TANANA LEADER
Issued every Thursday.
Sam J. Callahan. Publisher
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Advertising.—Rates on application. Right
reserved to reject any advertisement.
Thursday. June 16, 1910.
FOR DELEGATE
JAMES WICKERSHAM
CAUSE OF THE RUSH NORTH.
The eagerness with which people from all
parts of the country started for Alaska upon
such indefinite information as had gone out
about the Iditarod has a greater signifi- I
cance than the still merely speculative prob
lem of how far their hopes may be realized. |
It shows the unsatisfactory condition in the
regions they are deserting. It is not con- J
tented and prosperous communities which
are sending their people belter skelter to a
remote and to them unknown corner of the
continent on a bare rumor that there they
may possibly find the means of independent
livelihood.
The fact is apparent that times on the out
side are hard. Instead of the panic of 1907
being a thing of the past, such readjustment
as followed has left the mass of people in an
apparently permanent state much worse
than they had ever known before, except,
perhaps, in the defeated states for a term of
years following the civil war. They are
leaving for Canada, Alaska, or any place
that offers a ray of hope for betterment.
Their plight is like that of their forefathers
who left the old country and came to the
new, except that there is not another Amer
ica to give them refuge.
The condition came about through politics
and if it is ever bettered it will have to be
done through politics or the dreadful things
that sometimes follow politics. It has been
the boast that the American people are al- !
ways capable of meeting any exigency. We
hope the boast will again be made true, i
When the approaching congressional elec- ;
tions come around they may give an inkling \
of what is in store, and they will be eagerly j
waited for here in Alaska, for our weal or |
woe may depend on them no less than that of
the people of the states themselves.
The Mb. Sherman who recently conducted j
a party of workingmen to Fairbanks over
the Valdez trail came down to Tanana on
the steamer White Seal last Saturday. He
said he was practically “all in” and only
wanted to get back to the outside on the j
first opportunity. Mr. Sherman was ag- i
grieved by a roasting given him in Fair* i
banks papers. He said he carried out to the ;
letter his promises to the men and lost
money by so.doing, and that the trip worked
as great a hardship on him as it did on any !
of them. Without knowing the man we are
inclined to accept his statement as true. ;
Yet he said he was in Fairbanks two years
ago, and while he may be guilty of no inten
tional wrong he is certainly entitled to little
sympathy, for a man of his intelligence must
have known that under no circumstances
could employment bo found for fifteen hun- I
dred laborers, the number sought to be im
ported into the Fairbanks district. There
is not now, nor is there likely soon to be, j
any condition in interior Alaska warranting j
an influx of laborers or moneyless men of |
any sort. Being in the country only two •
years ago, the exercise of the intekigence j
Mr. Sherman seems to possess ought to have
told him this. When he gets back outside if
he will let it be generally known that this is
a bad country for penniless men who are
unfamiliar with the conditions he will partly !
atone for his error.
When Platt of Connecticut was alive and
in the United States senate he tacked an
amendment onto every piece of proposed
Alaska legislation providing tliut nothing
contained therein should be construed to
imply that Alaska was then or ever should !
be entitled to the rights and privileges of a
territory of the United States. In the full
ness of God’s wisdom Platt was called hence,
and the petty crew who came after, more
cowardly than he, now seek to perpetuate
his narrow and despotic ideas by iterating
“Not yet; not yet,” while they frame up
commission bills and other thin subterfuges
to conceal their real purpose. Platt died
soon enough to escape a lot of trouble that
will overtake a number of would-be states
men who are guided by his foolish example.
EQUAL OPPORTUNITY
The Leader does not propose to speak at
great length on the mooted problem of rail
road building in Alaska through govern
ment aid. All the propositions contemplate
the guarantee of interest for a term of
years on the bonds of the constructing com
pany, the road to stand as security for the
money that the government might be re
quired to advance. At the end of the stipu
lated term should the enterprise be success
ful the promotors would be a railroad ahead
of the game without having staked anything
but an overplus of gall, and the government
would break even. Some gentlemen on the
Canadian side of the line adopted the plan
less than thirty years ago, got to be multi
millionaires, were knighted and lived happy
ever after. The railroad is now paying their
noble heirs and assigns dividends that prop
erly handled will bring in other dividends
and so go on increasing wealth and happi
ness forever. Everybody is satisfied.
These things are recalled to prevent any
body on this side of the line from overlook
ing a bet—as the saying was before the
people got good. Luckily for those who
are not averse to the responsibility that
goes with great wealth President Taft has
evolved a plan that will give us all a chance,
so that all we have to do is to jump in and
win. The Fairbanks Times tells about it as
follows, under the caption that tops these
few remarks:
“1 he Taft plan for helping railway
building follows the lines of the bill
drawn up by Falcon Joslin, of Fair
banks. This bill was modeled frankly
after the plan that has been tried
successfully in the Philippine islands.
The president appoints a railway
commission for the territory, and the
commission passes upon applications
for assistance just as the Alaska road
commission determines what sections
of the territory shall be helped to
build wagon roads. Suppose a com
pany applied to the commission for
assistance in building a road from
Haines to Fairbanks; the commission
would investigate the financial stard
ing of the promoters and the backers
of the road, and if these were found
reliable and the route feasible, the
commission would then recommend
that the government guarantee the
payment of interest, say for thirty
years, on the money the company
might be required to borrow in order
to carry out their plans. In security
for the money thus loaned, the gov
ernment would take a lien on the
railway. Every liberal-minded per
son must agree that this plan is far
superior to the old-fashioned form of
land or money subsidy, and it is re
assuring to learn that President Taft
will agree to no other form of assist
ance except a form that gives an
equal opportunity to all companies.”
All of which thus becomes clear as mud.
Whereas the Canadians started off with but
a single opportunity, the Americans will
have them equal and without end. It is in
deed a reassuring thing to contemplate, and
the perspicacity of the big Fairbanks paper
that reflects the rainbow is remarkable.
The Tacoma Tribune says: The Heinze
case is another instance of the ways of “jus
tice.” Because Heinze was too independent
of the eastern clique of bankers and shurks
that assume to run the west, and not being
able to down him in a fair field, they secured
an indictment by a grand jury, with the aid
of the federal government, and after three
years of maneuvering in the courts, mean
time filling the newspapers of the country
with reports of Heinze’s crooked dealing
and with the brand of criminal hanging over
him, the cases have finally been disposed of
and Heinze exonerated by a jury, after more
than fifty of the charges against him had
been thrown out of court as having no merit
to start with. Yet the gang, by liarrassing
Heinze, keeping him from work, injuring
his credit, and gobbling his mines, have been
able to beat him out of millions of dollars.
This is another instance of the "interests”
using the machinery of the federol govern
ment to further their own ends.
If the Hoggatt gang is allowed to go its
way it will absolutely control the govern
ment of Southeastern Alaska. However, if
they are emphatically and properly rebuked
by the people of the territory, if we stand
back of our delegate, the Hoggatt gang will
be thwarted, will be compelled to come out
in the open and to play their hand without
stacking the deck.—Skagway Alaskan.
The Leader on sale at Postoffice Lobby.
BILLIARDS POOL !
Fine Liquors and Cigars ,
THE GRAND
CHARLES CHANQUIST, Prop.
Tanana Alaska ;
Aljiekt Fink, the Nome attorney who
went to Washington to lobby for the pro
posed militarybeaurocratic scheme for the
government of Alaska, left the capital to re
turn to the territory the first week in May.
What has become of him is not to be found
out from Alaska newspapers. His kind of !
work does not seem to get into print except
a long way from home. Before the house
committee on territories Mr. Fink said the
views of the people of Alaska are no more
to be considered in legislating for Alaska
than are those of the people of the nation at
large; that he thinks it is the duty of con
gress to hold the territory in trust for the
benefit of the nation and not for the few
people in Alaska now, and that if he were a
member of the proposed legislative council
for Alaska he would endeavor to enact such ;
laws as he thinks proper, regardless of what {
the people of Alaska want. “I say,” said he, ■
‘'that upon no principle of sound govern- |
meat, moral law, or equity, have the people !
of Alaska, who are thereat the present time, j
the great majority of them, any more right
to say how Alaska should be governed than
the people of the District of Columbia have.” ;
These are the views, by no means expressed
by Mr. Fink alone, that Delegate Wicker* j
sham has combated with such energy and
skill that the administration and the Repub
lican machine have utterly failed to secure
foi them congressional sanction. They are
the views, furthermore, that are sought to
be made final by the interests, the newspa
pers and the men who are trying to discredit ;
Wickersham before the people of Alasku. j
They are views that by the grace of God will j
be repudiated by the people of the United
States and will serve only to damn the men
who gave them utterance.
The pressure was as great as the interests
and their paid agents could make it to have
Wickersham turn traitor to the people he
was elected to serve. The people will prove
themselves worthy of his fealty and splendid
efforts in their behalf by sending him back
to continue the good fight in congress.
Old-style Editors.
| George Ade in an address before the
1 Associated Press meeting in New York
! told how the virility has been refined
out of newspaper language in these de
cadent days. He described the kind of
country papers they had in Indiana in
the seventies when he was a small hoy,
as follows:
“The fires of the civil war were still
smouldering; Indiana’s chief occupation
was politics. Nearly every man was
voting as he shot, and some of them a
great deal oftener. Our office equipment
consisted of a Washington hand press,
foot power job press, a perennial towel
and a few fonts of type—mostly italics.
! Ah, hut we had an editor! The old-time
i editor, the one we all read, who stamped
his individuality on the paper, and did
i not bother about the press work. Do
i you remember what he called a man, if I
he did not care much for him? He did
not call him a mollycoddle, or an insur
gent, or a malefactor, or an undesirable.
He said the man was a poltroon, a hell
hound, an unmitigated horsethief, a
I jackal, a marplot, a caitiff, a reptile, a
viper, a cur and a whelp.
“He reared a lot of valuable and ex
pressive words that are gradually be
coming eliminated from our vocabulary.
“I read not long ago that down in
Brown county, Indiana, the front room
of the county poorhouse—a large cheer
ful apartment with southern exposure
! and plants in the windows—is occupied
Notice of Forfeiture
To T. J. Wilson, Roy R. Henderson,
Alfred Plaee, J. C. Junkin, Chris S.
Hillstead, O. A. Lavmon and C. H.
Hull:
You and each of you are hereby no
tified that I have expended the sum of
one hundred (100) dollars in labor and
improvement, for each year, for the
year 1908 and the year 1909, upon the
following placer mining claim, to wit:
The First Chance Association Placer
claim, situated and being on Golden
creek, a tributary of Illinois creek, in
the Fort Gibbon Mining and Recording
Precinct, Territory of Alaska.
Said work and improvement was done
under the provisions of section 21124 of
the Revised Statutes of the United
States, being the amount required by
said section 2324 to hold said claim for
the years 1908 and 1909; also that proof
of the annual assessment work was
filed under chapter 2559, entitled “An
act to amend the laws governing labor
or improvements upon mining claims
in Alaska,” approved March 2, 1907;
and that if within ninety days after
the last publication of this notice you
fail or refuse to contribute your pro
portion of such expenditure, for said
years, as co-owner in said placer min
ing claim, your interest in paid claim
will become the property of the under
signed under said section 2324.
Dated at Tanana, Fort Gibbon Pre
cinct, Alaska, March 10, 1910.
S. F. McDILL.
Date of 1st publication, March 10, 1910.
Date of last publication, June 10, 1910.
Notice to Creditors.
The estate of MARY E. COOPER,
deceased.
Notice is hereby given by J. C. Dehn
and J. Russell Walle, executors and ad
ministrators of the estate of Mary E.
Cooper, deceased, to the creditors of
and all persons having claims against
said deceased, to exhibit them, with the
necessary vouchers, within six months
after the first publication of this notice,
to said executors and administrators at
their office at the Tanana Commercial
Co.’s store, in the town of Tanana, Fort
Gibbon precinct, Territory of Alaska,
the same being the place tor the trans
action of the business of said estate.
Dated this 17th day of May, 1910.
J. RUSSELL WALLE,
J. C. DEHN,
Executors and Administrators.
Date of first publication May 19, 1910.
Date of last publication June 23, 1910.
Stoddard
Kay
THE
NORTHERN
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Best Wines, Liquors and Cigars ^
Pool Tables in connection {
(
Stoddard
Kay
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.
by a man who for many years conducted
a newspaper that pleased everybody.”