-___ ' :- —• •
THE ID8TAROD PSONEER
Published Every Saturday Morning at Idltarod, Alaska
Yol. S CHARLES A. DERRY, Editor No. 26
ARBUCKLE & DERRY, Publishers
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THE CENSORSHIP
Anything that savors of the restriction of the freedom of ttie
press, or of speech, is, of course, most repugnant to the American
people. It touches upon sacred rights which have been assured
only after supreme struggle, and which have been safely guarded
from generation to generation. It is only natural, therefore, that
there should have been a terrific hubbub concerning the establish -
wont of a war censorship. But there is not a single citizen nor
publication which lines not know that as the war progresses there
will be much information which it will be inadvisable to make
public lest it should be token advantage of by the enemy. Presi
dent Wilson and the department heads arc right in assuming that
true Americans will co-operate in this as in all other means for
earning on the war to a successful conclusion. To those who
l ave feared that the censorship will lie used to protect dishonest
or incapable public officials President \\ ilsou has issued the fol
lowing assurance:
“I approve of this legislation, but i need not assure you and
those interested in it that whatever action the congress may de
cide upon, so far as I am personally concerned, 1 shall not expoet
01 permit any part of this law to apply to me or any of my official
nets, or in any way to be used a? a shield aganist criticism.
“I can imagine no greater disservice to the country than to
establish a system of censorship that would deny to the people of
n free republic like our own their indisputable right to criticize
their own public official?. V. bile exercising the great powers of
the office I hold 1 would regret in a crisis like the one through
which we are now passing to lose the benefit of patriotic and in
ti iligent criticism.
“In these trying time? one can feel certain only of his motives,
which he must try to purge of selfishness of every kind and wait
with patience for the judgment of a calmer day to vindicate the
wisdom of the course he has tried conscientiously to follow."
The censorship board, otherwise the “Committee on Public In
formation." has issued in pamphlet form a statement to tht* press
of the United States, in which they set forth as nearly as may be
the purposes of the censorship. From a perusal of the document
it would seem that no man who has the welfare of his country at
heart can honestly object to the work of the committee on the
lines laid down. The plan as outlined gives such latitude to the
press as would not be considered a. censorship in any other than
an English-speaking nation. Denunciation of such necessary
war measures will hardly be received with toleration by tin* Amen- 1
ran people.
A
RIGHTEOUS INDIGNATION
The publication of a dispatch from Berlin announcing that I
“our air squadrons yesterday dropped bombs on Dover and ■
Folkestone” arouses the heretofore conservative and miid-mun- |
nered editor of the Seattle Post-Intelligencer to the following j
burst of righteous indignation, in a signed article in that new.-- j
paper scornfully headed "German 'Kultur'":
"Yes. it is the atrocious truth. The cowardly thing which j
Berlin proudly proclaims and meanly gloats over actually hap- i
pened. A censored cable from London confirms it. Noncotn
batanis to the number of seventy-six were killed- most of them
women and children—mangled and torn to death by bolts from
the clear sky. Anil countless others maimed. Such is war—
German war!
"Bv contrast and comparison with the slaughter of the
trenches—the asphyxiation of men with poisonous ga-e? and the
f iling of men’s heads and bodies with nails and needles fired from
death-dealing shells—the casualty record from Dover and Folke- !
stone is infinitesimally small. ’ It is only an incident of the horrors j
oi war. But such an incident!—so wicked and diabolical, and so |
obviously bespeaking Germany’s conception of war!
“Ruthlessness! Frightfulness! Terrorism! Yes, this wanton
killing of innocents, this raid upon unoffending women and chil
dren whose husbands and brothers are engaged in fair combat on
the battlefield—this achievement of the air squadron which tills
marl war lords with glee and prompts a boastful announcement to
ihe world, is in perfect keeping with black and hideous chapters
that have gone before.
"Remember Edith Cavell, the English nurse -snatched from a
mission of mercy and executed in the face of a protest and ap
peal from the American minister and all civilized Europe!
"Remember the Lusitania! Can America ever forget?
"Call to mind the shelling of the cathedral at Rheims, the lay- I
ing waste of abandoned villages and towns, the sending of prison- |
r-rs of war into slavery, and finally (let it still be held incredible),
the awful report, given currency through reputable news channels,
that a climax of horror has been reached by the blood-gorged
German militarists in the utilization of human bodies, fallen cr,
the battlefields, for the making of soap!
"Recalling these and other acts of deviltry akin, public sensi
bilities are shocked afresh in contemplation of the fiendish raid
upon Dover and Folkestone! It is but a minor episode of a war
German wai—this blighting out of the lives of innocents by the
use of aerial bombs. ’ If there were a way more frightful, a
slaughter more wanton, it would be followed. So, with a shudder,
and in expectation of tidings worse, the sky assault upon the
English sea coast cities passes and, save for transient comment,
already would be forgotten.
"War, at the very best, if there can be any best of war, is the
veriest hell. Sherman knew and said it well. War by Germany
is clearly waged by demons from the innermost depths of hell.
Yet war is glorious. How infinitely glorious it is for America to
go to war and give her clean blood and clean treasure to the
lighteous cause of ending such a war and enforcing a just and
lasting peace!
“Glory in it? Yes, imperishable glory for America.”
In the dispatches of the same date on which the article ap
peared was the following dispatch from Geneva, Switzerland, with
its horrible details of German frightfulness. It is truly incon
ceivable that human beings can still be found to excuse such acts
as part of the military program of a “civilized” nation :
“Geneva, May 27,—La Suisse today prints details of a case
similar to that of Miss Edith Cavell, the English nurse, who, de
spite universal protest, including that of the American minister,
was executed by the Germans in Brussels in October, 1915, for
assisting wounded Belgians to escape. The Germans, says the
newspaper, recently arrested two women, Mine. Pfeister and her
daughter, aged 22, on the Swiss-AI-atian frontier. They were
charged with acting as spies. The women promptly admitted at
the trial that they had smuggled letters, without knowing their
contents, from Alsatian families to relatives in Switzerland. This
was done simply as a friendly act and without political or mali
ciouN purpose. Both women, says La Suisse, were shot at. Mul
hausen. The mother was a horrified witness to the execution of
her daughter before her turn came.”
LAFOLLETTE’S UNTRUTHFUL ASSERTIONS
Senator Lafnllette, in his speech of April 4, which Senator
John Sharp Williams said would have better become Herr Von
Bath maun Hollweg, said:
“England first began the ruthless naval warfare by repudiating
the declaration of London. . . Because we acquiesced, we
have a legal and moral responsibility to Germany Thus we have
been actively aiding her enemy in starving German women, chil
dren and old men. Germany waits three long months for this
.government to protest. In principle, therefore, Germany had the
right blindly to destroy ships by submarines and mines in her own
blockade. Germany is doing only what England is doing. Ger
many has been patient with us, 'standing strictly on her rights to
be accorded the same treatment as England by us.”
Upon what flimsy foundation Senator LafoUetle’s opposition
to Great Britain rests is shown in an official document just re
ceived here, which says:
“The contents of the London declaration had never been rec
ognized by the British government as valid law of nations; so far
is this from being the ease that when the declaration came up for
discussion in the two houses of parliament preliminary to ratifica
tion the approval of the legislature was refused and ratification
never took place. Great Britain, therefore, was acting completely
within her rights when at the beginning of the war she declared
that she was not bound by the terms of this declaration, though
at the same time she did in fact express her desire so far a- was
possible to follow it in practice. ‘The war of starvation against
Germany' means the stoppage of all trade from Germany to the
cuter world. This is a form of warfare which has been repeatedly
adopted in the past by all nations; it is that which the German
states themselves adopted toward Paris in the war of 1870:1; it
is that which was adopted by the government of the United. States
in the civil war. It is no more in accordance with the interests
of England than with the general interests of the allies, and in fact
the prevention of all foreign trade is the joint action of a'l the
allies. On the land frontier it is maintained tv their united armies,
on the sea frontier bv their united fleets.”
-&
Governor Strong charges Judge Jennings with rendering e.
partisan decision in the delegateship contest. But at any rate
Judge Jennings squarely faced the issue which Strong as a mem
ber of the canvassing board dodged. If Strong had done his
sworn duty ns a member of the board he woul 1 have made un
necessary any action on the part of Judge Jennings. The trouble
was that Strong usurped the powers of the judiciary in necKtiug
that the election law did not mean what it said.
- •»
Cardinal Gibbons sounded the call for whole-hearted American
support of President Wilson when he termed it the primary dud;,
of ( very citizen to show loyalty to the country. “L .yalty, le*
declared “is manifested more by acts than words; by solemn 1 : v
ice rather than empty declarations. It is exhibited by absolute
and unreserved obedience to his country.- call. The members o:
both houses of c- r.gress are the instruments of God in guiding us
iu our ci\ie duties.”
♦
Burkinan, the consort of Emma Goldman, the not.-moas an
archist, recently declared that the United States would roan have
a “council of workmen’s and soldiers del gates, such ;- has as
sumed control in Russia. Since then this foreign disturber ha
broken into jail on a serious charge, end it i- 1 kely that lie w i;
have I'l'-iitv of time to work out ti e d. tails of the l ira.
-<»
George Bernard Shaw ha.- at last n.uiui something in which he
was not concerned of which he approves. It is :t doubtful coin; L
uient to the United States that lie finds no word of condemnation
ol our entry into the world war.
— e
One thousand negro officers are to be teamed by the govern
ment to command the 25,000 negroes who will be dratted mi the
first call for 500,0000 mem
❖ -
COLONEL HARVEY IS IN LiNE
(May North American Review i
The great declurati m of Rrc.-ib m '-isi n will 1'■ in
history as no less striking in substance and in form than th: t
of Thomas Jefferson and quite as far-reaching in consequences t.i
humankind as the pronouncement to King John of the baron •
of England. That is much to say, but nut too much. V- a a k
our readers to reflect upon the constantly changing conditions
and the swinging back and forth of the pendulum of public opim
a n during the past two and a half years; to recall the luck of
personal interest and the sense of aloofness which pervaded Amer
1 a during the first few months of the war; to imagine tin- disas
trous consequences which surely would have attended for a time
our sudden entrance upon the scene of the conflict in response to
a gust of passion; to reckon the enormous gain derived from the
exercise of unprecedented patience and forbearance; to calcinate
the inestimable practical advantages which have accrued from
the great enhancement of our material resources and from the
opportunity to profit from the mistakes of both the enemy and
our allies;'to note the “gentle guiding” of public sentiment into
the channel of righteousness for the sake of righteousness and
the gradual building up in the common consciousness of a con
viction that there was no escape from performance of a duty
essential to the salvation of the life, liberty and happiness of ail
mankind; to watch the realization of the psychological moment
of that “unity of America” so earnestly besought in the inaugural
address; and then to study the results of tho President’s course,
strange at times though it has seemed, with heed to Mr. Lowell’s
penetrative conception of “a magistrate worthy to be chief in a
commonwealth of freemen,” and accord with honor and praise to
the man who was not only chosen and rechosen by the people,
hut. to our mind, was clearly predestined by God to meet intelli
gently, masterfully and Heaven grant to the end successfully the
greatest emergency in the history of the world. Not side by side,
but as a natural and logical sequence of the Declaration of Inde
pendence and the Emancipation Proclamation stands the gieat
message of that which we heralded last month as patriotism, and
now proclaim as democracy._
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DISCREDITED GOVERNOR
ATTACKS JENNINGS’ DECISION
Following up its fight on Governor
Strong, the Juneau Empire recites the fol
lowing, which is a rather severe indictment
for a man representing the government in
a responsible position, and seeking reap
pointment to that position:
“Probably for the first time in the history
of Alaska, we have the spectacle of the gov
ernor of the territory attempting to dis
credit the decisions of a United States dis
trict court. Governor .1. F. A. Strong, ac
cording to the Anchorage Labor News, wrot :•
a letter to Dr. F. M. Boyle, former member
of the territorial house of representatives,
in which he, commenting upon the decision
of Judge Jennings in the delegateship con
test. said:
“ ‘The action of the court was, in my
opinion, so partisan that comment on my
part would be superfluous.’
“That portion of the letter of Governor
Strong to Dr. Boyle that is printed by the
Anchorage labor paper follows:
“ ‘As for the delegate contest to which
you refer, while appreciating your kind
words. I did only that which I believed was
a duty incumbent upon me; that is a duty
I owed my office and the people of the
territory. In the absence of any fraud be
ing a'leged, I could not see how any fair
minded man could find that Mr. Sulzer had
been elected when the returns plainly
showed the contrary, and I acted accord
ingly. The injection of partisan politics
into this matter is most regrettable, hut
1 have nothing to regret anil am quite
willing to accept all responsibility for my
action. I know that the people of Alaska
by their vote re elected Judge Wickersham.
and I know too much about Alaska and
Alaskan conditions to deprive the voters
of remote precincts of their franchise on
mere technicalities or irregularities. You
mi doubt have been advised that there were
technical violations of the election law and
irregularities noted in nearly every precinct,
and if the boards had taken cognizance of
all technicalities and irregularities I believe
that Judge Wickersham would have been
elected by a thousand majority. The ac
tion of the court was, in my opinion, so
partisan that comment on my part would
be superfluous. 1 believe that th° matter
vvi 1 be settled in the right place, namely,
the house of representatives.’
“ ‘The mere technicalities’ referred to by
Governor Strong which caused Judge Jen
nings to exclude the returns from certain
precincts were error- such as wold ! have
completely destroyed the Australian ballot
in Alaska if they had been disregarded.
They were discussed at length by Judge
Jennings in the elaborate opinion rendered !
by him. In discussing them before the
court hrd fina’ly ruled on the mat'- r G >v
eriu r Sir ng si.'-i that the law should be
so that i: would stale it: plan lc.ngu:
that such returns as those renewed tree
the pr ctneis in que.-ti n could not I -
counted; otherwise, he admitted, there1
\v. i l l lie no use for an Australian ball it
I v. in Ai Otherwise he admitted thai
the I.-w l;nuM be as Judge Jennings hoi i
that it wa
BERNARD SHAW APPROVES
COURSE OF UNITED STATES
A cable from London to the New York
Times quote- George Bernard Shaw a- fol
lives:
The entrance of the United Slates into
the war was inevitable for mechanic: 1 rea
sons. Germany had forced them to arm
their shipping against submarine at.fa- k.
Geimm undersea boat? were sinking Amer
ican .-hips, and American -hips were pir
PF,:ng to sink under-on boat.- in .- 11-<lc
fr-nsc. This Id have 1 : txi* ed a . tua
tii n worse than war, because if an Amor.
can ship raptured an undersea ci. ,v or a
German submarine captured : n Anier.c: a
crew which had fired on her the prisoners
in either ei'.-e would have b n not prison
rs of war, but pirates and would pre
sumably l ave been hanged a - a h. Under
,-uch circuna-tances an in1-. I'oent captain
would not have taken any prisoner•. and.
as intelligent captains are by 'definition also
humane captains, thus alternative would
have been unbearable. Germany has. in
fact, forced the United States to accept
war with her.
President Vvihon, the only great state?
man the war has produced, has thus got
an inside grip morally by keeping his head,
and, having an uncommonly good head to
keep, not to mention a character in line
with the great American tradition of Lin
cu'n and Washington, lie has placed his
country in an impregnable position. She
has escaped all entanglements in European
alliances, and comes into the war with a
1 free hand and an absolutely clean record
I as far os aggression or provocation is eon
! cerned. The President has not made a
I single false step, and every American can’
I back him without the scruples that are
tearing tender consciences to pieces all over
Europe, where every one of the allies has
been put repeatedly into false positions by
its statesmen, and the alliance as a whole
has been compromised by public documents
which, even when practical conclusions have
been justifiable, and, indeed, inevitable, have
been in tone anil thought little better than
the manifestos of brigands. These documents
have had, among other effects, that of mak
ing it. impossible for the United States to
come into an alliance. I esteem the entry
of the United States into this war as a
first-class moral asset to the common cause
against junkerisru.
THE GERMAN VIEWPOINT
The newspapers of Germany are bound
to play a big part in the soon-to-come lib
eralization of the German empire. The
governmental attitude is still largely that
of Bismarck toward the “reptile press,” The
German belief in the venality of the press,
which is the regular theory of operation,
was evidenced only a few days ago, when
a story emanating from Holland said that
something like $50,000,000 had been spent
by Germany in two years for the subsidiza
tion of public opinion in neutral countries,
and it w-as added that something like $10,
000,000 had been spent in this country. If
that be true, it w'ould account for the readi
ness with which the Germans believe that
all the newspapers in America not friendly
to their cause are bought by “British gold,”
in which class they place the New York
Times and New York Tribune, and also
the World, whenever its editorial or news
columns say anything unfriendly from the
German viewpoint.—Herbert Swope in New
York World.
-4
Job Printing at The Pioneer office.
I HAVE A RENDEZVOUS WITH
DEATH
The following prophetic poem, published
shortly prior to the death of its author,
Allan Seeger, has been widely published and
commented on. It has just been learned
that the young American soldier, who was .
a member of the Lafayette corps of the \
French Foreign Legion, put an end to his
sufferings by shooting himself through the ,
temple. He was wounded in the breast, I
abdomen ; nd knees by a German shell on ;
April 4 or 5, and realized that his death ;
would be a matter of but a few hours:
I have a rendezvous with Death
At some disputed barricade,
When Spring comes round with rustling
shade
And apple blossoms fill the air.
I have a rendezvous with Death
When Spring brings back blue dtfys and
fair.
It may be he shall take my hand
And lead me into this dark land
And close my eyes and quench my breath ; ,
It may be I shall pass him, still,
I have a rendezvous with Death
On some scarred slope of battered hill,
When Spring conies round again this year !
And the first meadow flowers appear.
God knows 'twere better to be deep
Pillowed in silk and scented down,
Where love throbs out in blissful sleep,
Pul e nigh to pul e, and breath to breath.
Where hushed awakenings are dear,
But, I’ve a rendezvous with Death v
At midnight in some flaming town.
When Spring trips north again this year.
Anil I to my pledged word .mi true.
I shall not fail that rendezvous.
A -
WHAT BERNSTORFF THOUGHT
OF GERMAN-AMER!CANS
Count Von Bern-torff, former German
ambassador to the United States, before the
war spoke disparagingly of German citizens
of this country, saying they had run away
from their fatherland to avoid military serv
ice and were ‘'outlaw.-,” Recording to a
statement made public at Washington on
May 23 by Senator Phelan of California.
The r marks attributed to Von Bern
storff, Senator Phelan explained, were made
during hn interview which he had with the
:.mba-.-;adtr in Munich in 1913, in an effort
to get Germany to participate in the Pan
ama-Pacific exposition. Phelan urged a Ger
man exhibit on the ground that Germans
in the United States would lie proud of it.
“He immedie'ely resented that.” -aid
Senator Phelan in his statement. “Much
to my surprise he substantially said:
“ To not talk about those people. We
do not care what they think or want. They
have deserted the fatherland. They have
r n away to avoid military duty. They
have been ful e to the ; Id traditions. They
:ic outlaws.’
“1 hat was the sentiment of the official
Germany then, as I believe it is today. They
regard those good people as outlaws, as men
who have tied from their duty.
'“1 think our German-American citizens
hould km v. and understand the Prussian
estimate of them, and be confirmed in what
1 believe to be their sincere conviction that
their duty is with. America in this struggle.” |
♦
WHAT WATTERSON WOULD DO
I.ike a bolt out of the blue flashed the i
war signal from the very heart of Europe, j
Aerass the Atlantic its reverberations rolled J
to find us divided, neutral and unprepared,
i'or fifteen years a body of German reserv
i-:disguised as citizens have been march
ing and counter marching. They grew at
irngth bold enough to rally to the support 1
of a pan German scheme of conquest and ’
a pro-German propaganda of “kultur,” bas
ing its effrontery on the German-American :
vote, whkh began its agitation by threaten !
ins us with civil war if we dared to go to j
war with Germany. There followed the as- ‘
cassia sea monsters and the airship cam
paign of murder.
All the while we looked on with either
simpering idiocy or dazed apathy. Serbia?
It was no affair of ours. Belgium? Why
should we worry? Foodstuffs sparing- war
stuffs roaring everybody making money—
the mercenary, the poor of heart, the mean
of spirit, the bleak and barren of soul,
Gould still plead the hypocrisy of uplift and
chortle, “I did not raise my boy to be a
soldier.” Even the Lusitania did not
awaken us to a sense of danger and arouse
us from the stupefaction of ignorant and
ignoble self-complacency.
First of all, on bended knee we should
pray God to forgive us. Then erect, as
men, Christian men, soldierly men, to the
flag and the fray—wherever they lead us—
over the ocean through France to Flan
ders—across the Low Countries to Koln,
Bonn and Coblenz—tumbling the fortress
of E-hrenbreitstein into the Rhine as we pass
and damming the mouth of the Moselle
with the debris of the ruin we make of it—
then on, on to Berlin, the Black Horse
cavalry sweeping the Wiihelmstrasse like
lava down the mountainside, the junker and
the saber rattler flying before us, the tunes
being “Dixie” and “Yankee Doodle,” the
cry being “Hail the French Republic—Hail
the Republic of Russia—Welcome the Com
monwealth of the Vaterland—no peace with
the kaiser—no parley with autocracy, abso
lutism and the divine right of kings—to he'l
with the Hapsburgs and the Hohenzollerns.”
—Louisville Courier-Journal.
Professional
Michigan, 1881 Alaska, 1910
Kentucky, 1891
George Woodruff Albrecht
COUNSELOR AND LAWYER
IDITAROD, ALASKA
The Pioneer Attorney of Iditarod
E. M. STANTON
Attorney at Law
Office: Corner Willow and Second Sts
Iditarod Pioneer Building
CHAS. E. TAYLOR
Attorney at Law
BANK BLOCK
First Avenue Iditarod
DR. MOORE
PHYSICIAN AND SURGEON
DRUG STORE
DR. H. E. AURlftiGER
Physician and Surgeon
Office: Flat City Hospital, Flat City
Consultation Ilnurs in Forenoons scd by
Appointment
FLAT DRUG STOR_E_
dr7h. behla
Physician
Surgeon
Will open ins office in Flat City
about July 25 for the practice
of medicine and surgery
DENTISTRY IN CONNECTION
FINE WATCH REPAIRING
NUGGET JEWELRY TO ORDER
J. L. SALE, Fiat City
Best of Everything
ALL THE TIME AT THE
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WE ARE HERE TO STAY
Big Slocks of Fresh Goods
Everything for the Miner and
Prospector
MAX SHVSEL TRADER
Stores a: Cripple City and Mouth of Tolstoi
Fiat City Bakery
AMD COFFEE HOUSE
Front St., Opp. Flat City Hotel
Our Coffee Is Unsurpassed
Our Bakery Products Always Fresh and
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Pies, Cakes, Bread, etc.
KEENAN & MICHELS, Props.
FINNEGAN & CAMERON
FLAT CITY
Agency for Edison Diamond Disc Phonographs and Records
TOBACCO CIGARS STATIONERY
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