: _ ~ - r
THE IDITAROD PIONEER
Published Every Saturday Morning at Idltarod, Alaska
Vol. 7 CHARLES A. DERRY, Editor and Publisher No. 22
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A DANGER TO BE GUARDED AGAINST
One reason why citizens of Alaska who have the
welfare of the territory and its people at heart will
not enthuse over the question of statehood for
Alaska under present conditions is furnished by the
political activities of the great mining corporations
of Southeastern Alaska. Large corporations the
country over realize far better than do individual
citizens the advantages to be gained by taking an
active part in politics, and for this reason their legal
advisers generally are chosen from among the clev
erest of politicians. Wherever possible they see to
it that men favorable to the interests they represent
are elected to public office, with especial reference to
legislative positions. But their activities are not con
fined to local matters, and the number of men who
owe their seats in congress to corporate influence
must be very large. It is needless to say that these
activities are not dictated by a spirit of altruism.
fit Alaska the corporations are no exception to the
rule, and in the two sessions of the territorial legis
lature already held we have had ample evidence of
the influence they wield whenever legislation affect
ing their interests, either directly or indirectly, is
being considered. It is but necessary to recall the
circumstances surrounding the enactment of the per
nicious “workmen’s compensation law, so-called,
to realize the boldness with which the mining com
panies and their attorneys work, to understand the
danger that confronts the people by an extension of
power under present conditions to a legislative as
sembly convened at Juneau.
In the event that a statehood bill were passed for
Alaska one wonders if the people would be able to
protect themselves from the machinations of these
expert and well-trained company representatives
when it came to promulgating a constitution for the
new state. And when it is realized that most of the
territory’s population is concentrated within com
paratively small areas along the coast, and that the
preponderance of representation in the constitutional
convention would be from the section that is domi
nated to a greater or lesser degree by the corpora
tions, it may be seen that the danger is real.
Of the two delegates to the national Republican
convention elected at the recent territorial conven
tion at Seward, one is L. P. Shackleford, the attor
ney for the great Gastineau Mining Company and
allied interests, at Juneau. At the primaries held in
that city for the election of delegates to the Seward
convention there were some queer doings, according
to a letter published in the Valdez Prospector. It
will give an idea of the corporation methods of han
dling political matters. The letter is in part as fol
lows :
The Gastineau company threw itself into the local fight with
all its customary vigor. The men were herded in squads from
the mine and mill and ushered into automobiles, given a ticket,
rushed up to the voting place in Juneau, where they were herded
up to the ballot box, voted, and herded back into the autos and
pack to the mill and mine again. About twenty autos were en
gugsd ip this work, and there was a continual string of them
coining and going between Thane and Juneau all afternoon at top
speed. Not one in ten of the men had ever heard there was going
to be any kind of an election; not one in twenty knew what the
election was about; not one in twenty saw more than one ticket,
and would not know what either was if they did see it.
Neither of the local papers dare say a word about the affair,
but the public nerve is a-tingle with excitement over what has
occurred, because they realize that the result of the performance
is likely to have a far-reaching and lasting effect.
There is, of course, no attempt to show that the
activities in politics of such concerns as the Gastineau
Mining Company are prompted by a desire to be of
service to the people of the territory. The stock
holders of the concern, who are all non-residents,
have but one interest in the territory, and that is the
drawing of dividends.
There is a valuable lesson to be learned from such
occurrences. While these companies exert a large
and powerful influence, it does not extend to al!
residents of Alaska, and if the people will take as
active a part in the affairs of government as do the
corporations there is hope for truly representative
government in Alaska.
-- - -♦
NEWSPAPER IDEALS
In the course of an address at a conference of
Iowa newspaper men, held under the auspices of the
Iowa state university, James Keeley, editor of the
Chicago Herald, spoke in part as follows.
With a social conscience on the job, the newspaper will not
confine its energies to printing the news (accurately) and com
menting editorially (also with accuracy) on men and measures.
It will initiate helpful movements and fight to carry them to suc
cessful issue. It must be of service today, not only in politics and
morals, but in aiding in the solution of problems that are part ol
the daily life of the people. It must not only urge the public to
swat the crook, but should plead with them to swat the ny.
must not on}y fight for a clean city administration, but must
fight alongside those who are preaching the doctrine of a clean
home. It must not only decline to receive the dirty dollars that
come from lying, murderous medical advertising, but it should
teach the people how to keep well. . .
There has been a great forward movement along these lines in
the last decade. The average newspaper in America today is a
clean paper, an honest paper. There are not many examples left
pf Virtue on the editorial page and Vice in the advertising col
umns The advertiser of honest goods doesn’t like to sit in the
same pew with the quack, the loan shark, the mining swindler the
oil pirate and the merchandise faker. And, in the long run he is
going to be the broom that will sweep the few remaining Augean
There is no better investment than a single standard of honor, !
honesty, truth and integrity from the titje to the last agate line on
the back page. Truth, cleanliness and decency arc the greatest
dividend payers on earth.
Thus far I have dwelt practically on the pleasureable side of
newspaper making, for there is delight in doing good, particularly
when helpfulness walks hand in hand with success. There is an
other side of the picture, however—the side of perplexities, prob
lems and exigencies. If man were superhuman it might be possible
to hold even the scales between men who differ on religion, poll
tics, political economy, sociology and all other topics, issues and
happenings which create discussion in the world. No man can
serve two masters, and I have found it equally difficult to satisfy
those who hold divergent opinions on any public or private mat
ter. But when both sides kick you feel measurably certain you
are not far wrong.
I believe suppression of news is more of a wrong than the
printing of a piece of news that possibly might better not have
been written. By improper suppression a newspaper sells its soul
and betrays its readers. To my mind it is the high treason of
journalism. No paper that permits its advertisers or the personal,
social and financial friends of the editor to control or taint its
news and editorial columns ever has become a big newspaper.
If there were no tight in this business of ours it would lose half
its charm, and without the incentive of opposition I believe the
press of America would lose its virility. And that day, should it
ever come, would be a sorry one for America. For twenty-five
years I have been keeping a record of brickbats heaved in my di
rection. Ninety-nine per cent are anonymous letters. This war
started the letter waiters afresh. I suppose every editor in the
land was criticized last year for not printing news it was impossi
ble to get. Would that we editors had the omniscience of our crit
ics, the unerring instinct which can pick out lies and truths in
official statements and enable us to say when a victory is not a
victory and when a rout is a strategic move of military cunning.
The country editors who listened to the above
high-flown sentiments must have inwardly chuckled
and pictured in their mind’s eye the editor of the
great city daily placed in their own position. Sup
press the news! Of course they suppress the news.
Would the preaching city journalist publish the inti
mate details of an indiscretion, or misdemeanor, or
crime, committed by a member of his own family
as readily as he does with reference to persons with
whom he is unacquainted? Neither will the country
editor hold up to public scorn his neighbor with
whom he rubs elbows every day in the year. As to
accuracy of statement, the recording angel probably
will overlook the little white lies he tells in elabora
tion of his fellow-townsman’s good fortunes or in be
littling his mistakes. The newspaper which prints
“the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the
truth” is a rare institution. Few there are, even in
the class which Mr. Keeley represents, who are not
nfluenced m some manner or other in their methods
of disseminating news and opinions. In most cases
the influence is masked, in some it is known, and in
yet others it is exerted unconsciously.
So long as newspapers are dependent upon ad
vertising for their existence, so long will they be
more or less influenced in the character of matter
published. The ability to resist this pressure, while
it may reveal the integrity and independence of the
editor, does not make for the building up of “a big
newspaper.”
As to printing all the news, should the average
country newspaper attempt to carry into effect the
methods followed by the large city publications,
small communities would continually be torn up by
dissension and made untenable as places of resi
dence for editors.
-♦
Logically, that Republican platform should contain a plank ii
favor of the recall of judges, and one denouncing the proposition a
anarchistic.
-♦
Here is a thought expressed by Dr. Nicholas Murray Butler
president of Columbia university, New York city, which is worth}
of consideration by those opposed to the “preparedness’ policy
“Experience has shown,” he said, “that in time of war what ;
nation stints in materials it squanders in human life. The most
fatuous extravagance is provision of an inadequate supply. Ees:
than enough is foolish waste.” Dr. Butler believes in providing :
strong force of citizen soldiers, and that “the regular army shouh
be made adequate to perform its traditional duty of service a
the nation’s first line of defense.” In the last event the safety of
the nation must depend upon its citizen soldiers, and these shouh.
be effectively trained under the sole authority of the national gov
ernment.
--
It is noticeable that neither ex-President Roosevelt nor ex
Secretary of State Root has been heard recently to reiterate the
denunciation of President Wilson because of the failure to protest
against the occupation of Belgium by Germany at the outset of
the great war. It is possible that their silence is to be attributed
to the unearthing of the records of the Roosevelt administration
at the request of the senate. When Japan occupied Korea at the
time of the Russo-Japanese war, Colonel Roosevelt, as President,
and Mr. Root, as secretary of state, ignored an appeal from the
invaded country. Our treaty with Belgium only requires that the
United States respect the neutrality of Belgium, while the treaty
of 1882 between the United States and Korea contains the follow
ing article: “If other powers deal unjustly or oppressively with
either government, the other will exert their good offices on being
informed of the case to bring about an amicable arrangement,
thus showing their friendly feeling.’’
Luke McLuke, whose quaint philosophy is a feature of ihe
Cincinnati Enquirer, says that one liar who is going to get to
heaven is the fellow who is always telling people how fine they
are looking. Our nominee for celestial glory is a certain Dr.
Robert B. Clark of Monroe, Wis., who gives out the following
grain of comfort for the bald-headed men. “No matter to what
extent they are compelled to bear the ridicule of their friends be
cause of their shining domes,” says the doctor, “the fact of
their lack of hair is a guarantee that they never will be inmates
of asylums for the insane. I have examined several hundred
patients as to their sanity, and I have had the opportunity of
studying many hundreds of others in asylums of the country', and
in all of my experience I have yet, with a single exception, to see
an insane man who was bald-headed.” Asked why, the doctor
declared himself entirely in the dark, merely maintaining that it
was an indisputable fact that insanity is found chiefly among
people with heavy heads of haiiU’
BRYAN'S THOUGHTLESS STATEMENT
(Seattle Times)
Some months back one William Jennings Bryan made a state
ment to the general effect that if Presdent Wilson needed soldiers,
one million Americans could be enlisted in twenty-four hours.
Recently the government announced that a nation-wide recruiting
campaign to increase the army by 20,000 men had resulted in
adding the magnificent total of 507 men to the regular army—
in five days! Now for a wee bit of figuring. To get those 507
recruits, more than 4,000 applicants were examined. If the same
care were taken to select Bryan’s 1,000,000 soldiers, 4,000,000 ap
plicants would have to be “given the once over” by the inspecting
officials.
Now, to examine 4,000,000 men in twenty-four hours would
require that they should be passed in review at the rate of 166,000
per hour for every one of the twenty-four hours. Does anyrnne
suppose that 166,000 applicants—if they appeared, which is a
very doubtful matter—could be given the requisite mental and
physical tests every hour for a whole day? Under present cir
cumstances, it is questionable whether that number could be ex
amined in a week.
If the applicants appeared with the same alacrity (?) as is
now being displayed, those 1,000,000 soldiers could be selected
from 4,000,000 applicants in a period of approximately thirty
years.
-♦
Senator Stone’s idea of the international situation is that St.
Louis, Mo., is one of the largest German cities in the world.—Bos
ton Transcript.
CHINESE PRVOERBS
Think twice and do not speak at all.
Only those become priest who cannot earn
a living. <
At 70 a man is a candle in the wind.
A thousand soldiers are easily obtained;
one general is hard to find.
Do not lace your shoes in a melon patch.
Easy to open a shcip; hard to keep it.
open.
Of all important things, the first is not
to cheat conscience.
All pursuits are mean in comparison with
learning.
In a united family happiness springs up
of itself.
lie bought a dried fish to spare its life.
Win your lawsuit, lose your money.
Better do kindness near home than go
far to burn incense.
If you suspect a man, don’t employ him;
if you employ him, don’t suspect him.
Unskillful fools quarrel with their tools.
It’s a little thing to starve to death; it’s
a serious matter to lose one’s virtue."
World Outlook.
—
THE LATE SENATOR COCKRELL
The death of Francis M. Cockrell leaves
living hut one of a remarkable group of
Missourians whose work, during the recon
struction period and in ensuing years kept
this state so long anchored to the Demo
cratjc party, says the St. Louis Globe-Demo
crat. In two law firms, that of Cockrell &
Crittenden at Warrensburg, and that of Vest
A Philips at Sedalia, were a quartet of men
the inspiration of whose leadership made it
possible fur the Democratic party to regain
power, and whose example, ideals and rec
ords in public office gave to its partisans
that unreasoning and unwatchful confi
dence which led men of lesser meld to or
ganize cabals in it for the selfish wielding
of its power in state government. How
often, during a long period of unbroken
power, Missouri Democrats were led to shut
their eyes to glaring facts under the trlis
manic names of Vest and Cockrell the his
torv of the successive elections of both
those men bears witness. To vote for either
was a proud privilege of Missouri Demo
crats, and, under the influence of such
leadership, it grew easy for colonels, cap
tains, lieutenants, corporals and heads of
messes to pass down the lines the order
to “vote ‘er straight.”
When the time came, at last, when cor
ruption upon corruption’s head had accu
mulated to the point of reeking to heaven,
that one of the Big Four caught in the
storm’s path was Francis M. Cockrell. No
smell of fire had touched his garments.
Clean-handed and clean-hearted he had, for
nearly a generation in the senate, held
himself free of all attaint. But such is the j
logic of party politics that men who had
been active against his party were forced,
with regret, to see him go down in its
wreck. Under the present pirn of electing
senators he would, in ali probability, have
been saved from that wreck, r'resideiit
Roosevelt did not run counter to ihe pub
lie opinion of a Republican Missouri in sav
ing him to high public service as a mem
ber of the interstate commerce commis
sion. For during Senator Cockrell’s thirty
years in the senate he had been called
upon by thousands of Republicans for rid
in Washington. He never failed to use
every bit of strength he had to do a proper
service for any constituent, regardless of
politics. Often he arose from a sick bed to
| help out a constituent, merely because he
| came from Missouri. Gentle, simple and
hospitable, he was beloved by all. His
Republican colleagues would do him any
personal favor he asked. Even his eccen
tricities became adorable and Missourians
yet unborn will be told stories about Sen
ator Cockrell and his cob pipe and linen
duster.
—9
THE ROMANCE OF WAR
!
Most of the romance has gone out of
war. It is difficult to make a popular
hero of a man who operates a machine
gun, dealing death to hundreds whom he
has never seen. The personal touch has
largely departed. We kill by improved
methods.
Even fighting at sea has lost much of
its glamour. The submarine which emerges
for a moment on its errand of death and
then dives to safety beneath the waves is
doubtless a most efficient instrument of
war, but it has not yet produced a Perry,
a Decatur, or a Lawrence. Scientific war
fare has well-nigh abolished the poetry with
which one used to surround the profes
sion of arms.
But the exploits of the mysterious Moewe,
brought to the attention of the world by
the strange experience of the Appam, proves
that romance in war is not wholly extinct.
Like the story of the Emden, concluded
earlier in the conflict, the chapter of his
tory which shall tell of the roving Moewe
and its many captures should rival fiction
in its stirring appeal to the imaginations of
men.
Fighting is a sordid business under the
best of circumstances. Modern fighting at
bset does violence to all one's notions of
epic greatness. Between the gallant knight
who jousts for a lady’s favor and the mod
ern soldier who fights from a muddy trench
there is all the difference between a tale of
romance and a scientific reference work.
So far as the poetry of life is concerned,
it matters not at all that the modern
fighter is the more efficient.
The Moewe’s capture of the Appam de
serves to live in the chronicles of w'ar.
The classics furnish few more stirring nar
j ratives of courageous adventure.—Cleveland
j Plain Dealer.
--♦-—
CONCERNING CANNON
Contrary to the common belief, the can
non now in use are no larger in diameter
or bore than many which were used a long
time ago. A number of ships in the Brit
ish and Italian navies were armed at one
time with sixteen-inch guns—an inch larger
than the largest now in service. The bom
bardment of Alexandria in 1883 was con
ducted with guns of this calibor.
Four hundred and fifty years earlier still,
Mahmoud II battered the walls of Con
stantinople with guns whose exact bore
is uncertain; but if, as was claimed, a man
in armor could crawl inside one of them,
the diameter of the tube must have been
fully equal to that of the giant Krupp mor
tar of today.
It is in range, firing charge and weight
and destructiveness of projectile that the
present-day gun leaves all previous ones in j
I
[he infant class. Three or four shells from
[he fifteen-inch guns of the Queen Eliza
beth would have blown to bits a larger sec
tion of the walls of Constantnople than
Mahmoud beat down in months of firing.
The guns used at Alexandria would not
throw a missile half the distance that sep
arated the hostile fleets at the battle of
the North sea, and fortifications which could
have laughed at the earlier bombardment
dissolve in dust at the touch of a forty-two
centimeter shell.—Chicago Journal.
--♦——-—
BOOM IN BIBLE SELLING
For the first time in the history of Bible
printing and selling, and solely because of
the war in Europe, American Bible pub
lishers are this year making Bibles and
Testaments to sell in the European, South
African and Australian markets.
The situation is not that of the mission
ary and Bible societies, but of Bibles in the
regular trade. A partner in one of the !
largest Bible houses in the world, with of
fices in New York, said recently that the
war has affected Bible making and selling
in marked degree.
Bible makers and sellers say when other |
business is bad the Bible business is good, j
This year, because of the war. the Bible !
business of the world, save only in Ger- i
many and Austria, is larger than ever be- |
fore. The excess will reach 50 per cent,
it is estimated. Of the nations at war,
England is affected hardly at ail in ability ;
to purchase Bibles, but in inability to man- j
ufacture them it is handicapped, and has ,
to call on America for supplies. Scotland j
is affected in the same way. France has
taken to Bible buying, and so has Russia.
Even the Belgians and Serbians have kept
up their purchases.
The largest single customer in the Bible
trade in America are the Gideons. These
are now buying, so the trade reports, 50,000
Bibles a year. Since they began buying,
six years ago, one New York firm has sold
to them 300,000 Bibles. New York Tribune, i
SILENCED THEM
A novelist recently found himself in a
train with two talkative women. Having
recognized him from his published portraits,
they opened fire upon him in regard to his
novels, praising them in a manner which
was unendurable to the sensitvie author.
Presently the train entered a tunnel, and
in the darkness the novelist raised the back
'of his hand to his lips anil kissed it
soundly. When light returned he found
the two women regarding each other in
silence.
Addressing them with great suavity, he
said:
“Ah. ladies, the one regret of my life
will be that I shall never know which of
you it was tl at kissed me!”
At lete.-t accounts the ladies had not yet
spoken to each other. Pittsburgh Chron
icle-Telegraph.
♦
SAFETY FIRST
“Why,” asks a Missouri paper, “does Mis
souri stand at the head in raising mules?”
“Because,” says another paper, “that is
the only safe place to stand.”—Ex.
■ --♦
Fresh Olympia and Eastern Oysters,
*1.50 per ran. Iditarod Meat Co.
Professional
llcblgan, 1881 Alaska, 1910
Kentucky, 1891
George Woodruff albrecnt
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 Avenu8 Iditarod
Fred Harrison
ATTORNEY AT LAW
Room 1 Over Merchants Cafe
DR, MOORE
PHYSICIAN AND SURGEON
DRUG STORE
DR, H. E. AURSNQER
Physician and Surgeon
Office: Fiat City Hospital. Flat 6!ty
Consultation Hours in Forenoons and by
Appointment
BR. H. BEHLA
DENTIST
FLAT CITY
Will Arrive in Iditarod by the first boat in
the spring
Best of Everything
ALL THE TIME AT THE
A roads Cafe
FLAT CITY
Ooen Dav anci Night
FINE WATCH REPAIRING
NUGGET JEWELRY TO ORDER
J. L. SALE, Hat City
Fresh Meats
3e;ondSt. IQO AROO l¥! EAT COn Phone (5
Gold St., Fiat City
Mrs. Geo. Mutchier, Prop.
Nicely Furnished Rooms Barn for Horses and Dogs Baths in Connection
HARRY DGP^ELLEY
EEEE GENERAL MERCHANDISE
DISCOVERY, OTTER
THE BEST OF EVERYTHING ALL THE TIME
MERCHANTS’ CAFE
Bx*mwm*w**— GOOD MEALS
iaaoam SHORT ORDERS *wn
FIRST AVE. OPEN DAY AND NIGHT *
Prep.
Grooeries Hardware
Glass ware China ware
Clothing
Leather and Rubber
Footwear
mcmahon
FLAT CITY