LIBERTY OR DEATH
More than a century ago, the United
States was a colony of Great Britain
and ruled from afar. Most of the peo
ple who were engaged in running the
United States and its people had never
visaed America and did not under
stand in the slightest the point of view
of the people who were building here
an empire greater than had been.
Then, as now, the home government
needed the r^oney, and they sought to
obtain it in every way they could,
which was mostly by taxation. Then,
as now, the American hated taxation
which did not carry with it commen
surate representation, and our fore
fathers. rebelled. They demanded lib
erty in 57 varieties, and when it was
denied them they got out and fought
for it, just as they would do today,
fighting for liberty, they won—since
that time every American who has
been born has been born with a chip
on his shoulder for the other fellow
who dared to try to deprive that citi
zen of his constitutional rights insofar
as the question of personal liberty is
concerned.
One hundred and forty years ago to
day the desire for liberty and the effort
therefor culminated in the birth of a
nation. The roughnecks of those days
gathered together in Philadelphia in a
regular Bull Moose convention and
drew up a constitution, which has
prevailed until this day with most
inconsequent changes. They fought
anil bled and died that America and
personal liberty might live, and once a
year since then the people have gotten
together on the fourth of July and
hooped-'er-up in memory of the men
who started things right in this land
of ours, from the cradle American
children are taught that they have cer
tain rights of personal liberty based
upon the Constiution adopted one hun
dred and twenty eight years ago, and
that they must be prepared at all times
to tight to maintain those rights—that
from within as well as from without
there are squareheads who are bend
ing their energies in the name of one
thing or another to curtail those liber
ties, and that the XTnited States will
1)0 less than it is if its citizens eon
r
sent to having their personal liberties
k curtailed. To date they have succeed
fekMSil save in spots in maintaining their
.aonal llheify, hut therr lf« nlwny* a
tight on for that purpose.
One of the best advertised men of
those days and whose name was the
first to be signed to the Declaration
of Independence was George Washing
ton. Vou may have heard of him. He
was commander-in-chief of the forces
which freed America from British rule.
Ills was no easy job. His men had no
regular payday and their uniform and
diet were such as they could hustle.
The problem of feeding his army caus
ed Washington as much worry as did
the defeat of the enemy, and he was in
a constant tight with congress and the
higher ups to obtain what he consid
ered necessary to the well being of his
army. Some of his letters are now on
file in the archives at Washington.
One of them is that in which he
“jacks" up the commissary department
tor not getting supplies to him, “par
ticularly two hogsheads of salt ifleats
find four ‘hogsheads of rum,” and
throughout his campaign ho depended
a whole lot upon "pickmeups” for his
men who were subjected to all sorts
tif hardships. They won on a rum
diluted diet, and America has been
free since them. Washington then, and
at subsequent times returned to his
home and opened his little old distil
lery', which he conducted as a side issue
until his death and willed to his wife,
a part of whose estate it constituted.
Then, as now, the Constitution entitled
an American the right to drink as he
wanted to, and insured him the right
to be able to purchase healthful drinks
In an open market. 'i
Again, many years later, the ques
tion of state rights and personal rights
arose in America and resulted in war.
That time it is to be regretted to state
the war was among ourselves. Citizens
of the southern states believed that
they had rights over the freedom of
the blacks, and the citizens of the
northern states believe that they had
no such rights, as the Constitution
granted no such rights to Americans.
Slavery was a heritage front Britsh
rule, and remained after it. They
fought it out, and men live today who
were in that fight. A man named Abra
ham Lincoln as the head of this nation
was compelled to boss the fight from
the northern or government side. He
was not a teetotaler, although he was
not a hard drinker. He took a drink
whenever he wanted to and he saw
to it that his jirmy had all the drink
ables it needed. At that time there
were a number of zealots who be
lieved in prohibition, and they made
life a burden to Lincoln reporting that
his generals (some of them, particu
larly General Grant) drank too much
for the good of the army. To one
complaint Lincoln replied that he
wished he knew the brand of drink
Grant (complained of) drank, so that
he could send a jug of it to all his
generals—for, Grant was au able
bodied fighting man and was getting
results. Lincoln also kept a tavern,
where he sold rum and kindred drinks.
There are in existence today bills ren
dered Abraham Lincoln from the fam
ily druggist in which every other
charge is for liquor. He believed in
personal rights and liberty, exercised
that right and maintained it for others
until his death.
The fight for personal rights and
liberty granted to us in the Consti
tution is always alive in the United
Stu'es. There is always someone who
has nothing else to do but try to cur
t it: the rights of their fellow man,
and there Is a fight on always. Eternal
vigilance is always the price of lib
erty. This year Alaska, for the first
lime in a generation, is up against the
question of the restriction of the per
sonal rights of Alaskans. Alaska nor
Haskans have raised the question, but
the ohecchacos have done it and have
succce led with a new and green leg
islature in forcing the question to an
issue in November as to whether the
Alaskan has the right to sell or buy
w.nc. tier or whisky. Unless the .\l
ink!'' expresses his opinion in the
muter at the polls, this right will he
denied him. Men and women from
the “states” are thoroughout Alaska
trying to leave behind them when
they return to cheechacodom a condi
tion which endured in Alaska twenty
years ago in the days of “Soapy”
Smith, and which all Alaskans know
and understand to the point that they
have reason to avoid it. They desire
to take from government control the
liquor selling of the territory, deprive
the schools and the municipalities of
the revenue therefrom and place the
traffic in the hands of the lawless who
will pay no tax or assessment for the
privilege of selling inferior liquor at
exorbitant prices. The result will mean
nothing to the cheechacos—they will
return from whence they came and
chortle with glee over the chaos they
have been able to superinduce in Alas
ka and from which they have nothing
to fear or suffer; will return and re
ceive their 30 pieces Ol' silver <••»«! i«u
rhonfif'ivrji on the hack for having
neon ante lo got the weakininded
among ns to help them set our coun
try buck a generation. If we allow
them to do this, it is our fault.
There is no better time than now
in which to consider whether we will
allow the cheechacos to "ball up”
our territory. As everybody knows, il
is the "overhead” expense which Al
askan is struggling hardest under.
Alaskans want the best there is, and
they are struggling to pay for some
thing better than the outside offers.
No other town of the same size on
earth has such an expensive and such
a competent municipal school as has
Fairbanks, with so many teachers and
so much expense. It is beyond any
other town. Bring Alaska down to
“brass tacks;” bring Alaska down to a
count-penny system, where it never
wished to be, and the “overhead” will
topple down upon the slender under
structure and create a wreck which it
will take years to clear away. Take
the revenue from the government-li
censed and government-recognized and
government-controlled saloon away
from Alaska and the "overhead” of
efficient education vwill topple over
and go to smash, for they have noth
ing in lieu of that money to offer for
school purposes. They have never
even made on inteligent start to tell
us where our school money is to be'
obtained if that which we have now
is taken away from the municipalities
of Alaska, and, they can’t! Still, to
work a wormy theory upon us, they
wish to put us up against It; up
against a condition which means more
harm to our children than to the older
ones. They can't prevent the adult
Alaskan from buying such liquor as
he wants, but they can deprive the
children of school privileges which are
bought and paid for by the revenue
derived from the legitimate sale of
liquor; and, that is what they are try
ing to do—to destroy, and run away,
and leaves it to tts to reconstruct upon
some indefinite plan they leave behind
them.
A question of personal rights and
personal liberties—that is all It is,
under the skin. The question of inde
pendence and the right of man to do
as other Americans are permitted to
do under the Constitution and the gen.
eral laws of the land—that's all it
is. They try to ubsetiro the issue by
stories of alleged occurrences at al
leged intervals in mysterious locali
ties; by showing an alleged instance
of where some miscreant administered
alcohol to a female dog in the dog's
food, resulting in the death of most of
her puppies; by stories that some
where they obtained a list of a cer
tain number of unnamed, unlocated
Families of which 69 per cent; (their
favorite percentage Is 69) of the un
supported owed that condition to drink.
, They don't and they can't show that
j 69 per cent or any per cent of Alaska
families are not properly supported
because of drink. They don’t and they
can’t show that there is a single Al
askan who would he vile enough to
cause it dog to become intoxicated.
They tell us that there are such peo
ple and such conditions in some un
inentioned places outside of Alaska,
and ask that we make Alaska dry be
cause outsiders who never saw Alas
ka cannot control their appetite for
drink and general depravity.
Aside from this fight they have
put upon us, Alaska and Alaskans are
as free and independent as they were
declared to be 140 years ago today. It
is, however, up to us to fight until
November 7 next to see that we are
not deprived of our personal liberties
and personal rights.—Fairbanks Daily
News-Miner July 4, 1916.—Advt.
TONIGHT.
Snake river harbor improvement and
the necessity for same—pictures show
ing wrecks of schooners and barges at
mouth of river—Pictorial edition of
Nugget published in October.
EAGLE HALL
SUNDAY NIGHT.
King Boggot in
THE MILLIONAIRE ENGINEER.
| A Spectacular Drama in two Part*.
_
L-Ko Comedy.
ZIP AND HIS GANG.
WESTERN DRAMA.
CANCELLED.
2 Parts
Piano, Ollie Bourret.
ADM. 25 cts.
:: BOARD of TRADE ::
ii Restaurant !!
< • ,,
:: ami ::
;; < >
:: LUNCH COUNTER !!
;; Hodini d: Hilo, Prop.
I MILO'S CAFE |
Reopens Saturday ■:
June 10th,
OPEN DAV AND NIGHT 1 ’
Next door i»» PACIFIC COED j ►
STORAGE MARKET <
A^V*/VWVV**VVW*>*/l*«VvVVVW'i
S.S. VICTORIA
LEAVES SEATTLE
September 18
October 15
LEAVES NOME
September 11
October 1
October 29
_ * _ ^
Alaska S. S. Co.
HAIUMJ DATES SCIMECT TO CHANOK WITIIOIT NOTICE
K. A. Carroll, Agent, Nome
—..aT.. .— I —
DO IT NOW—NOW IS THE TIME
TO SAVE MONEY
Having purchased the Dave JoJhnson mercantile business at Tay
lor and will take charge very soon, therefore am now closing out my
entire new slock of quality groceries, in either large or small quanti
ties at reduced prices.
CONRAD FREEDING
Ames Mercantile Building, Front street.
I
t
«•
OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO.TOOOOOOOOCOOOOOOD03
g A fine line of BREADS, 0 >OKIES, r VSTRIES and COLD 0
O LUNCHES at tin X
ARCTIC BAKERY & COFFEE HOUSE f
ROSE CANDY STORE \
0 o
5 Home made candies, chocolates, salted peanuts, peanut can- g
g dies and Ice Cream. O
| DROP IN AFTER THE DANCE OR SHOW g
COOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOGOOOGOOD<§
1 3 I
dne eagle
Best lines of Liquors and Cigars
in Nome
HENRY BURGH, PROP.
" ' -_—_ -
! EVERYTHING
! STRICTLY
; FIRST-CLASS j
■- ■.» » •. »»4
_ i
/AVyWdWW/VAWvVAWNV
NOME
j:| COFFEE HOLISE i|
AND BAKERY i;|
11 Recommend its clean and whole- t|
<| some bread and pastry of all < |
,1 kinds. | >
i* We cater to family trade.
Orders for entertainments <[
I [ promptly filled. , J
I Chas. W. Reed !
? t
I Machinist ft Blacksmith j
• Uasoline Hngines, Hoists |
1 Boilers, Pipe and Pipe l
Fittings !
j No. 5 Front St. j
I The
LOBBY
Wettersfren & Kuthstrom ;!
Proprietors <1
I The ;j
Angeles
A. O. OLIVER ij
prop. j:
Phone Main 33 !»
1
I Horseshoe \
) Geo. Hall A Albert Hartman.
Proprietor*
* PHONE MAIN 112 i
J LEWIS HUNTER RYE AND \
\ ATHERTON BOURBON
Direct from Bonded Warehouse t
! RAINIER DRAUGHT BEER \
Finest Brands of Wines. Liquors
j and Cigar*.
IV. VZSSXSXTS3XZ
OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOGO
I YOUR $ $
8 8
g Will buy more at Cheap John’s Store o
g than any other place. (Jet our prices, g
I CHEAP JOHN’S I
g ONE PRICE STORE
§ L. Seidenverg, proprietor g
O000000000000000000000'^-»rtnooo000000000000000
COMING
The old reliable "Elihu Thomson” left Tacoma on July 25th
lo.idcd with a full cargo of the best and freshest products that the
woiproduce*. an
PAdfK (OLD STORAGE (OMPANT
Telephone White 17
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