THE IDITAROD PIONEER
Published Every Saturday Morning at Iditarod, Alaska
Vol. 7 CHARLFS A. DERRY, Editor and Publisher No. 23
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THE MAIL SERVICE
The average Alaskan has a dread of being desig
nated as a “knocker.” Hr will endure much in the
wav of mcompelency of public officials, inadequacy
of public service, and total lack of that consideration
of the just rights and privileges due from government
to people rather than have attached to him the op
probrious term. And this is equally true of Alasxa
communities. But once aroused, they can make
Rome howl with their complaints, and their com
plaints finally receive a hearing, as instanced in the
cases of Nome and Fairbanks in relation to the maii
service provided for those communities.
The people of Idilarod have been most patient
under a long term of p.egieci. incompetence, favorit
ism or what not in connection with its mail service.
No organized effort has been made to remedy the
abuses under which they have suffered, and like true
Alaskans they have taken what was given them under
the impression that they were receiving the best that
was possible in the way of mail service under the cir
cumstances. They have learned different now, and
have become convinced that instead of receiving the
advantage of a short and direct winter mail service
to the coasi, which they had a right to expect, they
have been the victims of a senes of blunders or worse
which are entirely inexcusable.
The second year or the beware! trail man service
has just terminated with the dumping of three con
signments of more or less antiquated matter into the
local poslofhce. During the season there were con
stant instances of delayed consignments, and, as
usual, there was dissatisfaction with reference to
matter sent over the trail and that reserved for
future trips. At a time when pedestrians traveling
over the trail made the journey from Seward to Idit
arod in from fourteen to twenty days, the mail, car
ried by dog sled and horse sled, took the full time
limit of twenty-four days, and in many instances
even more. In the latter days of the service there
was no attempt at meeting schedules owing to the
trail conditions.
It has been demonstrated that mail can be brought
from Seward to Iditarod in much less time than the
present schedule calls for, and yet it has been seldom
that the mail has been on time. It behooves the resi
dents of the district to ascertain where the fault lies
and whether the abuses can be remedied.
Without any attempt at authoritative statement
in the matter, The Pioneer puts forth the opinion
that the whole trouble is due to lack of management
and to the fact that advantages for forwarding mail
are not taken advantage of to the fullest extent.
Numerous instances have been reported of individ
ual carriers waiting for days at roadhouses the ar
rival of the mail, instead of continuing their journey
to meet the expected carrier. Travelers over the
trail constantly have reported passing mail consign
ments that started out many days ahead of them.
When Coiunel Kcvell was in Id:tarod prior to the
inception of the service he promised the people a
twenty-day service. It has been demonstrated that
it would be by no means unreasonable to expect
such a service. \et it is doubtful whether, except
in a few isolated instances, anything approximating
such a speedy trip has been made by the mail. It
also has been stated that mail has been seriously de
layed by lack of horse feed at various relay stations,
which is, of course, inexcusable.
Suggesting the element of favoritism, lhe i loneer
is informed from a reliable source that the special
consignment of mail which was the result of com
plaints of the inadequacy of the Alaska mail service,
and which left Seward on March 18, consisted en
tirely of parcel post matter consigned by a large Out
side mail-order house to one particular locality, anc!
that locality many miles distant from Iditarod. It
would be interesting to learn what influences were
brought to bear in favor of this Outside concern to
secure the prompt delivery of its merchandise while
the ordinary mail was held up.
The experience of the past two years has shown
that it is a waste of time and effort to attempt to
drag second-class mail over the route while the trail
is in process of disintegration in the spring. The
first-class mail could be carried through at this time
with ease; but to attempt to carry hundreds of
pounds of second-class mail only results in delaying
the whole consignment. Furthermore, these last
consignments have reached Iditarod each year after
the opening cf navigation, and might just as well
have been consigned by way of Skagway and White
horse, and would have arrived fully as early and in
much better condition.
The suggestion is offered that the government of
ficials, acting for Uncle Sam, should use the same
business acumen in the transaction of his business
as do the agents of private business firms and cor
porations. There is a good mail trail provided. It
has been shown that mail can be carried with regu
larity and d'snatch. The government provides the
money therefor, and there is no reason why, with
the liberal time allowance, there should be any delay
in its delivery.
❖
“A PLEA FOR THE HELPLESS”
Tire Nome-Seward Chamber of Commerce lias
sent out, under date of March 29, a circular calling
attention to “attested statements of former inmates
of the Morningside Sanatorium, of Portland, Ore.,
where, under existing contract with the department
of the interior, the insane patients from Alaska arc
consigned.” These statements are four in number,
and are given in full, and describe in horrible detail
alleged conditions at the institution. The statements
are by C. O’Brien, sent to the institution from Nome;
A. Nicolis, also from Nome, and from E. J. L:tz and
Frank Fox. The Nome organization says:
These men. who came from your midst to explore and dc ^
\ clop this great territory, having become menta lv incompetent;
through the rigors of the climate or hardships incident to pioneer
life in an Arctic country, are entitled to receive the best treat
ment that modern medical science can give, as well as the most
| humane care, and yet, according to tl e.e statements, they return
to the states sick and incapable, there to be ex; bited f >r finan
I rial gain, tortured and treated as criminal.
Ihe documnet closes with the admonition to
“kindly use your influence where it will have the
most weight in assisting us to this end.”
The communication is an altogether unusual one.
The statements of four men previously adjudged in
sane are given publicity and apparently in a measure
vouched for as the truth, and the asseruon made
that they “return to the stales sick and incapable
there to be exploited for financial gain, tortured and
treated as criminals.” If the statements be true,
a most deplorable condemn is revealed. But the
Nome business organization makes no assertion as
to having attempted to verify the statements before
publication. In the absence of such verification it
appears unwise to take action. Ihe further state
ment is made that the “contract having been broken
it is the sentiment of the committee that other pro
| vision should be made for their care. In other
words, on the statements of four former mmaies of
j an institution for the insane, without hearing from
: the contractors who are charged with breaking then
contract, the people are asked to demand lire revo
cation of that instrument. Surely an un-American
procedure.
Probably there was never an institution for the
care of insane persons which was conducted accord
ing to the wishes of its inmates and it is probable
that there never will be. There have been numerous
complaints against the Mormngside institution, and
some of them have been investigated and reported
upon. The governor of Alaska has recommended
that an institution be built in the territory for the
care of these unfortunates, instead of having them
cared for by contract. It is questionable whether
the latter course is advisable. But one thing is cer
tain, the charges made call for investigation, and
J should they prove true the contract should be abro
j gated. But a spirit of fairness would suggest that
! charges of such a serious nature should be venhecl
! before action is taken.
Government officials have issued a warning to the pub:."
against waste of paper and rags, because of the sh -rtage caned
by the interruption to commerce by the war. .Sente of the junk
so laboriously hauled over the trail and dumped into this city a.
mail during the past week might have been utilized as waste
paper if left at tidewater.
-♦
Speaking of the charge that “the l e. I papers dare not print
the facts” in regard to the large mining companies’ participation
in the recent Republican primaries at Juneau, the lampin' says:
“At this date the situation is one that does not interest the Empire
| in tiie least, nor is it one that should appeal to any Alaskan who
| is not looking for office and whose only interest in politics is good
I government and progressive development.” Pretty neat side
i stepping.
*
('lit rles E. Sulzcr, nominated for delegate to cvngiv-- by the
Democratic territorial convention, is an able and popular man.
j in the estimation of his fellow-citizens of the First district, but
he is practically unknown in the territory at large. His stand in
J favor of the disbursement of the forest fund stamps him as a
lighter of the first rank, but it is doubtful if it will gain votes for
him outside of his own division, even though right was on his
side. He s a brother of former Governor William Suizer of New
York.
❖
TEDDY CONVICTED OF INCONSISTENCY
(Louisville Courier-Journal >
What will Terrible Teddy do to the editor of the Duluth Her
ald, who has gone back in the files of The Outlook and from the
i-.-ue for September 23, 1914, resurrected these remarks by Teddy
himself? :
“A delegation of Belgians has arrived to invoke our assistance.
What action our government can or will take I do not know.
“It has been assumed that no action can be taken that will in
terfere with our neutrality. It is certainly eminently desirable
that we should remain entirely neutral, and nothing but urgent
need would warrant breaking our neutrality and taking sides one
way or the other.
“Of course it would be folly to jump into the gulf ourselves
to no good purpose, and very probably nothing we could do would
have helped Belgium. We have not the smallest responsibility for
what has happened her, and I am sure that the sympathy of this
country for the suffering of the men, women and children of Bel
gium is very real.
“Nevertheless, this sympathy is compatible with full acknowl
edgement of the unwisdom of uttering a single word of official
protest unless we are prepared to make that protest effective; ami
only the clearest and most urgent national duty would ever jus
tify us in deviating from our rule of neutrality and non-interfer
ence.”
And what does the Teddy of today have to say of the Teddy of
September 23, 1914? The Teddy of today cannot find too much
I to say about our failure to smash neutrality and wade into the
j war because of Germany’s treatment of Belgium in the summer
I of 1914. He cannot be too fierce in his denunciation of Woodrow
Wilson because he did not plunge into war for Belgium alongside
of Great Britain. And at the time when he wrote his Outlook
contribution, in September, 1914, the outrage on Belgium was
considerably fresher in the public mind—if not in the Roosevelt
mind—than it is today, nearly two years later. Why does the
Colonel now so furiously arraign the President for following the
very policy which the Colonel himself in 1914 proclaimed as the
proper policy ?
Can it be because the Colonel is nearly two years closer to the
campaign which he longs to see place in the White House as
Woodrow Wilson’s successor someone whose initials are T. R., and
like the rest of the longers for that successorship, he can find no
munitions for hi.; fight except blind abuse of the man he would
succeed?
SURRENDER OF TOWNSHEND
AT CITY OF KUT-EL-AMARA
LONDON, April 29- Another phase of
the ill-fated British campaign in Mesopo
tamia has closed with the surrender of
General Townshend and the garrison at
Kut el-Amara, on the Tigris river, about
13!) miles below Bagdad, Some 9,009 men
in all laid down their arms to the Turks,
after having destroyed all their guns and
munitions.
The British Mesopotamian campaign,
waged along the Tigris from the Persian
gulf northward almost to the gales cf Bag
dad. had us its chief aim the capture cf that
ancient city. To divert Turkish forces from
Gallipoli was another object. When almost
at the point of achieving ils main object
last year, the effort broke down at Ctey
plion, eighteen miles from Bagdad, when
the Turks, alarmed for the safety of the city
of fabled memory, rushed up reinforcements,
inflicting a defeat upon the British, and
compelling their retreat 119 miles down tic*
Tigris to Kul-el Ame.ra, where the Turks
soon had them securely bottled up.
General Townshend held out fur 113 days,
his supplies steadily growing lower as lie
awaited the relief army, which, first under
General Aylmer and then under General
Gorringe, battled its way up the Tigris to
ward him. This army encountered strong \
positions of the Turks below Kut. on both j
sides of the river, and although several of
these were carried, it has not been able to
work much closer to the beleagured garri
son than a score of miles, because of the
stubborn Turkish resistance and flood con
ditions on the Tigris.
The following official announcement wa
mado:
.vi.rr a resistance piuiiatru 1 i j.
day.-, and conducted with a gallantry and
fortitude that will be forever menu raid :
General Townshend has been compv led by
the final exhaustion of his supplies to sur
render. Before doing so he destroyed his
gun-, and muni it ns. The force under him
ccnsi.-ts of 2.970 Britl.-h troops <f all ranks
a*:d services and some 0.000 Indian troop.
and their ft Hewers."
The eventuil -unvn.'er of General Tnwns
hend had been expected since the fail r<
of t .c forces under Lieutenant G*ner:.i G-- r
ringe end General Keary to break through
the Turki.-h positii n at Sannayyat. just be
low Kut-el Amara in the Tigris river, and
the unsuccessful attempt to send the block
aded army provisions by steamer .
L had been touch ami go with the small
Brim-h f rce for many days.
The position ol Kut-el Amara. which is
on a peninsula almost surrounded by the
Ti iris river, made i‘ impossible to send sup
plies by air. as there was no landing place
for aeroj lanes.
While a supply ship, the loss of which was
reported in an official Lritidi di-patch sev
eral day- ago, got beyond the Turki.-h main
defensive lines at Essinii, it was a fori irn
hope, as the Turkish troops investing the
city could easily sink her from shore even
shoul 1 : he escape the artificial barriers in
the river.
As for the forces which attempted to re
lieve General Town mend, they met with al
most ce.ntiniul misfortunes. On several oc
ca.-i ns just when it was believed they ware
on the point cf success rising waters made
further progress imoossibl\ After pene
trating Turki.-h pos'd.- ns tliey were com
pelled to retire or remain stationary, owing
to th( impossil ility of tt . ' :
timi at Sannayyat, which was surrounde.:
by water.
British troop.* did actually attack the pre
pared position, thereafter wading through
mud end water waist deep, but only to fin<
when they did meet with some success that
a failure at some other point nm !e their
sacrifice futile.
The British public never h-t faith in
General Townshend, and even imw that lie
hu> been f -reed in capituLoe, after cw-trov
ing everything at Kut-el Amara that might
be vduabl • to the Turks, they look upon
his campaign as a brilhant one.
General Tovvnsliend probably was driven
to surrender to avoid starvation of his
forces. A recent ofiici: 1 Turkish common!
cation said that the po.-di.ion of the British
at Kut-d-Amara was critical, and that they
were expecting to receive sma 1 supplies of
food by aeroplane. An offieid statement
received yesterday from London .-bowed
that a ship laden with supplies had been,
sent up the Tigris, but that it had grounded
about four miles east of the city.
Less than a score of miles away, on the
banks of the Tigris, below the city, is a
relief army which for months had been at
tempting to reach the besieged forces of
General Townshend. Of late the Turks’ re
sistance has increased, and, aided by floods,
they have been able to hold the British in
check.
Tho surrender ot Ueneral lowiifnenu is
one of the few instances of the war in which
an entire fighting unit of important num
bers has laid down its arms. It is one of
the largest bodies of troops of the entente
allies which have surrendered, and larger
than any other captured French or British
force.
On December 2 General Townshend’s
army was beaten in battle at Ctesiphon,
eighteen miles below Bagdad, and retreated
to Kut-el-Amara. Besieged by a large
army of Turks, the British defended them
selves so successfully that the Turks at
length decided to starve them out.
After it became evident that the army at
Kut-el-Amara would be unable io tight i’s
way out, a relief expedition was dispatched.
As it drew near Kut-el-Amara it was op
posed by formidable bodies of Turks, end
its advance was stopped.
Throughout the Mesopotamian campaign
the fighting has been heavy and the losses
severe. On April 14 it was admitted that
the Tigris army up to that time had lost
8,100 men,
--
WICKERSHAM'S LETTER
TO REPUBLICAN DELEGATES
The following is Delegate Wickersham’s
letter to the recent Republican territorial
convention at Seward. It is of interest as
showing that the delegate did not propose
“giving up any of his independence in case
of nomination by the Republican conven
tion” :
“To the Delegates to the Republican Terri
torial Convention, Seward, Alaska.
“Gentlemen: The people of Alaska seem
to have concluded that there ought to be
an effective organization of the Republican
as well as the Democratic party in the
territory, and many of my most active
friends and supporters have joined in the
movement and are among your number.
In view of their announced intention to
present my name to your convention and
because of many rumors tending to create
misunderstanding and contention hereafter,
1 feel impelled in fairness to my friends
and to those who have long been my polit
ical opponents to make this public state
ment in advance of any action on your part.
“1 have not and will not ('liter into any
combination or agreement with or against
any person or faction in or out of the Re
publican organization for the control < f
patronage, in whole or in part, or at all,
or for the control of my actions in any
way whatever as the representative of all
the people of Abeko, or for any other pur
pose. I will not be bound by any pledge
made for me without it is clearly slated in
the platform or resolutions adopted by the
convention. It seems to me there can be
no successful unity of action or reorgan
ization of the Republican party in Alaska
without entire frankness with the men and
women who do the voting, and because of
that I address this communication to you
in this public manner. I can better do
without the nomination or the election to
congress than be placed in the attitude of
having betrayed either my associates or the
people whom I have represented with such
freedom and confidence for eight years, and
whom I must continue to represent with
freedom and confidence or not at nil.
“in the event of my election 1 pledge
myself to harmony and fair dealing toward
friends and past opponents alike, to the
support of the bill which 1 have already in
treduced granting more extended powers
to the territorial government, to the sup
port of the statehood bili, to the creation of
better Iran Mutation conditions and the
eentnl :. . n auction of burdensome freight
rale.-. ...r. . n . ally to the upbuilding of
the indn.- . :w natural to our territory and
to the development wf ii- great natural re
< jurces free from im inp. lv and unjust re
.-treint. if you nominate me upon this
understanding there will be but little chance
for contention and <ii-agreement hereafter.
Respectfully,
‘ ‘ J A M E S WICKE R> II AM. *
THE UNAFRAID
(New York Worldi
I cannot hdn but love the tv at
ilt which the g.-.U ;i:t Germans ; ey
The price in 1 lood.
They heed no eost in death or i mil
If by their valor they may gain
A foot of gr un !.
I sell st.ldier sets his steady face
.And die. n ntent if but his place
In in ut i.c found.
With ■ !! my heart I hope defeat
May itip at last their charging feet,
May break their blade.
And yet I drink a silent toast
To that onrushing. mighty host
"The Unafraid’”
SUITABLE
“I want to sweep the cobwebs from my
brain.”
“Why not use a vacuum cleaner?" - Bal
timore American.
-4
I-re^h Olympia and Eastern Oysters,
SI.50 p.'r can. Iditarod Meat Co.
Professional
Michigan, 188! 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
CTIAS. E. TAYLOR
Attorney at Law
BANK BLOCK
First Avenue Iditarod
Fred Harrison
ATTORNEY AT LAW
Room 1 Over Merchants Cafe
DR. BSOORE
PHYSICIAN AND SURGEON
OR. H. E. AURINGER
I'livsidan and SunwHi
j o
Office: Fiat City Hospital, Flat City
Consultation Hours in Forenoons and by
Appointment
OR. H. OEM LA
DENTIST
FLAT CITY
Will Arrive in Iditarod by the first bo*t in
the spring
Best of Everything
ALL THK TIM ft AT THE
Arcade Cafe
FLAT CITY
—
Open Dav and Nipht
FINE WATCH REPAIRING
NUGGET JEWELRY TO ORDER
J. L, SALE, Flat City
1
SoDoncS Ct. f 0! y AROD hA F OO. Pho"® 15
tar-ao rt
t® **. Gold St., Flat City
I PlP
1 s fc 4$ Mrs. Geo. Mutchler, Prop.
Nicely Furnished Rooms Barn for Horses and Dogs Baths in Connection
HARRY DOrJMELLEY
EHEE GENERAL F^lERQHARIDiSE
DISCOVERY, OTTER
THE BEST OF EVERYTHING ALL THE TIME
MERCHANTS’ CAFE
ISSSaE22SE3EKK, GOOD MEALS
EtgaBT’gasaKra SHORT ORDERS
FIRST AYE. OPEN DAY AND NIGHT
Prop.
Groceries Hardware
Glass ware China ware
Cl Diking
Leather and Rubber
Footwear
McMAHON\
FLAT CITY I