few years ago. The reindeer in
dustry has contributed to their well
being. Eskimo youth are trained as
herders, and while serving their ap
prenticeship, simultaneously are
taught to read and write. In notable
instances young Eskimos have ac
quired herds of their own and pros
pered in a small way. Commer
cially the industry has made slow
headway, but obstacles to its devel
opment are gradually being overcome
and its future is bright with prom
ise. Within a decade the herds have
multiplied eight to ten fold and are
now estimated at 300,000.
As in the case of Indians, the con
dition of Eskimos who live in isolat
ed sections is pitiable in the extreme.
Tuberculosis and other diseases are
prevalent and medical attention and
relief lacking, save through missions
which, although inadequately equip
ped, exist in out of the way places
and render a splendid humane serv
ice to these primitive people. On the
entire stretch of the Yukon from Ta-,
nana to St. Michael, a distance of
1200 miles, there is but one physician
and no dentist. Towns along the
coast and line of the Alaska Railroad
have hospitals and are amply sup
plied with medical skill, but the
practice of the doctor in the vast in
terior or the far northern country
(Continued on Page Seven)
SEE OUR WINDOWS
FOR BARGAINS
BANBURY & OGLE
k
Do Not Bother Washing at Home
Send your washing to the
Seward Steam Laundry
Telephone Main 148
t
THE SEATTLE HOUSE
Under New Management
STEAM HEATED ROOMS BY DAY, WEEK OR MONTH
MRS. FAIRMAN, Propr. SEWARD, ALASKA
Over the Liberty Theater
HOTEL SEXTON
GEORGE SEXTON, Proprietor
SEWARD'S HOMEY HOTEL, WHERE THE OLDTIMERS
MEET
-+
VAN GILDER HOTEL
HOT AND COLD WATER IN EVERY ROOM
•TEAM HEAT
J. S. BADGER
HOTEL SEWARD
OSCAR DAHL, Proprietor
HOMEY, COMFORTABLE ROOMS AND BATH
Convenient to Depot and Dock
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