8PITAROP PIONEER
PUBLISHED EVERY SATURDAY MORNING AT IDITAROD, ALASKA
Ypj g Charles A. Derry. Lessee ani Publisher No. 38
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AIOTICE.—Persons sending advertising copy rrom a distance are particularly re
” ed to he careful ill preparing the same. The pub! sher canm 1 A,. '! i„’al
responsibility for altering copy, especially In the ease or iToif tuto a jffal
notices. It is. therefore, imperative that such notices he clediiy wnucn, paiutu
larly as regards names and dates.
UNJUSTIFIED AND UNTRUTHFUL
The Juneau Empire, the newspaper founded by Governor Strong,
and of which, in spite of a reported change of ownership, he is still be
lieved to be the controlling spirit, publishes in its issue of August 16 the
following article, under the prominently displayed headline, Iditarod
Soon Slated for Obscurity :
Iditarod. the gold .stampede city of the North in 1910. will soon be a relic of the dim
and obscure past. According to Iditaroders who passed through Juneau yesterday, many
of tiie frame buildings in the city are being torn down, hauled to Hat. seven miles dis
tant. and retailed for firewood. The main street today looks like an Indian village during
the fishing season; everybody is gone, or going.
During its palmy days Iditarod was a flourishing little city, but the foundations of
the town crumbled as gradually the mining claims in the district were acquired by big
syndicates, and great machinery supplanted the miners for the recovery of gold. Hat
City is now the larger of the twin towns, and will soon become the seat of trade in that
district, according to all accounts.
Iditarod had two stampedes, the first being a failure. Stampede No. 2. m 1910. was
me of the biggest in the history of the North, although the fortunes that were made,
comparatively speaking, were few. and were divided among a small percentage of the men
who mushed into those diggings.
The Empire is in many respects an excellent newspaper, ana asiuc
from its political views, which are those of the extreme partisan, it may
be said to be one of the territory’s best publications. It would seem
that the Empire would be justified in taking more pains in ascertaining
the truth before publishing such statements as those above quoted.
Had the article been published in an Outside newspaper as the result
of some tourist’s hurried observations, it would not have occasioned
so much surprise, even in spite of its untruth; but to be given publicity
by a newspaper of the territorial capital, which has at its command the
means of ascertaining the truth, it will come as a shock to the people of
Iditarod. Governor Strong recently made a tour of Interior Alaska,
but his itinerary was confined to the main traveled routes. He has since
published a summary of his observations on this trip. It is unfortunate
that he did not extend his trip to this section, so that the Empire and
the people whose source of information it is could have learned some
thing of the Iditarod country.
For the information of the Empire it may be stated that, far from
resembling an “Indian village in the fishing season, Iditarod is the sup
ply point for a district which ranks third in gold production in the terri
tory, and which, taking into account the extent of territory covered, is
actually second. It is a municipality which is free from debt and has
a cash balance in its treasury. The “foundations of the town are not
“crumbled,” and probably as many persons will be residents of the city
as were last year, and there will be but few less than two years ago.
There have been, and may be now, livelier towns in Interior Alaska
than Iditarod, but surely there is not one that has a more substantial
business foundation. It is true that buildings have been torn down;
but these same buildings have been vacant for years, and are a re
minder of the “boom” days when the inrush of people caused almost
all lines of business to be overdone, and exceeded the demands of the
camp. The lumber in these buildings is too valuable for firewood, how
ever, and is being used in new construction in other parts of the dis
trict. Iditarod, despite the Empire’s informant, will continue to be the
“seat of trade” of the district. Flat City contains more inhabitants
than Iditarod, and has for a long time past, and will so continue. The
business interests of the two towns in no ways conflict.
The article quoted would lead one to believe that the mines o f this
district were worked out, or at least were all in the hands of the big
corporations. This is error. The Yukon Gold Company s production
last year was approximately $750,000, out of a total production for the
district of $2,058,390.40, and the difference between the dredging
company’s output and the total production represents the output of
many individual operators. The miner has not been superseded by me
chanical devices in this district by any means. There is every reason
to believe that the gold production this year will at least equal that or
last year, and may exceed it. New workings are constantly being
opened up, and these will more than compensate for the worked-out
properties in the near-by creeks. The dredging companies themselves
have work for years to come, and one individual operator who employs
a large force of men has work ahead of him for ten years.
The Iditarod district may truthfully be said to be the best mining
camp in Alaska, both for miners and operators. It is true that there
have been disappointments in the business field, as enterprises were
launched which were based on calculations of a much larger popula
tion than the district would support. The yarns of these disappointed
ones, on their way Outside, probably are responsible for such stories
as that published by the Empire.
There is no reason to believe that the total production of the Idit
arod district will show any appreciable falling off for several years yet
to come.
—♦
MAUDLIN STATEMENT OF HYPHENATED AMERICAN
At a meeting in San Francisco preliminary to the opening of the
convention of the National German-American Alliance, the president,
Dr. C. J. Hexamer of Philadelphia, took occasion to criticize the United
States for supplying war munitions to England. “I must say I have not
been proud of my country lately,” he said. A nation which prays for
peace on Sundays and supplies England with arms and ammunition all
the rest of the week is, to say the least, hypocritical. I must confess
that I, as a native-born American, am nauseated by the lick-spittle
policy of our country.”
It is difficult to believe that a man who calls himself an American
citizen can honestly subscribe to such sentiments. Recent news dis
patches from the German capital do not indicate that the imperial offi
cials entertain erroneous notions as to the rights of neutral nations to
sell war munitions to belligerents. Indeed, that right seems to be con
ceded by them. The hue and cry appears to be confined entirely to the
hyphenated ones. As to the good doctor’s statement that he “has not
been proud of his country,” sad as it may seem, the country will feel
no overweening pride in the possession of such citizens as he. The
hypocrisy and inconsistency of the complaint voiced by Dr. Hexamer
is every day made more apparent by the publication of such historical
reminiscences as the following, as told in the Seattle Post-Intelligencer:
Following upon Austria’s recent complaint because American arms and ammunition
were being sold to belligerents, the New York Post proceeded to dig up some almost
forgotten chapters of our own civil war. It furnishes some interesting and instructive
facts from the book of reminiscences written by Major Caleb Huse, who was sent abroad
by the Confederate government early in the war to purchase arms and supplies for its
uses.
The significant feature of this story is Major Iluse’s experiences in Austria. He had
been in Austria before, as a military attache of the government of the United States,
and he was fairly familiar with the armament of that country. But, as he said, “At first
1 considered the getting of anything from an imperial Austrian arsenal was chimerical.”
Nevertheless, his informant was insistent, and finally he consented to visit Austria and
inter into negotiations. Very much to his own surprise, he found no difficulty in pur
chasing direct from the Austrian government “100.000 rifles of the latest Austrian pattern
and ten batteries of six pieces each of field artillery, with harness complete, and a quantity
of ammunition, all to be delivered on ship at Hamburg.”
He recites how Mr. Motley, the American minister, remonstrated in vain. Motley
was told that the making of arms was an important industry in Austria; that the same
arms had been offered to the American government and declined, and that, as belliger
ents, the Confederates were, by the usages of war, lawful buyers. Mr. Motley offered to
buy the whole consignment for the government of the United States, bu was told he was
too late.
Austria complains because American private manufacturers are accepting orders from
foreign belligerent countries. Yet the Austrian government itself deliberately sold arms
to an enormous quantity to the Confederate government, a matter which had no small
part in prolonging our war and causing the loss of countless American lives.
WILSON AND PEACE
The following dispatch, dated August 1, and sent out from the na
tional capital, has been given a great deal of prominence in the news:
That President Wilson could have brought peace in Europe if he had made the
proper effort is the startling statement made by a man named Rickert, who is a delegate
to the National Labor Peace Conference in this city. Rickert asserts that he saw the
! proposal made by Germany, submitted through Jane Addams, expressing a willingness for
j entering into a peace movement, and agreeing to abandon all territory taken by conquest
! in the present war. provided England would guarantee the freedom of the seas. He also
declared that he saw a letter purporting to come from the British government, agreing
to the plan suggested by Germany, and that he also saw a letter from President Wilson
in which he declined to act as an intermediary between the nations.
Prior to the declarations of war, and later at what was thought to
be an appropriate time, President Wilson made tender of his good of
fices to avert bloodshed and to bring about an adjustment of the differ
ences of the warring nations. These were declined, and later it was in
timated that the stage had been passed when outside parties could ac
complish anything in the way of reconciliation. To have made further
overtures would have been an act of impertinence that would have been
resented by all parties, and was a proceeding which President Wilson
had too much good sense and understanding to undertake.
The item above quoted is a fair sample of what ill-advised and un
scrupulous seekers after notoriety will perpetrate in order to bask in
ihe sunlight of notoriety. Miss Jane Addams, known and respected
through the land, might have gained credence for the story had she cir
culated it; but to come from a man absolutely unknown was to stamp
the yarn as a fabrication at once.
No one doubts that President Wilson would exert every effort at
his command to bring about peace, and to imply that he refused such
an opportunity as Mr. Rickert mentioned is unthinkable.
-♦—
GERMAN SYSTEM OF GOVERNMENT AND OURS
(Contributed •
The views of the editorial from the Chicago Tribune on “What
Makes a Nation Strong,” printed in another column, are in striking con
trast to the opinions expressed in Price Collier’s “Germany and the Ger
mans” concerning the German theory of government and the German
government m fact, and the probable result of the attempt by a dem
ocratic government such as ours to follow the German example of the
j state control over the lives and affairs of the subjects of the German
emperor.
Price Collier received his early education in Geneva, Switzerland,
I and Leipzig, Germany, and one would suppose that he speaks whereof
he knows when he remarks upon the apparent effect upon the German
people of German state socialism.
The views of the author should be considered in the light of what
he says is his purpose and mental attitude in writing ms dook : i am
seeking for the German successes, and they are many, and for the
reasons for them, and for the lessons we may learn from them. Any
other aim in writing of another people is ignoble."
As to essential differences, irreconcilable, apparently, between our
and the Prussian scheme of things, Collier says:
What can be done and what is done in Germany has no possible bearing upon what
can be done in America or England. All analogies fail, all illustrations are futile, all ex
amples are valueless, for the reason that the empire of Germany is governed by one man,
who declaims his independence of the people and admits his responsibility to God alone.
This may be a good or a bad thing. Certainly in many matters of economic and com
fortable government for the people—witness more particularly * * * their munici
palities—they are a century ahead of us. * * * The point is that a compact nation
under strict centralized control, server! by a trained horde of officials with no wish for a
change, and backed by a standing army of over s5|ven hundred thousand men. who are
not only a defense against the foreigner, but a powerful police against internal revolu
tion, cannot serve as a model in either its successes or its failures for a democratic country
like ours. Where in Germany many legislative schemes succeed easily when this huge
bureaucratic machine is behind them, they would fail ignominiously in a country lacking
this machinery, and lacking these pitiably tame people accustomed to submission.
The author’s slight sketch of the Prussian government, its central
ization, and the electoral system, show two things. One is “the prepon
derating influence of Prussia in the empire, due to the maintenance of
power in a single person; and the other is how ridiculously futile it is to
refer to Prussia as an example of the success of social legislation."
The German attitude toward socialism^and the effect of state social
ism up to the present time is that—
If it were thought * * * that the Socialists could come into real power, their
vote and the number of their representatives in the reichstag would dwindle away in a
single election. * * * State socialism in Germany is, in a nutshell, the decision on the
part of the state or the rulers that the individual is not competent to spend his own
mony, to choose his calling, to use his own time as he will, or to provide himself for his
own future and for the various emergencies of life. And by the minute state control,
they are rapidly bringing the whole population to an enfeebled social and political condi
tion where they can do nothing for themselves.
As for war:
We shall have war when the German Kaiser touches a button and gives an order,
and the German people will have no more to say in the matter than you and I.
The book was published in May, 1913.
-4
Three hundred and forty-four thousand Iron Crosses have thus far
been distributed by the German emperor, according to an Outside news
paper. There are still quite a number of German soldiers who have not,
been officially labeled as heroes.
WHAT MAKES A NATION i
STRONG
(Chicago Tribune)
Germany is a nation at war. Gceat
Britain has sent a Heel and army into v/ar.
The difference is great and it represents an
essential difference between u powerful com
munistic nation and a powerful individual
istic nation.
The struggle is one between individualism
and communism, not between absolutism
and democracy, but between a commanding
state of high organization and an indulgent
or careless state of loose organization.
The United States is such a state as Great
Britain. It has not as yet ignored as many
circumstances as might have suggested or
advised higher organization, because it has
been free from direct competition with a
highly organized state.
It may be that a highly developed com
munism has in it the germ of its own de
struction. It may be that a state is really
strong only as it raises a citizenship strong
and well ordered because of the will, the in
stinct, the idealism of the individual, and
not by direction or coercion, however benev
olent or ameliorating, not by the pressure
of government, however wise, upon the
mass.
It is a question for thought and not for
conclusion, and it is one which manifestly
interests the United States. We see the
dangers to which a loosely organized de
mocracy can be exposed. We can at least
sense the clangers 10 wmcn a mgmy organ
ized communism can expose itself, even if
nothing be thought of the dangers to which
it may expose others.
The development of communism, which in
the case of Germany we may call military
socialism in its present aspect, has made
war revert to the old German tribal method.
When the tribe .vent to war its whole people
and its whole fortunes were involved; all
its strength and all its resouice- were drawn
upon. It risked annihilation if it did not |
conquer. Its women and children were with
the lighting men and every man was a
warrior.
Give tribal life the complications of mod
ern life and Germany today is lighting as
Germans fought in the forests. All the ener
gies of the nation that are needed in war
are distributed and used as and where they
are needed, and the non combatants feel
that they are directly behind the lines of
lighting men, organized to aid at every op
portunity.
That is a nation at war. even as the tribe
was at war. The British spread the British
empire without drawing the nation into war.
Even in Napoleonic days it was an activity,
not the activity, of the nation to tight. Its
selected men. not its populace, were organ
ized for the trial. Now, the demand being
that it meet a highly organized fighting
people, Great Britain flounders in its great
efforts to command its resources, while Ger
many commands hers at a word.
If nations found their reasons for cohesi m
merely in fighting, or if only by fighting
they could preserve their cohesion, th^ro
would be no question at all. They would
have to adopt Germany’s methods or be
what Germany wished them to be. The
apparent hope of Germany's enemies is to
adopt just enough of the German system to
be able to destroy it anil escape the appli
cation of it to their own habits.
If they fail it is likely to make a gradual
but great change in our customs, habits,
thought end institutions, and we naturally
wonder what the change would make of us.
That is why speculation regarding the ulti
mate good of the highly organized .-rate oc
cupies a good deal of thought in thi.*
country.
The individualist will contend that even :
a benevolent communism which procures.
the strength of the mass by providing for
the health, happiness and security of all its
components will end by destroying the will;
and thereby the character of the individual,
and that, this don \ the mass will be de
stroyed by the weakness of its components.
He will contend for a life upon a vast
expanse at the extremes of which w II be
weakness and destitution and strength and
comfort. He will contend for a play which
gives character and endurance their right
to what they may attain. He may not be
without benevolence, seldom is, but he
thinks that life to be productive of the best
and the strongest must be an inexorable life
of rewards and penalties, pre.se rioed as by
law of nature.
The communist finds in this the rot of
decay. He sees unequal distribution, over
fattening the successful and starving the
unsuccessful. Me sees society roning at
both extremes, of fatty degeneration of the
liver at one end and of malnutrition at the
other, an egotistic society of indulgence for
the successful and semi-starvation for the
unsuccessful, incapable of any heroic effort
because that would deprive the successful of
their pleasures and ask of the unsuccessful
an effort for which they are not physically
fit, mentally prepared or morally ready. The
successful would have too many reasons for
not disturbing their life, the unsuccessful
would have none for doing so.
These are the extremes of two concep
tions of the state, and although they are not
in their extremes involved in the war, they
are in many of their essentials engaged. We
have our own stake in it because if com
munism wins we must conform, and,
whether it win or not. it may be our clear
duty to conform at least by compromise.
If a state can develop a system which
permits to the individual a free play of ef
fort and character, which gives him free
dom and a copious life with no conscious
ness of a commanding influence forcing him,
and yet stands besides the weaker elements
in its organization and gives them condi
tions preservative of their strength and well
being, it may have found its stability and be
proof against internal rot and strong against
attack from without.
For an inexpensive watch to take the
place of a cheap dollar watch, I have an
ELGIN, in a 7-jeweled nickel case for $t*.
Also HOWARD WATCHES from $55 to
$125. W.M. TAYLOR, Flat.
NOTICE OF FORFEITURE
To H. Schofield, and to your heirs, execu
tors, administrators‘and assigns:
You are hereby notified that the under
signed, a co-owner, has expended in labor
and improvements the sum of one hundred
dollars (8100.00) per year Tor the years
1913 and 1911 upon that certain placer
mining claim known as The Happy New
Year Association, situated at the bead of
Flat creek, a tributary of Otter creek, in
Otter recording district, Territory of
Alaska, in which you are the owner of an
undivided one-eighth (%) interest.
You and each of you are hereby notified
that if at the expiration of ninety (90)
days after the last publication of this notice
you have failed or refused to contribute !
your share of the aforesaid expenditures,
your interest in said claim will become for
feited and will become the property or the
undersigned, according to the provisions or
Section 2324 of Revised Statutes of the
I'nited States.
DAVID STRANDBERG. Co-Owner.
Date of first publication. Sept. 4. 1915
Date of last publication, Dec. 4, 1915. ’ |
MISREPRESENTATION
1 bought a pound of yellow cheese
the other day from Grocer Wheeze.
And us he wrapped it up he cried,
“In this fine cheese I take much
pride. It’s made from Jersey cream
and milk, and you will ‘find it fine
as silk; it's absolutely pure and
clean, contains no dyes or gasoline;
it’s rich and sweet, without a taint,
doggone my buttons if it ain’t. Oh,
it will chase away your woes, and
make your hair and whiskers grow.”
f took it home with eager feet, im
patient to sit down and eat, for I am
fond of high class cheese, which with
my inner works agrees. But that
blamed stuff was rank and strong,
for if had been on earth too long.
My wife, a good and patient soul,
remarked, “Bring me a ten-foot pole
before you do your chores, and I will
take that cheese outdoors. Before
it’s fit for human grub we’ll have to
stun it with a club.” What does a
sawed-off grocer gain by such a
trick, unsafe, insane? And what
does any merchant make by boost
ing some atrocious fake? Yet every
day we’s buying junk which proves
inferior and punk, although it’s
praised to beat the band; such
things are hard to understand.
Walt Mason.
CPZH DAY AND NIGHT
i FLAT CITY H OH BACK & DURAN 0
| Bet. the Grand and Bagoy's Bars
! THE BEST xjiLt 1 4 i Li l S i IS j
:
WE ARE HERE TO STAY
Fiict-CIass Accommodations
COMMODIOUS LOSSY
LARGE, AIRY ROOMS
YOUR PATRONAGE SOLICITED
; MRS. N. P. GILMORE
Best of Everything
ALL THE TIME AT THE
FLAT CITY
Open Dav and Night
Profe««ioi lal
Michigan, 1SSI Alaska, 1910
Kentucky, 1S9I
George Woodruff Alerecht
COUNSELOR AND LAWYER
IDITAROD, ALASKA
The Pioneer Attorney of Iditarod
E. M. STANTON,
Attorney at Law
Oflice: Corner Willow and Second Sts.
Iditarod Pioneer Building
CI1AS. E. TAYLOR,
Attorney at Law
BANK BLOCK
First Avenue Iditarod
Fred Harrison
ATTORNEY AT LAW
REG'NA HOTEL PHONE 53
Dt;. MOORE,
PHYSICIAN AND SURGEON
ft*\ i ^ r i •i •’ FT) * r. f. <* r-' £>
bv S'* ■ L J a U ■ i/ ± d 4 » c 0 O. La k "Ol j
Office: Fiat City Hospital, Fiat City
Consultation Hours in Forenoons and l-y
Appointment
DR. H. 3EHLA,
DEFTEST
Appointments by Telephone
FLAT CITY
AUTO-TRAM SCHEDULE
Leaves Iditarod Daily at 9 a. m. and 3 p. m.
Leaves Flat at 12 noon and 6 p. m.
! Sundays: Leave Iditarod S a. m.; Flat, 12 m
Special auto-tram trips may be arranged for
by ringing up the Iditarcd office.
Regular horsa tram leaves Id: crod 1 p. m.
i Asws3ir.cnt Work Blank® at Fmne-r
ah on. Flat y
Cfe 5a.^S»
SoDOnd St. j OSXAIROO SV3 8E&X GO. Phono 15
i HERBERT E. RILEY, PROP, {
-> I
i i
*The Best of Everything the Market Affords—Our Sunday Dinners jj
\ Are Famous
\ l
| TABLES FOR LADIES TELEPHONE <
®f®S ^ il Gold St" Flat City
1 fill £jj wlilC8 Mrs. Geo. Mutehler, Prop.
Nicoly Furnished Rooms Barn for Horses and Dogs Baths in Connection
HA^RY^DOWNEUL £ Y
GENERAL MERCHANDISE
discovery, otter
THE BEST OF^ EVERYTHING ALL THE TIME
Caribou Cafe
iM|BJ|L|||_ GOOD MEALS
SHORT ORDERS fmsmmmsm
FIRST AYE. OPEN DAY AND NIGHT
' _ Prop.
_ hi... i MnniiilMrnM— mi ■n~ MITT-X
Job Printing at Pioneer Print Shop