TANANA LEADER
Vtl I
Published Every Thursday at Tarawa, Alaska.
SAM J. CALLAHAN. EDITOR
6eo. M. Arbuekl*. Manager
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When Hearst’s New York American put the question
to Delegate Wickersham whether or not he favors a ship
subsidy bill, such as is advocated by President Taft, he
promptly answered in the affirmative. It was not to be ex
pected that he would do otherwise: he had already pub
licly favored a protective tariff on coal, and a subsidy, of
any kind, differs from a protective tariff only in the'mode
of extracting money from people in some sections of coun
try and giving it to other people in other sections. It is
not very clear just at thi3 time, when so many matters in
Alaska are converging onto a common ground whereon the
rights of the people and the privileges of capital are to be
tried out, why the Delegate from Alaska should be called
on to take sides in partisan questions upon which he will
have no vote in congress. It seems somewhat inopportune,
looking at it from a people’s point of view. The question
being put to him, however, he is entitled to credit for
frankness in answering it.
The following uttered by Mr. Bryan at Seattle, Oct.
12, comes very nearly containing all that really needs to be
said on the subject by anybody: “Alaska should have
home rule. It should have home rule because the pioneers
who have built up Alaska are asking for it. They are ask
ing for what the whole world is now fighting for, and what
American citizens Are supposed to have won. The govern
ment cannot consistently refuse it and be true to American
tradition. President Taft cannot refuse it and be true to
his ’own principles. Did he mot give home rule to the
Filopinos? Then why not to the Alaskans, about whose
ability to govern themselves there can be no shadow of
doubt? What if they do make a few mistakes in the be
ginning ? Every state has made mistakes in the beginning,
and most of them have not got over it. Washington will
make mistakes in governing Alaska. No statesman is wise
enough to foresee everything. Alaska has as much right
to make her own mistakes as Washington has to make
them for her.”
So far, under the law making it a felony to give or sell
liquor to Indians there is no indication that the illicit traffic
will be ended. At Fairbanks, under the very nose of a
district attorney zealous in the enforcement of the law, with
the machinery of the United States marshal’s office at his
back, a number of Indians (perhaps all in the city at the
time) were recently arrested for drunkenness. At Tanana,
^ath oflicials^alert and missionaries watchful, the natives
still drink whisky, and only a few nights ago a drunken
one thrashed ;his wife at the mission itself. There is noth
ing for it but for good citizens to give the officials every
assistance possible in enforcing the law—and to question,
meantime, if there is not some prime error in a system that
is as old as the white man’s history on the continent and
is prolific of no good results.
PEOPLE VS. LOBBY
It all depends whether you look at it from the inside or from
the outside. In Washington city, Alaska means, close at hand, an
Alaska lobby, now grown from a typewriter and an expert into one
of the most powerful lobbies at the national capital; farther away,
a Guggenheim-Standard Oil combination which has correlled the'
transportation facilities of the territory and has fenced in the best
copper claims, than which there are none better in the world; and
far away in Alaska itself a large patch of coal lands over which a
hot fight is in progress. Such is the vague picture in the mind oi
the average legislator in the capital city.
The matter of the coal lands will be forced upon congress for
action this winter. There has been so much publicity about them
during the summer that the discussion cannot be dropped. The
Alaska lobby doesn’t want it to be dropped, but wants to push
through its $100,000,090 or $300,000,000 coal combination with the
utmost speed. The effect of this agitation will be to bring all
Alaska questions prominently into the limelight. The only dan
ger is that the lobby will be more powerful than the people of
Alaska, and so bring it to pass that the whole attention will be
.directed to the subjects in which they are specially interested, to
the neglect of the questions which affect the people of the terri
tory directly.
Another effect of a swarming of so many divergent interests
may be to check action of all kind until tedious investigation has
been accomplished. It was the President himself who intimated
that not much might be done until he came to Alaska and saw with
his own eyes. That would mean delay for another year. In the
Remember.
The Grand Hotel
WHILE STOPPING IN TANANA
UP-TO-DATE ROOMS AND BUNKS, ALSO GOOD DOG HOUSES.
FINE WINES, LIQUORS AND CIGARS,
Pool And Billiard Tables In Connection.
Charley Chanquist Prop.
battle for the control of the mineral resources, the government i .
now in line to fight in behalf of the people of Alaska, and may
feel impatient toward attention to what appear, by comparison,
minor details.—Fairbanks Times.
J''
THE BRIDGE
I stood on the bridge at midnight, and gazed on the sleep
ing town; and the moon rose over the courthouse—there was
nothing to hold it down. I looked at the weary river, that bub
bles and twists and squirms; I thought of the folks who drink
it. and till their insides with germs. How often, oh, how often,
when I'd settled the water rent, had I found that the blamed
•collector had left me without a'fefept! How often, oh, how often,
in the days that are gone by, had I yearned for a drink of water
and found all the hydrants dry! So my heart was hot and rest
less, and my life was full of care, and I stood on the bridge at
midnight, where the cops couldn’t hear me swear. And the
bridge, it collapsed beneath me, and fell with an awful din; for
the grafters who built the structure had fashioned the piers of
tin.—Walt Mason.
WAS PERMEATED WITH POLITICS
Indianapolis, Ind., Oct. 12.—At the close of the arguments in
the libel case of the government against Delavan Smith, proprietor
of the Indianapolis News, and Charles R. Williams, editor-in-chief
of the same publication, Judge A. B. Anderson, judge of the United
States district court for the district of Indiana, expressed his belief
that the whole proceeding was permeated with politics, and that so
far as he could see from the evidence, politics dominated the pros
ecution. To add to the novelty of such a diturn from the bench,
Judge Anderson followed by requesting counsel for further en
lightenment on the subject, with a view of determining whether it
was not politics which instigated the prosecution in the first place.
He would be averse to enlisting the power of the United States
courts in a political skirmish.
SOME ADVICE
TO M«. JONES
F. M. Jones.
Portland, Ore., Sept. 23, '09.
Tanana, Alaska:
Dear Sir:—I wish to call your atten
tion to the following: I noticed in a
little booklet printed by a S. S. com
pany quoted as saying that wages paid
to common labor was $3.00 to $7.00 per
day. I don’t believe it. So I apply to
you for verification of the above $5.00
to $7.00 per day and board. If this is
true I am coming up to your place May
1st next (1910), work a while, and then
prospect for myself in the so-called
gold country of Alaska. Twenty-five
years is my age. I am a first-class ma
chinist by trade; also A1 designer of
mechanical appliances of all kinds.
You will do me a great favor if you
write and tell me all about your coun
try. I have got lots of grit and gump
tion: that's what it takes for any new
country. I don’t smoke, chew or drink.
Write soon. Yours very truly,
F. M. Jones.
I atn a mechanical engineer.
Dear Mr. Jones:—Your letter has
been handed to The Leader by the
postmaster of Tanana and has received
thoughtful attention. It is true that
miners receive $5, and perhaps in rare
instances $7, a day and board. But as
your 25 years roll onward toward the
half-century mark you will probably
observe that truth is a dangerous
thing to follow beyond the borderland
of personal experience. When you
finally chase it home and go to bed
with it it may rub its cold feet up and
down your spinal column and at last
kick you out into the suow dispirited
and forlorn.
However, you say you have grit and
gumption: so you had better come on.
Sever all ties of kinship, sociability
and affinity and hit the Valdez-Fuir
banks trail not later than April 1.
Drop the name of Jones and travel and
forever henceforth live under an alias.
Nobody can ever rise in this country
and carry with him the handicap of
Jones. Ole Jansen would do very well,
but at the present writing something
like Skidu Skinovicli would be prefer
able. Study your accent: use your
gumption, but keep it carefully con
cealed. Bring all your money along:
start with nothing else, except the
clothes you stand in, a block of
matches, a pocketful of crackers, a tin
can, a spool of annealed No. fi rabbit
wire and a jackknife. When yon ar
rive at Fairbanks, stay all night—but
exercise discretion. You will be per
fectly safe if you do not drink or chew
tobacco. When you go out after a job
fortify your breath with a fresh onion
and look just as robust and as ignorant
as you can. Operators don’t take kindly
to physical incompetents or mental
superiors. You will catch on all right
if you pay close attention to these di
rections.
If you survive the first ten-hour day
at shoveling tailings, go quietly to bed
and think over the situation. You say
you have lots of grit: so you may make
up your mind to stick to the job. If
you do, and are not fired by the end of
the first week, you had better go to
town and commence suit for your
wages.
By the turn of the summer you will
have more experience and $5 a day will
not look like a haystack in a mirage.
You will probably go prospecting for
yourself. In that case you will need a
partner. Being a teetotaler, you had
better hitch up with a driuking man
who goes to town often and keeps tabs
on the recorder’s office. You can stay
on the creeks and sink holes and hus
tle for grub. In the course of a few
years you should own enough ground
to keep you forever poor in doing the
assessment work—or make you rich, if
your judgment and luck are good
enough and you avoid the snares of
law and of love. If you are lucky and
acquire a good big wad of money, hike
back to the Outside, invest in real
estate, avoid entangling matrimonial
alliances, and sit down and watch youi
fortune grow.
Having said so much, one more pre
cautionary sentence and then we are
done: Try to arrange it so that the
first time you figure in the records
of a law court the reading will begin,
‘•In the matter of the estate of Skidu
Skinovich, deceased.”
SUBSIDY FAVORED
BY WICKERSHAM
President Taft, in his Seattle
speech, having declared himself
in favor of ship subsidies, the
New York American sent tele
grams to members of congress
asking for comment upon the
stand taken by the Prefident.
The following message was re
ceived by Delegate Wickersham
at Fairbanks:
New York, Oct. 4, 190!).
Hon. James Wickersham:
“Now that the President has come
out so forcefully for a ship subsidy, and
has declared that ‘There is no subject
to which congress can better devote its
attention during the coming session,'
will you kindly inform the public
through the American whether or not
you favor such a bill, and why?
New York American.
To this the delegate replied as
follows:
I favor a subsidy to American ship
ping for the same reason that I favor
an act of congress creating an elective
Alaskan legislature and government
aid for Alaskan railroads—namely, as a
means of protecting and extending
American trade into the great unde
veloped North Pacific Oriental market.
Alaska lies midway between Seattle
and Yokohama. It has more gold than
California and Colorado; more copper
than Montana and Arizona; more coal
than Pennsylvania and West Virginia;
more fish than all other American wa
ters; more agricultural land and of
greater capacity than the two Dakotas.
Pacific shipping needs protective
subsidy and Alaska needs a legislature
and government aid for railroads.
Electric Phenomena
Cordova Alaskan, Sept. 25: Master
Electrician Murphy of the cable office
informed us today that the earth cur
rents or electric waves were on a ram
page, which put the cable out of com
mission for most of the day. He says
about this time every year the cable
becomes so heavily charged with elec
tricity that it is impossible to receive
or send messages.
Experts have never been able to ex
plain this peculiar action of electrical
waves at this time of year, but the
fact remains that all the eable service
is demoralized.
NEW WIRELESS
FUNDS ALLOTTED
Acting upon the recommendation of
Colonel Thompson, signal officer in
charge of the department of the Co
lumbia, which includes Alaska, funds
have been allotted by the war depart
ment for the erection of wireless sta
tions at Gulkana and at Nulato. These
additions were recommended originally
by Lieut. E. A. Jeunet, expert in
Alaska for the signal corps, who made
a tour through Alaska during the
summer.
The Gulkana station will form a con
necting link between the south coast of
Alaska and the station at Fairbanks.
The material for the construction of
this station was ready last winter, but
was not hauled in over the trail for
construction this summer. The station
at Nulato will conned Fort Gibbon
with St. Michael.
New School Board
The school election held at the
schoolhouse last Saturday re
sulted in the election of Frank
Smith, George J. Miller (treas
urer), and J. Russell Walle
(clerk). 1_
Special Sunday Dinner at the Ken
tucky restaurant from 6 to 8 p.ra.—
Mrs. M. E. Cooper, proprietor.
Stanley House
HOT SPRINGS’ NEWEST HOTEL
First-Class Ristaarant Frank . Stani f, Prop
CHAS. B. ALLEN,
Attorney at Law
Rampart, Aka.
Lejfal Papers Carefully Drawn.
Stoddard
Kay
THE
INFO R T H E R N.
BEST WINES
LIQUORS AND
CIGARS.
Pool Tables In Connection.
Stoddard Kay
C
AMP 6IBB0N NO. 25, Arctic Brother
hood. meets every Monday night
in A. B. Hall, corner Second st.
and Campbell ave. at 8:30 o’clock.
Visiting Arctics cordially invited to at
tend the meetings of the Camp.
Phit. GAi.r.AHER, Arctic Chief.
J. Russeu. Wali.e, Arctic Rec.
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