TANANA LEADER
Issued every Thursday.
Sam J. Callahan. Publisher
Subscription.—One year, f 10; six months,
$5; one month, ¥1; single copies, 25 cents.
Advertising.—Rates on application. Right
reserved to reject any advertisement.
Thursday, July 21, 1910.
FOR DELEGATE
JAMES WICKERSHAM
WICKERSHAM’S GOOD WORK
It is the business of Alaska’s delegate
to congress to present the people’s side
of questions that immediately concern
them. That is what the delegate is
elected and sent to Washington for.
It is the duty of the administration to
hear the people’s side of the case and
at least try to strike a just and equita
ble balance between the claims of the
people as presented by their representa
tive and the ironclad rules formulated
by federal officials and lobbied for by
themselves and their self-interested
apologists. A fair-minded administra
tion could do nothing less than hear
both sides. It was weakness instead of
strength of character that impelled the
president of the United States to say to
the elected representative that his mind
was made up with regard to Alaska, and
later, when the program he had mapped
out for the territory was on the point of
failure, to welcome the rag-tag-and
bobtail of the territory in a vain effort
to strengthen his untenable position.
When the president curtly informed
Delegate Wickersham that he would not
hear from him the people’s side of the
case, the delegate did not become over
awed and settle down into an unevent
ful obscurity. He never craw-fished; he
never heeded the timeservers who slan
dered him at home or the cold assur
ance of eastern congressmen that Alaska
will be held and administered solely for
the profit of the United States. There
was not a Waskey or a Cale in Wash
ington as delegate from Alaska, e'«c the
president’s program for Alaska would
have been carried out.
Before the short session of congress
was ended the people of the United
States learned more of Alaska—its peo
ple, its resources and its history—than
they had learned in all the previous
years.
It is worthy of mention also that the
information furnished by Delegate Wick
ersham and printed in the public rec
ords affords in accessible form knowl
edge of immense value not only to the
people at large, but also to the various
departments of government.
Delegate Wickershain has accom
plished no little in the way of legisla
tion for Alaska, all of which was timely,
just and beneficial; but the measures
advocated by him which failed of pass
age, but which Mill undoubtedly later
be accepted by congress in dealing with
this great territory, are the ones that
will make Alaskans his debtor for all
time.
Under the most trying circumstances
imaginable, it is questionable if in the
I history of the country a territorial dele
gate ever did so much for his constitu
ents in so short a time. It is certain
that none ever attained so prominent a
position in the estimation of the sena
tors and representatives of all the
states, who uniformly respect his abil
ity if they do not accept his recom
mendations. It is also certain — (and
this is all that can be urged against
AVickersham at home ) — that never be
fore did a national administration offer
so active an endeavor to defeat a terri
torial delegate’s re-election.
AA'e are in a position to know that
politicians and interested persons in
various states are lending their influ
ence to the campaign against AA’icker
ersham. It will not avail. The people
of Alaska will prove their claim to
recognition as respectable, independent
citizens by sending AA’ickersham back to
AA’ashington to complete the fight so
ably begun._
THE LINES OF LEAST RESISTANCE
One of the most profitless actions on
this earth is kicking. About the only
relief that ever comes to a man — (or
to a newspaper, for that matter) —
who indulges in the practice arrives
when he kicks the bucket. These con
clusions are borne out by the observa
tions and experiences of one who has
had a long and modestly eventful ca
reer. The snows of fifty-odd hard win
ters have frozen into his inner con
sciousness the philosophy that along the
lines of least resistance grow, respect
ively, peace of mind, ease of body, true
wisdom, and, eventually, a smooth and
well-ordered eternity. At a tender age
contact with the parental shingle gave
the first practical lessons in the law of
non-resistance; arrived at manhood, a
broken head by a bandit’s pistol butt
clinched the logic of the teaching. All
through life the injunction not to kick
has been pounded into our poor, errant
cranium, until the idea is fixed there,
immovable and unchangeable.
Neither in word nor in spirit do we
want to kick any more. Therefore, if
some one asks what we think of the
timber regulations as applied to this
country, we will answer:
“Everything is for the best; therefore
they must be beneficent.”
If be complain of being called a thief
for having cut wood on government
land, we will tell him to take comfort
from the w'ords spoken to another thief
who was even crucified in the long ago.
If he urge the proposition that it is
poor economy to lay a tax the collection
of $1 of which costs $10, we will say unto
him: “This regulation is the result of
the combined wisdom of the greatest
statesmen of the mightiest nation on
! earth.”
If he allude to the circumstance that
a great portion of this taxed timber is
consumed by the military arm of the
BILLIARDS
Fine Liquors and Cigars
POOL
THE GRAND
Tanana
CHARLES CHANQUIST, Prop.
Alaska
government laying the tax, the govern
ment thereby levying tribute on its own
necessities, we will remind him that all
great schemes of government are car
ried out along certain defined lines of
action without regard to incidental in
congruities.
If he plead that worthy persons, when
they go forth for firewood with which
to warm their humble cabins and boil
their scanty bacon and beans, may find
the forests “reserved” and see no place
whereat to procure that which they
seek, we will speak to him a parable,
saying: “He who watcheth the flower
ing figtree and hath his basket ready
for the ripening fruit, verily he shall not
go away empty.”
Finally, if he object to the tax on the
ground that it is a hardship on a people
who are already overburdened with di
rect and indirect tribute and whose pro
duction of riches flows steadily from
their own reach, we will explain to him
| that that is the plan adopted to get
; even with the big companies whose
steamers ply the rivers and consume
the forests for fuel, and whom the ad
ministration at Washington has deter
mined shall bear their just proportion
of the public burden. W’e will explain
I
to him that the administration is anx
| ious to have a big company man go to
j Washington as delegate from Alaska so
that through him the corporations may
know what will be done to them unless
they are honest and square.
All these things we will say and ex
planations we will elucidate unto any
timber thief who questions us. And we
will kick never again.
== ■ ■ - ■■■
Two straws that show which way the
wind is blowing in Alaska.—The inte
rior department ha9 overruled the re
| quirement that in order to be valid no
■ tices of the location of coal claims must
have been filed previous to the with
drawal of the land from entry. This
will enable the Guggenheims to secure
their fraudulent claims. President Taft
has withdrawn all coal lands in Alaska
from entry until after the lands shall
have been surveyed. This will place
the coal in parts of the territory t>eyond
the reach of any one for a generation or
; more. Tanana has coal—good coal—but
it would be foolish to believe the land
will be surveyed any time soon. Who
i
ever appropriates that coal before the
land is surveyed will be a thief, but the
capitalists who will be handed over the
thousands of square miles of coal on
the coast—why, they are business men
! seeking to develop the country.
Stoddard
Kay
THE
NORTHERN
Best Wines, Liquors and Cigars
Pool Tables in connection
Stoddard Kay
TAKE HOME SOME
ORANGES IN CRATES
SUPERFINE
EATING CHOCOLATE
BAB HABBOB FEBBLE8
Vanilla Chocolate CROQUETTES
Claremont Chocolates
LA VOGUE
OHOCOLATB CIGARETTES
CHOCOLATE DOMINOES
Delicious Pepsin Gam
Chocolate Molasses Chips
OLD-FASHIONED
WASHINGTON TAFFY
Delicious Nut Chocolate
QUALITY)
purity [ UNAPPROACHABLE!
FLAVOR )
SOLO BY
G. H. TIFFANY M„c|
St. James’ Mission
Holy Eucharist the first Sunday in each
month at 11 a. in. Each following Minday,
Evening Prayer at 8 p. m. Every Wednes
day evening, Evening Prayer and Litany at
8 o’clock. WINTHROP PEABODY,
Priest in Charge.
! _J ' 1
Men! Do you know Abe Spring? He
is treasurer of the Orr campaign com
mittee. _
If it is true, as reported, that Major
W. I*. Bichardson at. Nome made a cam
paign speech in opposition to the elec
tion of Wickersham, it only proves that
Major Richardson as an army officer is
far outside of the line of his duty when
he dabbles in factional politics.
“I thank you for the flowers you sent,”,
she said,
And she smiled and blushed and dropped
her head;
“I’m sorry for the words I spoke last
j night;
! Your sending the flowers proved that
you were right.
Forgive me.”
He forgave her,
And as they walked and talked beneath
the bowers
He wondered who in hell sent her those
flowers. xxx