THE IDITAROD PIONEER
Published Every Saturday Morning at. Iditarod, Alaska
Vo1. 7 CHARLES A. DERRY, Editor and Publisher No. 9
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AT LAST
WirkrVihnm pnpors arc stlil asking "\VI<at i full tcrriicrial j
I. ;,,, nf g„vcnimcnt?'’ Of course they know. They know that j
hr. si,lent Wilson, former President Tuft and others who under- (
stood the proper use of English, who are I >;ts and conversant j
with American history and American p- .0.1,"10, have made no j
mistake in using the term. They know < at "nil territorial form ]
,'f government" means complete local sell-government such ns
other territories have enjoyed, and. in nearly all cases where gov j
eminent coiua: ns the people, as complete as that which obtains!
ju the separate states. They know that practice,l:v the only (lit !
ference between "full territorial form of government" and state
government is that the territories cannot participate in national j
affairs or grant title to tide and granted lands. The frequency
with which they ask the question only indicates how hard pressed
they are to say something. They are fooling nobody. Juneau:
1 lupire
At last the Empire has broken its shell and has an
swered in its own way the query so often put to it
and the few organs that set up the full territorial
form of government” issue, “What is full territorial
form of government?” And that answer is that it is -
statehood without the obligations of statehood. Rec- j
ovds are not at hand, but it is safe to say that no such
territorial form of government as the Empire sug-.
gests ever has existed under the sanction of the
United States congress. Such territorial enabling
acts as arc available, indeed, show a remarkable
similarity to that adopted lor Alaska. In no case, i
we believe, has there ever been an instance where
“complete local self-government" existed in a terri
tory of the United States. In most cases the stipu
lation was made that all legislation was subject to
nullification by congress, ana where it was not ex
pressly stipulated it was implied uy l.rc lequucment
that all acts of the territorial legislature must he sub
mitted to the speaker of the national house of rep
resentatives and the president of the senate, hi some
instances, as in the enabling act of Alabama terri
tory, passed in 181/, the President of tne United
States even named a stipulated number of members
of the uppm chamber of the territorial legislative
body.
The statement sometimes has been made that
Alaska’s government was comparable to that pro
vided for Porto Rico and Hawaii; yet it will be found
that the restrictions placed upon those outlying pos
sessions of Uncle Sam are far more onerous from a
“self-government” standpoint than is the govern
ment of Alaska. It will be found that the legislatures
of those territories are composed of a certain num
ber of natives, and that others are appointed by the
President of the United States, instead of being
elected by the inhabitants. The enabling act of
Utah territory, passed in 1350, provided that “all
the laws passed by the legislative assembly and gov
ernor shall be submitted to the congress of the
United States, and, if disapproved, shall be null and
void."
But in reality no such restricting clauses were nec
essary, as in no instance has sovereignty ever been
granted to a “territory.” The very term itself im
plies dependency.
The general rule has been laid down in the Cyclo-!
peaia of Law and Procedure that territories of the !
United States have complete authority to legislate
within the scope of their organic acts, “subject to
the power of congress to annul their acts.”
The agitation conducted by certain newspapers I
and politicians for a “full territorial government” for
Alaska bears all the earmarks of insincerity. If
there be a need for extended powers, by all means!
let the public know what those additional powers are j
to be. The guileless statement of the Juneau news-j
paper that “practically the only difference between j
‘full territorial form of government’ and state gov-1
.ernment is that the territories cannot participate in 1
national affairs” is misleading. The very fact that
the territorial executive is a presidential appointee !
is refutation sufficient for that statement. As he is j
vested with the power of veto, how can “complete
local self-government” be achieved under such cir-!
cumstances?
this whole squabble concerning “full territorial
government and “statehood for Alaska” savors of
child’s play. It had its inception in the desire to cie
ate an issue with which to fight Wickersham. That
astute politician “saw the ante and went one better.” i
There is just as much sincerity in one as in the other.
But Wickersham is not dishonest enough to er.deavoi
to arouse the hope that there is any immediate pros-!
pect of statehood.
It is about time to throw both “issues” in the dis-j
card, and devote attention to the problem of making
better use of the means of self-government already
achieved.
A STRANGE RECANTATION
The term "pacifist” is coming to be recognized as
a designation to be shunned. Almost it is compar
able with the opprobrious term “militarist.” The
intellectual world was horrified at the inception of
the great European war by the brutal frankness of
Von Bernhardi in his glorification of war as a means
of spiritual and materia! advancement. His cold
blooded predictions of the then forthcoming strug-1
gle caused a shudder to permeate the whole reading j
and ihinkmg world. It is as a consequence of the j
scenes of hatred and carnage that have been enacted
during the past year and a half that the suggestion
is made that had such a book as “Germany and the
Next War” not appeared until this time it hardly
would have caused a ripple on the sea of public opin
ion. Is the result of bloody warfare to be a revolu
tion in thought which shall glorify warfare and sub
mit meekly to the theory that the quarrels of nations
can be adjusted in but one way, and that way the
sword? It does indeed seem strange that men who
but a few short months ago should have been be
lievers in the reign of reason over brute force can
now calmly discuss war as the forerunner of “a bet
ter civilization through the settlement of fundamen
tal principles.’
Patriots of all nationalities have ideals which they
deem worthy of defending with their lives; and no
doubt it will be a sorry day for civilization when this
leases to be true. But it is regrettable that the senti
ment seems to be growing that war is to be accepted
as a necessary adjunct of civilizaton. One becomes
impatient when reading the high-flown sentiments of
self-abnegation and self-sacrifice which reason tells
us should be unnecessary. Speed the day when men
shall be more esteemed (or victories gamed through
reason and logic than by the sword, ihe average
patriot, while perfectly willing to d;e for his ideals,
prefers to live and perform the work which destiny
has in store for him.
The following article from the Army and Navy
Journal is typical of a growing sentiment in this as in
other countries, and to many it will seem a dangerous
tendency. Not all of us can be made to believe, for
instance, that the present war is proof of “vigor and
vitality in beliefs,” but will be inclined to the theory
that it is proof that men and nations have been
swayed by avarice and lust of power, and have been
m position to embroil millions of human beings m
wasteful and unnecessary warfare:
R. l.crt Herrick, the well known author, returns from a soj turn
,.f f„ur months in Europe convinced that war i- not tiie wor-t of
human evils, tenable as its waste and suffering are. 11.1 r-eord
hi< eor.vietinns in an nrriclein the New Republic entitled "Recall
Iation of a Pacifist." ' I have become a-huraod." tied ired Prof—r
Herrick “of that vague pacifism which 1. hke so many others,
voiced under the first shock of the European war the expression
of ail anemic idealism duo to all imaginative .-li.-Iikc of the mi
pie on.. ami to all abstract sense of the !< lly of war. fho t:111;.H
ties ai.il unrealities preached bv Bry. i and other pr. a--- a -1 | a
cifisis eetii to be merely an evidence of sickliness in our at' ■ ntil
spirit, as well as of provincialism in our thinking. Ki.usliy pro
vincial is the often-expressed fear that European ctvilizati. n is in
danger of extinction from the present terrific eoiiilict. I sic rather
the coining .if a better civilization through the scttl uaent id fun
■ lament: 1 i riiici; les. It is with litis ft.pit that the in >rnctt.
rifices are l.cing ntaile freely in France, in En-tland, in Italy, 'ft i.
of little importatno what happens m us,’ a 1 rencltman saul t- ta
in Rhein is whe-e home had been sin-lied that morning, whose sot
already had been lull'd in battle. i here will be a be.ter worl 1
I. i those who are to come because of what we have endure 1. Ihat
is what the American mind cannot seem to understand the neces
sity of a present sacrifice for a better future, the cost in blood cud
agony of ultimate principle. I have seen many of these better
ci nditioned youths, the liov.cr of the nations to come. 1 have
seen them wounded, mutilated past all usefulness, dying; 1 have
never heard a complaint from them of their fate. The doctors and
nurses who serve in the hospitals w il tell you the same thing.
Much as I feci the awful price which they have been obliged to
pay. I am sure that the finer spirits among them have lived more
fully in the few crowded weeks of their struggle than if they ha:
been permitted to live out their lives in all the gratifications of
our comfortable democracies. The li tters from the living and from
the dead are an extraordinary revelation of those priceless things
gained by these soldiers through sacrifice. Having realized, then,
something of the blessing as well as the curse of war. having wit
nessed the marvelous inspiration that has come to at least one
great people through its bitterest agony, 1 have come to under
stand that war is far from being the most evil aspect of humanity.
It may be lamentable that humanity is .-till so firmly m the grip of
biologic law that it must kill in order to decide disputes, but it a
iid ■ to shut one’s eyes p. the facts. And it is weak to assume that
all wars can be prevented by any system of puniamenting or liti
gation, by any paper scheme of international arbitration. No man
and no nation is worthy of life who is not ready to lay it down
at necessity. And some matters are of a primary necessity, un
arguable, fundamental. It is proof not of European degcu.-racj
that Europe has suffered from many wars, is today bleeding under
the greatest of all wars, but of vigor and of vitality in beliefs. I;
i- only the weakling who finds nothing worth fighting about.
Whoever cares greatly vvkl give all. even life ”
A year ago this same Professor Herrick penned for
the Chicago Tribune an article of which the following
constitutes the concluding paragraph:
If those who blunderingly started the senseless game who
never pay the stake with their own bodies, be i' noted—are noth
ing short of licensed murderers, what of those far more numerous
who accept the slaughter callously as “one of the inevitable inci
dents of life,” who speak casually of the cheapness of human l'-fe
and the necessity of war, who laud as something noble and ideal
this dedication of a nation’s greater investment to the useless ar
bitrament of arms, from which there is no “final decision”--and
never can be? Linder the gray skies of this winter over those
European battlefields there must hover many ghosts above the
silent dead. For no matter how loud the guns and all the din of
modern battle, a ghastly, pitiful silence rests on the faces of the
dead. They lie there like lumps of earth, crumpled up, or stretched
out at length, life snuff- I out wantonly in the game that i: played
far away at headquart or in the chancellories of state. They
lie there a bitter mocker’ to human intelligence and will.
We had rather be the possessor of the sentiment
which dictalcd the earlier contribution of the piofes
sor to the war literature than those from which ema
nated the statement that the efforts of well-meaning
fhen to avoid future conflicts are an evidence of
sickliness in our national spirit, as well as of provin
cialism in our thinking.”
a
In the blind adoration of the “efficiency” developed under
monarchical government by certain elements living under the
Stars and Stripes, the most surprising thing is that any American
should see anything worthy of emulation. A citizen of the United
States, living under a constitution which makes him the “peer”
of all his fellows, cannot surely have imbibed the true American
ideals of freedom and equality when he can view with tolerance
a system of government, no matter how liberal its tendencies may
be, which presupposes the inferiority of one class of citizens or
subjects compared to another class. All monarchies are founded
upon class distinction, so repugnant to the true American.
-♦
Governor Brumbaugh of Pennsylvania is a Dunkard in re
ligious belief. He is the first man of his faith ever to be elected
a governor of any state of the Union. He took no oath of office,
but, according to his religion, affirmed simply. He is today a de
vout follower of the religion of his fathers. Recently he said to a
writer for The Outlook: “1 came to America in 1754. I am a
Pennsylvania German and am proud of it. But put the emphasis
on the Pennsylvania. We are the people who, along with the
Quakers and the Scotch-Irish, developed this commonwealth. We
are not hyphenated Americans.
-«
The Republican national convention is going back to Chicago.
Well, it has long been believed by psychologists that there is an
overpowering something that ultimately drives the guilty back to
where the crime was committed.—Kansas City Star.
OUR ONE MILITARY TREATY
(Chicago Tribune)
B. L. T. suggests that if, as the king of '
Greece put it, Germany demanded Boston 1
or Seattle as a base of attack upon Can- i
ada, the United States, if it had pledged ]
■ Is word to support Canada, would keep'
iis word, regardless of eon-’ iu •nees. Prnl> i
ably, although if the United States were i
n») larger than Canada and facia I . ha 1 ■
100,000.000 inhabitants, we’d say possibly, j
and say that hesitatingly.
The thought of our probable or possible j
rectitude and sacrifice is unction, and
costs nothing. If we formed a guess as:
to what we might do by recalling what i
we have done we might not he so confi
dent. The only military alliance the I
United Slates ever made with a foreign:
power was with 1*ranee.
Benhimin Franklin, Silas Bean and Ar- !
thur Tec, as our representatives, entered |
into an alliance with France, pledging i
American uld in case of a war with Great j
Britain. When Great Britain attacked the
French republic it was our duly to pro- j
iect French West India pos-e sion-. We
did not do it We replied to French im |
portunities by consulting our own inter
(-•sty with a devotion no less anxious than
that with which Greece now consults her.;.
The French expressed their sentiments
l.y attacking our commerce in a war that j
j wasn’t n war, and emigre s in 171)8 ebro- j
j gated the treaty which the nation had j
| not fuli'lled. That is < ur coni] i tc Id. j
l (ory in military alliances. Every once in I
| a while we almost get convinced that we,
! are powerfully like other folk.
KAISER’S QUEER LETTER
TO SENUSSI TRIBESMEN
i PARIS. Jan. 3. -With reference to the
attack of the Sc:iu--i trio-men. aided by
, Turkish regulars from Arabian post?, upon |
the British Kgvptian forces, it r port from
Paris cot.tains an account of a letter which
was found recently in an embossed casket ;
I among a number of gilts sent from the'
i kaiser, by some Turks, to the chief of the
Pcnussi. The attempted invasion resulted
in the invaders being repelV 1 in disorder,
and the capture of great st res of sheep
i and canid- by the British. The battle oc
; curred t:err Motrin1.
The letter about spt km of, written in
Arabic, w:s as f ‘lowta’coriling to the
French press:
‘Tlmperor Will: in. son of Charlemagne,
Allah’s envoy, I-lam's protector, to '.In'
■ great chief of the Penus.-i: We pray God
to lead our armies to victory. It t- our
; w'dl that the bravo warriors --hall expel in
fidel? from territory brl nging : . 'ha true
believer.- and th-;r commanders, i - brunt
this about we spud thee ar:r . to ttey anti
! trusted chiefs. Our come, -n enemies,
vhorn Allah annihilate to the l--t man.
shall fly before thee. So be it. William.
Pi:: il: r me ■ ’ges. it is stu-1. have b vu
- ::t to ".1 -rt i co. Intiia and id;yi t.
A
END or BA3EEAU. WAR
ELIMINATES THE FE9ERALS
- At tt meeting of the baseball magnates
I hi LI in Chicago on December 10 a "peace
, treaty" was drawn up and it was an
nounced that it had every likelihood of
being ratified by the various leagues, in
which case the disastrous war which has
t stirred profession a! baseball circles for
! some years will he at an end. According
[ to the terms of the agreement, the full w
j ing will be accomplished:
The passing of the Federal League.
Macing of the International League on
a firm foundation.
End of high salaries for players, some
,.f which are said to have exceeded $H),
COO.
Better baseba’l in the major leagues'.
Pale of the Chicago Nationals to Charles
If. Weeehman Chicago, owner of the
Chicago Federals.
Purchase of a large interest in one of
the New York clubs by Harry Sinclair.
The sale of the Brown- or Cardinals at
St. I.ouA to Phil Ball and Otto Stiefel.
The amalgamation of the Brooklyn Na
tionals anil the I'ederals.
“Knowledge is power," remarked the
party of the first part.
“Maybe so," responded the party of the
second part, “but you want to get iid of
the idea that when you switch off for the
night the trolley cars have to dop run
ning.” Louisville Courier-Journal.
Fresh Olympia and Eastern Oysters, SI.50
per can. Iditarod Meat Co.
CLEANING AND PRESSING
ALL KINDS OF FUR WORK
Suits Cleaned and Pressed, Fur Coats and
Robes Lined, and All Kinds of
Fur Work Done
MRS. CHAS, LARSON
Orders may be left with Mrs. Thornton
LAR50M BROS.’
WOOD SAW
Any Length Handled
Any Part of City
Telephone
Miutchler Brass*
GENERAL
FREIGHTERS
DAILY STAGE SERVICE
OPEN DAY AND NIGHT
rifffWJTfsv
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I
FLAT CITY HOHBACK &. DURA,'ID
Bat. the Grand and Bagoy's Bar$
TIE DEST ALL THE TIES
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WE ARE MERE TO STAY
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&*»> *. *L/ d *»aio t' vo 3 jf & B 5 0 a i f ^
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Open Dav anti Night
! VofeBsicma I
Michigan, 1881 Alaska, 10 10
Kentucky, 1391
George Woodruff Albrecht
COUNSELOR AND LAWYER
IDITAROD, ALASKA
The pioneer Attorney or Iditarod
E. M. STANTON
Attorney at Law
Office: Corner Willow awl Second Sts
Iditarod Pioneer Building
CM AS. E. TAYLOR
Attorney at Law
«<•
BANK BLOCK
First Avenue iditarod
Fr ® d Ha rr is & n
ATTORNEY AT LAW
!
Room 1 Over Merchants Cafe
DR. MOORE
PHYSICIAN AND SURGEON
DR. U. E. AURISV9GER
'Physician and Surgeon
Office: Flat City Hospital, Plat City
Consultation Ilnurs in Forenoons \i.d I y
Appointment
DR. H. BEHLA
| DENTBST
FLAT CITY
Will Arrive in Iditarod by the first boat in
the spring
IDITAROD
Gold Si., Flat City
Mrs. Geo. Mutchlcr, Prop.
Nicely Furnished Rooms Barn for Horses and Dogs Baths in Connection
' 8JLEY
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DISCOVERY. OTTER
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