^VUY_______
SECOND YEAR
CHITINA, ALASKA, SATURDAY, JUNE 1, 1912.
NO. 84
INDICTMENT Of “JUDGE” M. R. HEALY
/The original intent of the framers of our present form of
government was that the people should have as effective and
economical a system as they wanted, and that it should be as
clean as they choose to make it.
The case of Healy vs. the People of the Chitina Valley il
lustrates one of those instances where the burden of proof is
thrown upon the people. When an official who is acknowledged
to be crooked, and without any sense of honor, as is shown by
the road tax report for 1911, affidavits, illegal voting, etc., is
given every advantage, actual or fancied, of immaterial techni
calities, when the respectable people demand his removal on
all general grounds and on many specific ones, isn’t there
something wrong when a big majority of the people want
things clean and they have to fight for itf
Healy’s supporters hope that the grand jury will white
wash him. Those who oppose him know that it will not, if it
is representative of the people. The evidence that will be put
before the grand jury will disqualify Healy in the opinion of
nine out of ten people who are unbiased and have no selfish
purpose to serve.
Whitewashing will have no effect on United States Com
missioner Healy. His color is not skin-deep. It permeates his
entire being. He has abused his office and betrayed the peo
ple. Court officials may desire to give him a clean bill of
health, but the stench of liis unworthiness cannot long be coat
ed with whitewash. It will soon reappear and the people of
the Chitina precinct will never rest content until this tumor
of injustice, vindictiveness and dishonor has been removed.
The course of the Leader has been governed largely by the
knowledge that it takes a mighty strong case to do anything
❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖
❖ ❖
❖ OATH OF ALIEN M. R. HEALY ^
❖ TAKEN BEFORE VOTING AT CHITINA ^
❖ - ❖
^ United States of America, ^
^ District of Alaska, ss. ^
❖ ❖
❖ I, M. R. Healy, do solemnly swear that I am twen- ^
❖ tv-one years of age and a citizen of the United States; ^
^ that I am an actual and bona fide resident of Alaska, ^
^ and have been such resident during the entire year inr ^
^ mediately preceding this election, and have been a res- ^
^ ident in this voting precinct for thirty days next pre- ^
^ ceding this election, and that I have not voted at this ^
❖ election; that I came from Seattle immediately prior to ^
❖ living in Chitina precinct, and that I had resided in ^
^ said.immediately prior to coming to said pre- ^
^ cinct. ^
^ Subscribed and sworn to this 9th day of August, ^
^ 1910, at Chitina, Alaska. ^
❖ M. R. HEALY. <£>
❖ ❖
❖ ❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖
with an official in Alaska. The fight was not taken up sooner
simply because we know that the people are fighting in the
open and the officials are intrenched. The officials have ad
vantages that make a fight useless unless the people are armed
many times stronger than those they wish to remove. The
Leader took no part in the affair till it convinced itself that a
big majority of the free-thinking people believed that Healy
was crooked or a detriment to the community. And believing
that to be sufficient for his removal, it has tried to express the
wishes of the people of the whole Chitina Valley. Personal
grievances or selfish interests should not have and has not had
any part in this.
Why we should have Healy in spite of what has been
shown, only those who are trying to whitewash him know. Why
he should go, every honest man in this country well knows.
Do we demand too much when we ask for fairness and de
cency? The man who pretends to think our tight is prompted
by personal feeling simply seeks an excuse for his own selfish
stand, which he cannot justify even to himself. The Leader
would gladly leave the question of Healyism to a vote of the
people of this district. Would he? Why, then, is he given ev
ery advantage in the tight ?
But then the burden of proof is with the people.
And the injured people feel that it is a hard tight when the
entire official family is seemingly arrayed against a demand
for justice. But with a knowledge that right must eventually
triumph, there is a confidence generally felt that the downfall
of Tyrant Healy is but a question of a short time. If not
through the means of a grand jury, then other action that will
soon follow.
Ere this Healy episode, with all its surrounding and unex'
plainable court official sustenance, becomes the shame of
Alaska, we pray for relief. If the demand for justice were
strengthened by an ordinary support upon the part of the pre
siding judge, the marshal and his sleuths and the district at
torney’s office, the result would redound to the benefit of the
people and the glorv of the C'liitna precinct.
O. A. NELSON.
To U. S. Commissioner Michael Robert Healy:
For more than a year past you have been holding the judi
cial office of United States Commissioner for the Chitina, Alas
ka, precinct, when you were an alien and a subject of Great
Britain.
During the first half of that period you posed as an Ameri
can citizen.
In November last, while your official acts were under in
vestigation by the grand jury sitting at Cordova, you were
forced to confess that you .were not a .citizen of the United
States.
About one hundred of the residents of your precinct peti
tioned the court for your removal last November.
In March last seventy men at Kennecott petitioned for your
removal and denounced your methods in mass meeting.
Numerous instances have been publicly cited showing your
despotic methods and means of intimidation and persecution
practiced upon the people of your precinct.
You have been a menace to the peace, good order and con
tentment of the people of your community.
Your connection with the collection of the road tax for the
Chitina precinct for the year 1911 has been illegal and scandal
ous.
You have required excessive bail and imposed excessive
fines in direct contravention to Amendment VIII of the Consti
tution.
You have denied the right of the people of your precinct to
be secure in their persons against unreasonable searches and
seizures, in direct contravention to Amendment IV of the Con
stitution.
You have insulted peaceable American citizens who have
attempted to do business with the government through your
office.
You have made threats as to the punishment that you
would mete out to certain individuals in case they were ever
brought before you officially.
You have endeavored to persecute, intimidate and drive
from the community men who signed a petition against you, or
otherwise incurred your displeasure.
Your name has become a by-word and reproach among
those people who know of an attempted indignity in your cabin
in August, 1910.
You, better than any other, know whether you did not take
up your residence in Canada after you had declared your inten
tion to become a citizen of the United States.
You know why you waited for twenty-one years after you
declared your intention to become a citizen before petitioning
for your final papers.
You swore to support and defend the constitution of the
United States and to bear true faith and allegiance to the same,
when you were under allegiance to another country.
You admitted under oath in the district court, before Judge
Cushman, on May 25,1912, that you voted at Chitina at the gen
eral election held there on August 9, 1910; that your vote was
challenged and you subscribed to a declaration in which you
swear that you were a citizen of the United States.
You know that you violated the election law of the Unit
ed States and that in your declaration you make yourself lia
ble to criminal prosecution.
You know that Judge Cushman has called a grand jury to
investigate your official acts, to meet on June 3, 1912.
You know the number of crimes you have committed mak
ing you liable to indictment.
You know that the voters of your precinct have absolutely
lost all confidence in your honesty, integrity, fairness and jus
tice.
You know that even though the grand jury should fail to
indict you that you are subject to prosecution when the natural
ization bureau is made familiar with all the facts in your case.
You know that the people of the Chitina precinct have done
nothing to deserve the infliction of such a prejudiced, crafty,
cruel, vindictive, cold-blooded official such as you have proven
yourself to be.
You know that your retention for a year in a judicial office
when you were an alien has brought reproach upon this section
of Alaska.
You know that a prosecution will be brought against you
for illegal voting and that the penalty therefor is punishment
by fine and imprisonment up to three years.
And in the face of all these facts, do you, M. R. Healy, dare
to longer continue in a sacred office that you have debauched
and trailed in the mire.
And you may know of many more reasons why your reten
tion in office is a stigma upon the fair name of Alaska and an
outrageous infliction upon the patient people of the Chitina pre
cinct.
You know that the favor, unexplainable and deplorable as
it is, of a friendly court, and the gumshoe sleuths of a marshal’s
office can no longer protect you from the ignominy and punish
ment of your daring criminality and acts of oppression.
You know that the people are still supreme in the United
States and in Alaska, and that an outraged public demands that
you be relegated to oblivion.
RESIGN, HE ALLY, RESIGN!
WILL A. STEEL.
NATURALIZATION LAWS OP THE UNITED STATES
The conditions under and the manner in which an alien may be admit
ted to become a citizen of the United States are prescribed by Sections 2,
165-74 of the Revised Statutes of the United States, as amended by Chap
ter 3593 of the Acts of the First Session of the 59th Congress and Chapter
2534 of the Acts of the Second Session of the 59th Congress, from which
the following sections are quoted:
Declaration of Intention!—The alien must declare upon oath before a circuit
or district court of the United States or a district or supreme court of the Ter
ritories, or a court of record of any of the States having common law jurisdiction
and a seal and clerk, of which he is a resident, two years at least prior to his ad
mission that it is, bona fide, his Intention to beoome a citizen of the United States,
and to renounce forever all allegiance and fidelity to any foreign prince or state,
and particularly to the one of which he may be at the time a citizen or subject.
M. R. Healy declared his intentions at Chicago on January 12, 1801,
more than twenty years prior to his petition for admission.
Petition on Application for Admission.—At the time of his application for ad
mission, which must be not less than two years nor more than seven years after
such declaration of intention, he shall make and file a petition in writing, signed
by himself (and duly verified by the affidavits of two credible witnesses who are
citizens of the United States, and who shall state that they have personally known
him to be a resident of the United States at least five years continuously, and of
the state or district at least one year previously), in one of the courts above
specified, that it is his intention to become a citizen and reside permanently In
the United States, that he is not a disbeliever in organized government or a be
liever in polygamy, and that he absolutely and forever renounces all allegiance and
fidelity to any foreign country of which he may at any time of filing his petition
be a citizen or subject.
M. R. Healy’s application for admission was made on November 20,
1011, and more than twenty years after his declaration of intention. .One
of M. R. Healy’s witnesses swore that he met him in 1900, again in 1904,
and next in the summer of 1909. He also testified that he had no knowl
edge of where Healy was or resided from 1004 to 1009. The other wit
ness saw him in 1900, again in 1008, and next during the summer of 1009,
in Alaska. The law requires that under oath two credible witnesses must
state that they have personally known him to be a resident of the United
States at least five years continuously.
Conditions for Citizenship.—He shall, before his fins l admission to citizen
ship, declare on oath in open court that he will support the Constitution of the
United States, and that he absolutely and entirely renounces all foreign allegiance.
If it shall appear to the satisfaction of the court that immediately preceding the
date of his application he has resided continuously within the United States five
years at least, and within the State or Territory where such court is held one
year at least, and that during that time he has behaved as a man of good moral
character, attached to the principles of the Constitution of the United States and
well disposed to the good order and happiness of the same, he may be admitted
to citizenship.
During November last, in February and succeeding months, petitions
were presented to Judge Cushman, in addition to various charges that were
filed, all for the purpose of securing the removal of M. R. Healy as United
States Commissioner. They alleged that he was not a man of good charac
ter and was not well disposed to the good order and happiness of the com
munity. Judge Cushman summoned a grand jury to sit at Chitina on June
3, 1012, to investigate the charges against M. R. Healy. Prior to that in
vestigation, and on May 25, 1912, Judge Cushman admitted M. R. Healy to
citizenship.
The Bight of Suffrage.—The right to vote comes from the State, and is a
State gift. Baturalization is a Federal right and is a gift of the Union, not of any
one State.. Tile Federal naturalization laws apply to the whole Union alike, and
provide that no alien may be naturalized until after five years residence. Even
after five years residence and due naturalization, he le not entitled to vote unices
the laws of the State confer the privilege upon him.
The laws of Alaska provide that a voter must be a citizen of the
United States. When M. R. Healy cast his vote he was not a citizen. .
ELECTION LAWS FOR ALASKA
An act providing for the election of a delegate to the House of Repre
sentatives from the Territory of Alaska, was passed by Congress and ap
proved May 7, 1906. From this act certain pertinent sections are cited:
3. That all the male citizens of the United States twenty-one years of age
and over who are actual and bona fide residents of Alaska, and who have ftpen
such residents continuously during the entire year immediately preceding the
election, and who have been such residents continuously for thirty days next
preceding the election in the precinct in which they vote, shall be qualified to
vote for the election of a delegate from Alaska.
M. R. Healy, holding the office of United States Commissioner for the
Chitina precinct, District of Alaska, for the past year, was not a citizen of
the United States until his admission by Judge Cushman on May 25, 1912.
Sec. 10. That any person offering to vote may be challenged by any election
officer or any other person entitled to vote at the same polling place, or by any
duly appointed watcher, and when so challenged, before being allowed to vote he
shall make and subscribe to the following oath: "You do solemnly swaar (or af
firm, as the case may be) that you are twenty-one years of age and a citizen of
the United States; that you are an actual and bona fide resident of Alaska, and
have been such resident during the entire year immediately preceding this elec
tion, and have been a resident In this voting precinct for thirty days next preced
ing this election,” and that you have not voted at this election, and further nam
ing the place from which the voter came immediately prior to living in the pre
cinct in which he offers to vote, and giving the length of time of his residence
in the former place. And when he has made such an affidavit he shall be allowed
to vote; but if any person so challenged shall rsfnss or fail to take such oath and
sign such an affidavit, then his vots shall be rejected; and any parson swearing
falsely in any such affidavit shall be guilty of psrjury and shall upon conviction
I'.ereof, suffer punishment as is prescribed by law for persons guilty of perjury.
M. R. Healy offered to vote at the general election at Chitina, Alaska,
on August 9, 1910. He was challenged by Tom Parker, a duly appointed
watcher. He subscribed to an oath stating among declarations that he was
a citizen of the United States. His vote was accepted and placed in the
ballot box, by the proper election officer. Sec 10 declares that such an act
was perjury.
Sec. 15 (Part of). That any person who shall vote at a place where or at
a time when he may not lawfully be entitled to vote, shall be guilty of a crime,
and upon conviction thereof shall be punlahed by a line of not less than two hun
dred dollars, nor more than one thousand dollars, or by Imprisonment of not more
than live years, or both, in the discretion of the court, and shall pay all costs of
the prosecution; and jurisdiction of all such matters is hereby conferred upon
the district court of Alaska.
M. R. Healy voted at Chitna, Alaska, on August 0, 1010, when he was
not a citizen of the United States. Sec. 15 declares such an act to be a
crime, and upon conviction thereof shall be punishable by a fine or impris
onment of not more than five years.
IENTURESDMEGUHBINB
G. W. Handy, the intrepid moun
tain climber who accompanied Mias
Dora Keen, has gone to Cordova for
necessary equipment and will return
to McCarthy, when he will accompa
ny Miss Keen on a trip to the Whlta
ipiver country and the Yukon by way
Of Scolai pass, it is no wonder that
M^. Handy speaks enthusiastically of
the success of his trip and of the
wonderful little woman who went to
the itop of the continent when sa
many rough old mushers turned back
on account of the rough going. It
must ’ have been impressive Indeed,
after n month of heroic effort and
dangef and exposure to cold and
wind, !for those two to stand on the
top o^ that old mountain, a perfect
day and a clear atmosphere, with
only few of the big fellows like
Lanfoid, Drum and Wrangell, the
Pacific ocean and Yukon valley all
spread out below them. Most peo
ple would be profoundly Impressed.
What must be the feeling of people
capable of their effort! The Yukon
hills looked inviting and they deter
mined to visit them as soon as they
retuifned. The descent was more
dangerous than the ascent. Mr.
Handy has climbed all over the Alps
but says he has never seen anything
to equal Blackburn for steepness and
difficulty. Snow slides were com
ifon occurrences. One went over
their iglo, which was dug into the
crystalized snow, which precaution
saved their lives that time. They
really give more credit to their guar
dian angel than to the'r own good
sense for getting back with their
lives. The trip over Scolai pass will
take them through a country of gi
gantic and varied scenery, if not as
imposing as the sight from Black
burn. Mr. Handy is well acquaint
ed with this section of the country.
o o o
Boost for the Alaska Semi-Pen tew*
nial Exposition, Fairbanks, 1917.
. ■ ■ o —o—o-•
LOCALMGS
Former U. S. Commissioner R.
Blix, of Copper Center, is in town
this week.
Marshal Brown made a trip out to
Bingham’s road house. He Btarted
on horseback, but the trail got so
bad taht he was compelled to com
plete the trip on foot.
Mrs. J. W. Forrester haB joined
her husband at Kuskullna, where
they will spend the next few weeks,
but will then return to Chitina.
Palmer & Clonlnger have begun
work on the Old Log Cabin Saloon
building, which they are going to re
model and make into an attractive
and up-to-date hotel to be conduct
ed as an annex to the Hotel Chitina.
John McCrary, of Copper Center,
was in town this week. He reports
the trail very good with the excep
toin of about three-fourths of it,
which is almost impassable. A large
part of the trail now is in such a con
dition that it acts as a ditch for the
draining of the surrounding coun
try. It will dry up later in the sum
mer, but unless it is graded up some
or corduroyed there will be no bot
tom to it at all next fall when the
rains start. We hope a part of that
big appropriatoin will come this way.
Those stopping at the Overland
this week are G. Johnson, P. D.
Burke, E. W. Miller, A. Barres, M.
M. Reese, M. Grohen, A. Laison, E.
Hall, J. DeBruin, R. Blix, M. J. Sul
livan, Mr. Brooks.
Those stopping at the Chltna Ho
tel this week are W. W. Powell, F. E.
Bond, Mrs. W. D. Mitchell, O. W.
Handy, J. K. Dahl, P. Johnson, E. F.
Gray and wife, Mrs. M. Logan, E. J.
Elliott, Carl Hansen, L. G. Hlnckle.
A1 Doze, H. Fagerberg. K. Erkbury,
J. A. Fagerberg, A. N. Hayes, George
R. Goshaw, J. F. Clarkln, Mrs. H.
Goodman, A. Lund, Jos. B. Goock
nytn. C. B. Peterson, F. A. Clow, O.
F. Howell J. W. Woods, G. B. Bru
baker, O. L. Larson.
-O' O "1 o —
Boost for the Alaska Semi-Centen
nial Exposition, Fairbanks, 1917.