The Chitina leader
CHITINA, ALASKA. _
Entered as second class matter, No/ember 12. 1910, at the postoffice
at Chitina, Alaska, under the Act of Congress of March 3, 18 19.
Published every Saturday by
WILL A. STEEL—Editors, Managers and Proprietors—lfarry G. STEEL
Office: Hote lChltlna Building. Cordova Office: Daily Alaskan
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CHITINA .ALASKA, SATDBSAT, PEBRUAKV 17. 1912. _
LIMIT THE KILLING OF THE SEAL HERD
HR The Seattle Times very truly say- that good faith is essen
«t;al iu the United States in the matter of killing seal's on the
jHpribilof Islands, along the lines contemplated in an amendment
■ that was favorably considered by the House committee on tor
V eign affairs.
™ It is reported that the committee indorsed a plan by which
5,000 seals shall be killed during the first five years, 7,500 dur
ing the second five years, and 10,000 for the next five years.
It will be remembered that an agreement recently was en
tered into between the United States. Japan, Great Britain
and Russia, by which it is hoped to wipe out pelagic sealing
and conserve the herds owned by the first and last named pow
ers.
It is arranged that a portion of the value of the “kill”
shall be dealt out to the several power- annually and as evi
dence of good faith—the United States having inaugurated the
movement—this government was to pay a substantial advance
amount to Japan and Great Britain, the same to be deducted,
in stipulated proportions, from the annual revenue accruing to
these powers.
The ground on which the United States advocated the
agreement was the danger of depletion of the herds through
the activity of poachers, who pursue and kill the female seals
outside the three-mile limit and thus thin out the herds through
the death of the young.
A certain “thinning” process is declared to be essential
to the welfare of the herd. The young male seals are pictured
as mere trouble-breeders and disposal of a certain number each
year is said to be necessary.
If this be the aim of the congressional bill, there can be no
question of the wisdom of the action favored by the commit
tee.
At the same time, in any consideration of the subject, ab
solute good faith is essential, as this country is in the position
of a reformer seeking to remedy a long-standing evil. If any
attempt be made to get around any provisions of the agree
ment—as might be inferred by the peculiar form in which news
dispatches dealing with the subject were cast—the United
States will not emerge with any added credit.
. --- - nnnn_
SHOULD USE SITKA BARRACKS AS ASYLUM
The War Department has decided to abandon the marine
barracks at Sitka and the men and officers will be removed
at an early date. The withdrawal of the marines is another
blow to the old town of Sitka, which has practically been
abandoned since the capital was lost to it and established at
J uneau.
The withdrawal of the marines and the abandonment of
the barracks presents an opportunity for other sectins of the
territory to come to the assistance offSitka and help her main
tain her place on the map of Alaska. The barracks made use
less by the withdrawal of the marines should provide an ideal
asylum for the care of the insane and indigent of the terri
tory. The buildings have been kept in the best state of re
pair. Last year a heating plant costing $20,000 was installed
and the buildings have all modem improvements possible foi
the government to provide. The ballings are also the prop
erty of the government and will no doubt be permitted to go
to ruin as is usually the case unless! turned to use for other
purposes. The property which is unier the War Department
could be transferred to the Treasury Department.
The cost to the government for caring for Alaska’s insant
is considerable, and an effort should be made to have this
money spent in Alaska, where it would add to the general pros
pritv of the territory as a whole.
The present system of providing for the care of Alaska’s
insane in asylums in the states by contract is burdensome in
the extreme. Unfortunates are sent out accompanied b\
guards whose extra wages, expenses and transportation con
sume a big portion of the money charged to the care of the
territory’s insane. The barracks at Sitka should provide idea
quarters for an asylum, and the climate is as agreeable as
any portion of the coast. An effort should be made by Alas
kans to have the money spent at home instead of going to hel)
build up outside towns. If the matter is taken up by the
chambers of commerce and other organizations of Alaska it
will be possible to help the old town of Sitka and effect a
saving to the government at the same time.—Valdez Pros
pector.
-none
From all indications this afternoon, winter deferred seems
to have received a lmrrv-up call and is preparing to make Cor
dova folks seem natural again. Report - rom the interior in
dicate that cold weather is fast approaching, and that snow
blizzards may again be expected, after a cessation of over a
month. But it is not believed that there will again be any se
rious tie-up on the railroad this winter. The new snow rotary
should be along within the next week or two, and there will
then be ample facilities to cope with the elements.
-oooo
I It is alleged that Alaska is enjoying a mild winter by rea
son of a shift in the Japanese ocean current. This does not ex
actly appear in the kind of weather we are getting from that
vicinity. If Alaska takes the Japanese mild waves and coti
’ erts them into the frigid kind that she has been handing out
for the past five weeks, it establishes a balance of trade that
the rest of the country will not hesitate to declare obnoxious
—Eastern Exchange.
--0000
The Czar’s course in giving a pension to Countess Tolstoy
seems to confer a belated recognition on the genius of her hus
band, for which he was proscribed during his life. But per
haps a color of consistency may be gained lor the act by recol
lecting that the Countess did not agree with the extreme form
of the Count’s beliefs.
-.-oooo-— —
Colonel Bryan succeeded in having his name withdrawn
from the Nebraska primary tickets as a candidate for Presi
dent. thus demonstrating that the thing can be done if the non
candidate is in earnest, and also that .Colonel Bryan is in earn
est.
*-— oooo- —
An Italian aviator lias been winged by the Arabs. Thus the
most modern of warriors is met by the oldest.
THE ANOMALY OF POLITICS *
There is much in politics these days that is«amusing, and
even ludicrous. And some people take it very seriously, par
ticularly when methods are practiced by others when they
themselves are not in a position to carry out the same tactics.
And that reminds us that from general report there was a real
red- hot primaries (in the plural) held in Cordova yesterday.
And it further develops that many voters of all shades of po
litical belief considered that it was to be a free-for-all. But it
happens that it was really a bona fide Republican primary, lipid
under authority of the Republican territorial committee and
properly called and advertised by the territorial committee
man for this locality. And the published call indicated that
Democrats, Socialists, Wickersham Republicans and the fol
lowers of any other policiaal faith were not expected to attend
the caucus and indicate who the delegates shduld be who were
to attend the Republican territorial convention and name the
man whom the regular Republicans were expected to support.
This was clearly indicated by the published clause, “all Re
publicans who case their vote at the delegate election for the
regular party nominee shall be entitled to participate in the
primaries, providing, if challenged, he makes a written declar
ation that he will support the nominee of the convention to
which delegates are to be elected.” And the authority for this
requirement was clearly set forth by the territorial committee
which met on Dec. 15 last, in the official call for the forthcom
ing convention on March 30. After declaring that only bona
fide Republicans, who, if challenged, shall make a written de
claration, shall vote at the primaries, the following clause is
contained: “And said territorial committeeman and the judges
of election named by such territorial committeeman shall adopt
such reasonable rules as may be necessary to satisfy themselves
that such electors offering themselves at such primaries to
vote HAVE BEEN and ARE bona fide Republicans.”
J5ut it just happened that many of our citizens were not
particularly busy yesterday and they longed for some excite
ment. They had read that a primary was to be held. They
didn’t take seriously the clause that it was really a family af
fair of loyal Republicans who had given their time and efforts
two years ago, and who expected to do so again with the ap
proaching delegate eleetic®, to win success for the party nomi
nee. A lot of the boys thought it would be good fun to get
busy, name a ticket of their own and, if possible, elect some
delegates to the Republican convention whom they could con
trol. Of course, most of the men they selected wouldn’t allow
themselves to be used as catspaws if they had been electd. All
went well until the hour for voting arrived. Then the warm at
mosphere began to chill. There was something wrong. And a
wail of indignation'went up when they were given to under
stand that if a man’s loyalty to Republicanism was doubted
he would really be required to make a written declaration that
he had supported the last regular nominee and that he would
support the nominee of the forthcoming convention. Now
they hadn’t counted on that. Most of the boys were good vot
ers and workers, too. Didn’t they hold a Wickersham primary
two years ago and elect some of themselves as delegates to the
independent convention at Junau that selected the honorable
James Wickersham as their standard bearer? And didn’t they
work like Trojans to carry the town of Cordova for him, and
aren’t they just as ready today to buckle on the armor for his
defense? Of course, but they wanted to keep themselves in
practice and show the real Republicans how a caucus should
be held. They wrestled with the question for an hour or two
but they knew that they couldn’t subscribe to the declaration.
And in the meantime a regular ticket of Republicans was
being elected, with only an occasional vote for the insurgent
ticket. And this was also displeasing to some of the men who
!iad supported Ed S. Orr two years ago. So the different “neu
rotic” elements decided that their fun was not to be nipped in
the bud and they determined that they would hold a primary
of their own. So some of the ‘4 regulars ’ ’ like Attorney Boryer,
Lewy Betler and Dan Pendergast clasped hands with the strong
Wickersham lieutenants like Dr. Chase, Jack Dalton and C.
Goodall. and opened a side show of their own on the first floor
ot the City Hall. And they held a right smart primary and
elected some mighty good men as delegates to a convention.
From report, it is questionable whether some of these men want
to attend any convention, but the insurgent leaders insist that
L. P. Shackelford will seat them in the Cordova Republican
i ouvention. And he may do it, too, but in the meantime the
regular Republicans of town feel content for they realize that
hey have satisfactorily performed their duty. And they liard
;v think that Mr. Shackelford, assuming that he will control
the majority of delegates in the convention, will prove so incon
-istent as to repudiate the written declaration which he himself
wrote into the official call and which was adopted by the ma
iority proxies that he held. But then, some strange things are
done in politics and you never ean tell. But the little episode
yesterday shouldn’t cause any hard feelings. The boys had
their fun, and things must be livened up once in a while. Of
the 103 votes cast only 13 were required to sign a declaration.
A few of the Wickersham followers offered to vote, but when
•hallenged very naturally refused to affirm that they had or
would support the regular Republican nominee, so they went
down stairs and east their ballot. And one of the ludicrous feat
ures lies in the fact that some of the instigators of the rump
primary, like Attorney Boryer and Lewy Belter didn’t vote the
insurgent ticket down stairs, but voited it at the regular pri
mary upstairs. But everybody had a good time and apparent
ly both sides are happy and content,
- -■— AAfkA_
NOME ENTITLED TO ONE
Alaska will bo allowed two delegates in the Republican
National Convention to be held in Chicago on June 18, 1912.
Nome should be entitled to one of two things, either the ap
pointment from among its many stanch Republican leaders a
national committeeman, or one of the delegates to go to the con
vention in June.
The fact that it would be almost impossible to make the
trip should not stand in the way, the honor belongs to Nome
and the republicans should demand their rights.
What we really need is the appointment of the national
committeeman, the office productive of more good and is even
more powerful than the governor himself for getting results.
Juneau has been favored twice in succession in receiving such
honor and great benefits and power has been wielded thereby
from and in favor of that section of Alaska.
Nome should make an effort to secure this honored posi
ion and give this thickly populated portion of Alaska, known
ts Seward Peninsula, an even break in securing favors from
lie administration.—Nome Nugget.
--oooo
A New York paper complains that Wall Street is being
touched for money to carry on the booms of Presidential can
didates. The information would be more illuminating if the
names were given of tlTe persons who are doing the touching
and the candidates they are working for. So far as Wall Street
is concerned, we need not fear that in these perilous times it is
going to give up its money without definite knowledge of what
it gets as the quid pro quo.
-oooo
Having had a splendid opportunity to revise the wool
schedule on the facts, the Democratic House whooped through
a steel .schedule just to exemplify that they do not want any
scientific tariff revision.
WIRELESS FOR THE NAVY
The chief of the bureau of steam engineering of the Navy
has planned a system of wireless communication designed to
put the Navy Department 1n touch with vessels in any part of
the world. Powerful wireless stations areto be maintained at
San Francisco, Panama, Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, Guam, Samoa,
and the Isle of Luzon. While it is not so stated, it is presumed
that similar stations will be maintained in Southwestern
Alaska, near the great circle route between the northern ports
and Asia, and also at some point on Puget Sound.
With the proposed system in operation, no naval vessel on
either the Atlantic or Pacific will be out of touch with the de
partment for more than a brief period of time. Messages from
sue hships can be picked up daily by one or another of the va- j
rious stations.
The value of the inauguration of the proposed system can!
readily be seen when one remembers the condition of affairs;
fourteen years ago, during the war with Spain. There were
many days of feverish anxiety after the departure of Dewey’s
fleet on its adventure against Manila. The exact strength of
the Spanish fleet was unknown, to the public at least, and
there was some inclination to accept the European point of
view that it was the stronger of the two.
The scattered and fragmentary reports sent out by cable
from Manila by the Spanish during the progress of the naval
battle there left all matters in doubt save that the probabilities
strongly favored an American victory. The revenue cutter
McCulloch had to make the run to Hongkong after the battle
was over before this anxiety could be dispelled and the exact
truth known.
But the proposed wireless system will have a more important
office than merely to keep the public advised of naval move
ments. With it perfected, the fleet and every unit of it will be
in touch with the commander of the fleet and with the naval
authorities at Washington at all times, and campaigns can be
planned and executed in the light of exact knowledge.—Post
Intelligencer.
----
LAW AND PROGRESS
President Jacob Gould Sclmrman of Cornell gave utter
ance to rather remarkable views, at least from such a conserva
tive source, in an address before the Society of Medical Juris
prudence in New York. Law, he says, has not made the pro
gress, either in a scientific or humanitarian direction, that med
icine has made, because the legal profession has fallen far short
of the demands the public has a right to expect. Lawyers, he
thought, are helping their clients to accomplish generally self
ish ends, as, for instance, advising the promoters of “big busi
ness” how to keep within the law and out of prison, instead of
trying to solve the problems of the trusts. The profession, he
declaimed, was anti-social rather than altruistic.
The tendency to mistake litigation for justice has been
commented upon by more radical thinkers. It has resulted in
ihe exaltation of technicality and in a disposition to measure
success in court very much as the over-enthusiastic surgeon re
gards a successful operation even when the patient dies.
W hether the ends of justice are served often seems of less im
portance than the individual verdict. But what does Dr.
•Schurman propose to have done about it t What does he offer
for the method of opposing counsel battling with all the re
sources at their command for the side upon which they are
retained? Has he any better method of arriving at the truth
and presumably absolute justice? IIow can a proceeding essen
tially anti-social become altruistic short of entire reorganiza
tion, revolutionary in its scope?
-—oooo
NATURAL CONSEQUENCES
The talk that the Hope diamond, recently exhibited at a
social event, is “unlucky,” leads the New York Times to ar
gue that there may be something in the stories. The argument
consisted in representing that, as the old way of acquiring the
precious stones was by theft, with a frequent accompaniment
of murder, those who got them that way were likely to be pur
sued by similar measures for the same reason. Also, since the
modern method is to lock up in the big diamond a heavy in
vestment, from which there is no pecuniar}’ return, it is likely
to be followed by financial difficulties.
This is equivalent to arguing that a tiling is unlucky be
cause its natural consequences are bad. Murder is unlucky,
since its practice may lead other to murder you. Extravagance
is unlucky, because when you spend all you money you will
have none left. We might as well argue that it is unlucky to
go out in the rain because you will get wet, or to throw mud
at your neighbors, because you will get ypur hands dirty.
It is much more to the point to show that the love for over
grown jewelry is a direct inheritance from a low stage of civili
zation and that the theory of the beauty of precious stones is
belied by the condemnation of imitations whose external ap
pearance is identical with the genuine articles.
--oooo
PINCHOT—THE DESTROYER
Gifford Pinchot has injected the Alaska situation into the
so-called Progressive campaign in Ohio. As a suppoi-ter of La
Eollette he toured the state and as the friend and adviser of the
Wisconsin seator Mr. Pinchot has seen fit to discuss Alaska’s
ills.
These he described as “special privilege,” “monopoly”
and the “corrupting alliance of money and politics.” Specific
ally he spoke of certain interests as “grabbers of public timber
and public lands.”
“The attempt to monopolize the resources of Alaska,” he
has said, “is not yet defeated.”
Alaska has not come into the campaign of its own volition.
It has been dragged in by politicians with a grudge against
the laft administration, seeking some means of discrediting
the President; and chief of those is Mr. Pinchot, smarting still
from the rebuke received when he was turned out of the Presi
dent’s official family.
Ill Alaska sydicate, also known as “the Cuggenheims,”
are the offenders Mr. Pinchot refers to. This syndicate has in
vested some $25,000,000 in the north, and Mr. Pinchot and his
friends pretend to see something sinister in the circumstance.
But the record is against them. If the Guggenheims are
“grabbers” an dtlie men responsible for the “corrupting alli
ance of money and politics,” the grabbing was done during the
last Roosevelt administration, and the “corrupting alliance,”
if one exists, was effected before Mr. Taft became chief execu
tive of the country.
The Copper River & Northwestern Railroad, the Guggen- ’
L eims, did get some government land, 1,638.32 acres, to be ex- 4
act. Some of it was at Cordova, some at Katalla, a tract at i
Katalla Junction, some at Chitina and some at Strelna. But it *
was all obtained in 1906, when Theodore Roosevelt was Presi- *
dent and Gifford Pinchot chief forester of the United States. <
Not one acre has the syndicate secured since March 4, <
1909, the date of Mr. Taft’s inauguration. What it has done, <
however, is to turn back, by relinquishing, under the Taft ad- i
ministration, a total of 282.53 acres at Cordova and 217 acres <
at Katalla. <
What is needed is something constructive,-which the Taft ad- ^
ministration is offering in the program of Secretary Fisher. ^
Mr. Pinchot’s mouthings at the Guggenheim bogey will build ^
no roads, railroads or lighthouses, open no mines, settle no ^
lands, nor relieve any of Alaska’s ills. He is only aggravating ^
conditions already intolerable.—Ex. <
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Chitina Alaska
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If you are in a hurry we can do your work in an hour’s time if
necessary.
Leave your work at any hotel, rooming house or barber shop
and it will receive prompt attention.
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