TANANA LEADER
Issued every Thursday.
Sam J. Callahan.Publisher
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Thursday, July 14, 1910.
FOR DELEGATE
JAMES WICKERSHAM
THE SOCIALISTS AGAIN.
In a speech not long ago at Jackson,
Michigan, President Taft let it be known
that he.is not unmindful of the gather
ing cloud of Socialism : a fact that shows
his mind is not totally incapable of im
pression by the things that are taking
place under his nose, even if it cannot
discern their true character or invent a
logical scheme for their prevention.
Hanna, even, capable as he was of
searching out the source of things when
he set his mind to it, at the time of his
death had only progressed so far as to
comprehend the full force of the Social
ist movement. If any faint inkling of its
breeding ground ever came to him he
gave no sign. He was afraid; but if he
knew the road to safety’ the road offered
pricks to his tender feet that no amount
of fear could cause him to brave. Per
haps he had not .discovered the road;
but if he had lived till now it is conceiv
able that he would have mastered every
crook and turn of it, for his mind, while
slow, was remarkably thorough in anal
vsis. Fisrt he sought to destroy trade
unions; soon he concluded they might
be used as a buffer against the avalanche;
and he died before the next stage in the
evolution of his thoughts had matured.
Avowed Socialists themselves — the
well-informed among them — see as
clearly and note as correctly the course
of forces that make for Socialism as the
learned astronomers see and note the
course of the planets. They differ as to
what the finality of the movement may
be, but they watch the oncoming body
with unerring precision. One thing,
perhaps, non-Socialists fail to fully grasp,
and that is this: Socialists see, under
stand and help along every disorder
that tends to make the present order of
society unendurable. Under the maxim
that the end justifies the means, between
two courses in the political order they
invariably choose the one embodying
the most flagrant injustice, because in
that way they hope to hasten the end
of the present system. The party now
in power in the United States owes its
position to Socialist voters, and these
voters in the mass are not blind. A So
cialist paper just to hand gloats over
what it considers evidence of imperial
ism and says: “We have latterly seen
presidents holding legislative seances at
the White House and thereby exercising
direct legislative functions. We have
seen these presidents go even further
and virtually constitute themselves a
legislative chamber of one,” etc. Con
tinuing, the paper joys at the things
it cites and concludes that dictatorship
is possible, ending in the self-satisfied
words, “Close behind the bourgeois dic
! tator comes the dictatorship of the pro
j letariat.”
To come nearer home, we will direct
; attention to the article by Mr. Yanert on
another page—Mr. Yanert, who is not a
bad man, or at least does not know he
is a bad man. He says: “Your knight
of the spotless mantle and the rotten
core, he is the real hellhound at your
throat.” Which, being liberally inter
preted, means that cleanliness of action
by public men is the means of prolong
ing the present organization of society
and thereby delaying a happier state.
This is a phase of Socialism that does
not receive the attention it deserves, and
one that is now and has for some years
been exercising a baneful influence over
! the politics of the nation,
j Even the numbskulls by circumstance
' put into high office experience an unde
| fined dread of Socialism : many of them
; are in league with it unawares. Fool
! ishly they mav trv to circumvent it by
i
“strong” government — by centralized
power, by soldiers, by “the man on
horseback.” They cannot do it. There
i is not a garrison of the United States
army but is honeycombed by it; not a
city police force but numbers Socialists
in its ranks.
The future holds in store less of cen
j tralized “strong” government or more
j of centralized weak Socialism—and it
looks like Socialism.
i -
SHOULD WAR COME WITH JAPAN.
When the United States went to war
j with Spain few dreamed that the out
come of that war would leave the repub
lic in armed control over a foreign
people. The war itself was justifiable,
because the maintenance of peace on
the southern border of the United States
made it necessary. But, in the first
I place, it was undertaken on false pre
tenses—it was claimed to be for human
itarian purposes, when it was for noth
ing of the kind. The false pretense is
continued—made necessary, in fact—in
the taking and holding of the Philip
pines.
Seeing what came of that war, the
recurring prophecies at home and abroad
that the United States will inevitably
soon come in conflict with Japan causes
one to speculate as to what far-reaching
consequences might follow should such
a conflict take place.
By showing the change in American
thought that has come about through
the Spanish war, the following from
The Outlook of June 18 may help those
who would ' try to picture the country’s
attitude after a struggle with a patriotic
and efficient fighting people like the
Japanese. Whether Colonel Roosevelt
is the author of the Outlook article or
not we do not know. In part it is as
follows:
We hold explicitly that it is
the duty of a strong, intelligent
and civilized nation not merely
! BILLIARDS
► Fine Liquors and Cigars
THE GRAND
f CHARLES CHANQUIST, Prop.
> Tanana
POOL
Alaska
to protect a weaker and more
backward people, not merely to
give them advice and help in
education, but to exercise sov
ereignty over them, to make
laws for them, to enforce those
laws by whatever power may be
necessary for their enforcement,
and so to furnish protection to
their individual citizens in their
fundamental rights. We hold
that this is the duty of Great
Britain in parts of Africa and is
the duty of the United States in
the Philippine Islands. It is
perfectly evident that no agree
ment with other nations that
such territory should be regard
ed as neutral would accomplish
any result such as this. We be
lieve that the statement in the
Declaration of Independence
that governments derive their
just powers from the consent of
the governed is false; that the
principle embodied in that Dec
laration that just governments
exist for the benefit of the gov
erned is always, everywhere and
eternally true; that, according
ly, whether the Filipinos con
sent or do not consent to the
government exercised over them
is not the fundamental question;
that the fundamrntal question
is whether that government is
exercised over them for their
benefit. Such government, whe
ther exercised by Great Britain
in Africa or by America in the
Philippine Islands, must be ex
ercised for the purpose, among
other things, of developing in
the people governed a capacity
for self government,” etc.
It might be pointed out, however,
that the parties exercising the govern
ment are the judges of its quality—and
they might be biased by self interest.
The scheme for fitting the Filipinos—
and incidentally the Alaskans—for self
government appears about as practica
ble as would a proposition to capture a
European prince and make him lackey
to John D. Rockefeller with a view of
imparting to the prince the qualities of
a king.
THE TIMES MISTAKEN AGAIN
The editor of the Leader does not
like us because we do not like Wieker
ersham as delegate. Now and then he
pokes fun at us because we can do no
better than our best.—Fairbanks Times.
The Times is in error again—this time
absolutely and certainly in error: for
the editor of the Leader does like the
Times. Moreover, he is distinctly its
debtor, for its news columns possess a
value to him which, if he could cash it
at its face, would put him on Easy
street. He is really and truly grieved,
1 Stoddard
Kay
THE
NORTHERN
Best Wines, Liquors and*Cigars
^ Pool Tables in connection
> Stoddard
Kav
St. James’ Mission
Holy Eucharist the first Sunday in each
month at 11 a. m. Each following Sunday,
Evening Prayer at 8 p. m. Every Wednes
day evening, Evening Prayer and Litany at
8 o’clock. WINTHROP PEABODY,
Priest in Charge.
- .... -...... r-~
however, that the Times sometimes does
wrong—in tHe hope, no doubt, that
good may come of it.
To put it in personal terms, after the
<%ample of the Times, the editor of the
Leader thinks the editor of the Times
set his fine talents to a poor use when,
professing to oppose the Beveridge bill,
he opened his batteries on Delegate
Wickersham at the critical stage of that
measure, demanded that he repudiate
his pre-election promises and secure
harmony at Washington by retreating
and letting the lobbyists have a clear
field, and, by devious ways, sought to
belittle the elected representative of the
people and magnify the virtues of men
who, at great expense to themselves,
magnanimously contributed half a year
of their valuable time for the good of
Alaska (in a horn).
i The editor of the Leader is confident
I that when the votes of the 9th of next
j month are counted the editor of the
Times will get plenty of evidence that
his course is not approved by a ma
i jority of the readers of his paper.
DR. C. M. ROSIN
MOVES TO NULATO
Dr. C. M. Rosin, of the Indian service,
departed on the Herman last Monday to
take up permanent residence at Nulato.
His absence will be a distinct loss to
the natives of this region. A physician
permanently stationed here might ac
complish a great deal in the way of
stamping out disease and teaching the
natives the rudiments of sanitary know
ledge. It is true that at Nulato his
services may be quite as necessary. It
would be exceedingly fortunate if his
time could be equally divided between
the two places, with occasional stop
overs at other points along the river;
but it appears that no provision has
been made for transportation or other
extraordinary expenses.