THE IDITAROD FSOWEER
Published Every Saturday Morning at Iditarod, Alaska
Vcl. 7 CHARLES A. DERRY, Editor and Publisher No. 9
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ALASKA ADMINISTRATIVE COMMISSION
Elsewhere in this issue of The P loneer we print
i digest of Delegate Wickersham’s hill to provide an
Alaska administrative commission, “to establish a
commission form of government in the administra
! n of national affairs in Alaska, and for other pur
poses.” The measure follows closely the lines made
familiar by Secretary of the Interior Franklin K.
Lane during the past two years, and if anything, goes
a step farther. To those who have followed the dis
cussions of the plan, and who can put aside petty
political schemes in favor of the territory s best in
ti ests, the proposed law will appeal as a step in the
d 'ection of common-sense administration of the
federal interests in this territory. That there is per
haps little chance for the bill in its present form to
become law may be true, because of the fact that
such immense interests are concerned m it. The
Timing industry alone, which in 1914 produced m
Alaska the sum of $21,242,975, will be much con
earned. A feeling that this immense industry is not
piying its share of the expense of government in
Alaska, and the momentous question of conserving
the supply of fish, may 'veil be calculated to arouse
controversy; and it is not at all unlikely that there
will be a bitter fight against transferring the admin
istration of the laws governing the industry to the
proposed commission, who may be expected to be
more interested in the needs and rights of the terri
tory than the department heads at Washington.
There has been a disposition on the part of the
opponents of the “development board,” as Secre
tory Lane has designated it, to make it appear that
rn attempt was being made to foist a “commission
form of government” on Alaska. This objection is
effectually disposed of in Sect.on 31 of the act,
which explicitly denies to the proposed commission
“any power, authority, control or jurisdiction over
the political or internal affairs of the territory of
Alaska, nor to grant to said commission any legis
lative power or authority.” Another objetcion that
will be urged will be that but two of the members of
the commission must be “bona fide residents of the
t; rritory.” But when it is remembered that its ac
tivities are confined entirely to the administration of
federal affairs, this objection will not be sustained.
In his annual report. Secretary Lane made the fol
lowing observations concerning Alaska, which have
a bearing on the proposed law:
It would be too hazardous a thing to surrender these resources
to local contn 1 or disposal, for those who have lived in any new
country know how great the temptation is to grant water front
and power sites, forests and other exceptional resources to those
who come offering large sums for quick improvement. Vet this
should not drive us into a policy that makes slow administration
a necessity.
This confusion in administrative action in Alaska is well
known. I have tried to give it currency that it might hasten the
(>tal'iishment of some method of coordinated control of Alaskan
affairs, primarily in the hands of a resident commission, but al
ways in touch with and responsive to the wish of congress and the
President through one of the departments. That land has a mys
terious charm, a pull which affects all who see it and those, too,
who know only indirectly of it.- largeness, its grandeur and its
economic possibilities.
$>
WAR BUNCOMBE
Recently a terrible hubbub was created through
out the United States because of the fact that the
Red Cross had been prevented from shipping milk
“for German babies.” It was thought inconceivable
by some that such cruelty could be permitted in the
name of warfare. The New York World discusses
the matter as follows:
Dr. Von Mach's appeal to President Wilson on behalf of the
citizens’ committee for food shipments, which desires to send pow
dered and condensed milk for German babies, will strike most
Americans as unanswerable. Germany has not been considerate
of the babies of other people. She has not yet made amends for
the children slaughtered in the Lusitania massacre. Her ally is
still lawlessly drowning children in the Mediterranean. Many
babies in Belgium, Serbia and Northern Franco have perished of
-privation. But these are no reasons why German babies should
needlessly suffer. The starvation of a blockaded people is a cus
tomary war measure. The Germans in 1870-71 admitted no milk
to Paris for babies; German adults, at least, cannot fairly com
plain now if conditions are in part reversed. But surely some in
ternational plan is possible by which milk could be admitted to
Germany exclusively for children, as supplies are admitted to
Belgium for Belgians. An English writer, Rebecca West, says in
the Atlantic Monthly that no one should ever begin a war until he
has arranged that no baby will ever miss his feeding-bottle. Great
Britain did not begin this war, but she should be ready to accept
now any practical plan—the LInited States should urge such a
plan—that war shall not tie waged against babies in any country
in the world.
That no delusions on the subject of the blockade
and the question of shipment of war munitions by
neutrals is entertained by official Germany is evi
denced by the fact that, while Austria has made rep
resentations to the United States on the subject, no
protest from Germany ever has been received. A
writer in The Outlook quotes an editorial from the
Berliner Uokalanzeiger which perhaps may be taken
for the German official views on the subject. The
editorial says:
I cannot share the sentimental policy which resents England’s
attempt to starve us into submission as a gross barbarity. I can
not share it, because it would be an exquisite pleasure to me to use
those same tactics against England. Incidentally, the question is,
of course, not one of actual starving several dozens of millions of
humans, but simply the idea of forcing the enemy to lay down
arms.
He adds that this policy of starvation was pursued by the Ger
mans at the siege of Paris in 1871, and he says that it is a more
Humane thing than to bombard a civil population. “Really, the
whole thing has been witnessed before in our own history.”
Germany furnished munitions of war to England freely for use
against the Boers in the Boer war, and this although its sym
pathies were apparently with the Boers. Germany also furnished
munitions of war to Spain during the Spanish American war.
Sweden has been furnishing munitions of war to Germany during
this war. No one ever thought of questioning the right of these
neutral nations to furnish war materials to a belligerent.
Those persons who in this country are urging an
embargo on munitions of war, ostensibly in the in
terests of one or the other of the belligerents, are ac
complishing nothing more than the harassing of the
administration. They are not acting the part of neu
tials, and it is not a neutral policy which they advo
cate. Those valiant spirits who have engaged in the
destruction of manufacturing plants in this country
are committing an act of warfare against a neutral
country; and furthermore, those acts have been of
ficially repudiated by the governments in whose in
terest they are supposed to have been undertaken.
--
In discussing the announcement of the President's engagement
some months ago this newspaper spoke of the absorbing interest
which the then approaching nuptials would arouse, and mentioned
the fact that our Seattle correspondent had informed us of the
purchase of the engagement ring. The price of the trinket ws.
not given at that time, but we were confident it would be an
nounced in due time. And here is the “news,” contained in a
Washington "special" to an Outside newspaper of December 20:
"The President bought his engagement ring in New York, a two
carat stone, for which lie paid the exceedingly high price-of $050.
For proof of which statement consult any of the very positive
elderly gossips, who know everything, in this great city.” All of
which goes to prove that the American people want all the news,
and the newspapers are prepared to furnish them with what they
desire.
- A
liven though one may be unable to agree with Theodore Roose
vtT i n m-ny public questions, and particularly with his manner
of discussing them, there is one subject upon which, all true
Americans will find little fault with him. and that is his intense
Americanism. The average American citizen may not display hi.*
love of America and American institutions in a demonstrative
manner, but at a’l times he is ready to applaud the man who
does. Recent statements of Roosevelt which will be received yen
erally with approval are as follows: “The man who loves other
nations a* much as be does his own country stands on a par with,
the man who loves other women as he does his own wife.” “The
professors of every form of hyphenated Americanism are as thor
oughly foes of this country us if they dwelt without its borders and
made active war against it.”
-❖
Senator Lafi iielte’s lack of those qualities which make f:>r
statesmanship was never more apparent than in his announce
ment that he is ni favor of an embargo on the shipment of arms
to belligerents. Sincere and earnest though he be, he does not
possess the clarity of vision which would enable him to see that
in his desire that the United States shall not sell to Britain when
Germany is unable to purchase, he would place the United States
in the unneutral attitude of assisting Germany and her alii.-:.
Had there at all times been an embargo on the shipment of war
munitions from the United States, Latin America would today be
in the hands of Spain, and the Cuban revolution would not have
been possible. Senator Lafollette will never iloat into the While
House on such a rotten plank.
The naval critic of the London Daily News on January 22
published a sensational warning to the British that the German
dreadnaughts were being equipped with seventeen-inch guns,
capable of throwing shells weighing a ton, and that more than
j twenty vessels were being thus prepared for an attack on Emd”’h
I within the next few months. The critic claims that they far out
| class the British ships, and that they probably will engage i1.
! British navy, if this be true and the writer in question has been
credited with being exceptionally well informed why ,-h uld
there be any “probability” about their engaging the British navv
—*—
A Berlin dispatch states that the German newspapers are
warning the people not to expect too much from the expedition
into tlie Balkans. Grain. Hour and provisions which had been
promised the German people as soon as Serbia was crushed and
the way opened to Constantinople have failed to arrive, and the
suggestion made that the expense of transporting supplies from
Turkey and Asia Minor to German markets by rail i- almost pro
Dibit i \ e.
-❖ —
“It has not been the limitations of the organic act, but the
efforts: of the federal officials in Alaska to hamper and prevent
the enforcement of the laws passed by the legislature, seeking
thereby to discredit the legislative assembly, the organic ret and
Delegate \\ ickersham, that has proven the greatest hindrance to
effective legislation in this territory.” says the hairbanks New
. Miner. And making due allowance for the partisan*hip display.' i.
there i< much of truth in the statement.
▼
George Bernard Shaw says that conscription shoul 1 not i
resorted to without the largest safeguards of liberty of the sub
jeet. If it comes, it comes to stay. With visions of "Salvation
Army" methods of securing recruits, he says that lawfully regu
lated compulsion would be in many ways less oppressive than the
sort of "anarchic compulsion that has i reduced the alleged tri
umphs of volunteering since the war began,"
#
America was referred to in a debate in the reichstag on Janu
ary 19 by Herr Heydebrand, conservative leader, as “among the
fatherland's worst enemies." On the same theory. Sweden and
other neutral countries which have supplied Germany with neces
sities would be enemy nations to the entente alliance.
♦
A Juneau newspaper publishes a dispatch to the effect that
W. A. Gilmore, the well-known Nome attorney, will again bo a
candidate for delegate to congress. Gilmore, is expected to attei\
the Republican territorial convention to be held at Seward next
month.
--♦
Two North Carclinans were shot and slashed fatally in en
deavoring to decide which was to teach a Sunday-school class. It
would be interesting to know what they proposed to teach the
class. -Pittsburg Gazette Times.
-♦
e now await news as to whether the “Interior Alaska” mail
service is to be augm yed, or merely that of the city of Fairbanks
and immediate vicinii-i
-2-«
TALKING NONSENSE
(Ketchikan Progressive-Miner
T he Seward Gateway says: “Somehow that story of Tom
Riggs giving his blood almost to its source to save the life of his
wife looks like the action one would expect from the man. Riggs
is a big, splendid type, lhat fellow is the finest type of an Alas
kan. He is the sort of man who has made Alaskan fiction popular.
Would to God the government had brought in a thousand like
him.”
The Gateway mujthe anxious to throw a bouquet when it
picks such an unscenrimy affair to throw at a man who has done
no more than his duty. Where is the man—not only Alaskans- -
who wouldn’t risk his life to save his wife, especially when she has
just risked her own life in giving birth to his child? Not that we
want to detract from Mr. Riggs’s bravery; but we must say that
he Showed no more bravery than his wife; than the man who goes
into the hills to provide for his family at the risk of his life; no
more than millions of men who are now risking their lives in de
fense of their countries. Talk about Tom Riggs’s bravery! Piffle!
It will not escape attention that no American or neutral or
non-combatant has been done to death by any one of the allies.
Whether they were too just or too wise to commit such acts, the
fact remains that they have not committed them; and as a con
sequence the sympathies of mankind are so largely with them.—
Rochester Post-Express.
-♦
When Senator Hoke Smith realizes that cotton is worth 20
cents a piound in the Berlin market his heart bleeds for the starv
ing women and children of Germany'.—New York Morning Tele
graph.
-♦
It’s easy to understand Mr. Roosevelt’s clamor for a greater
army and navy. He can’t live always, and doesn’t want to leave
us entirely unprotected.—Southern Lumberman.
It is beginning to look as though it would take more than the
support of Herr Munsterberg to kill off the Roosevelt boom.—
Boston Trrnseript.
ABOUT ADVERTISING
(Fourth Estate)
Space and copies of his paper go to make
up the newspaper man's entire stock in
trade. These two are all that he has to
offer for sale to the public, and no one
has as yet given any sort of satisfactory
reason why he should ever be asked by
anyone to donate them.
One tiling newspaper people will never
be able to understand is why any person
will walk into a newspaper office and make
himself or herself an object of charity and
insist upon what they would disdain to
ask for in any other shop or place of busi
ness in tlie town. The principle is the
same in the newspaper office us in the dry
goods store, and what a great many people
need is to recognize it as the same and get
off the newspaper 1st.
Advertising space in the newspapers i
for sale, not to give away. It has a certain
value in itself that makes it worth money.
Copies of the newspaper are f »r sal* not
to give away. If they are worth having,
they are worth the exceeding small price
asked for them.
The public, or at 1 *ast a large portion
of it, lias son.” very erroneous ideas about
these matters, and it is but just to the
newspaper f Ik that their ideas be cor
reeled in accordance with the same busi
ness principles that prevail in all other
business estaldishments.
In a vast majority of cases this gener
ous charity on the part of the newspapers
is blissfully taken for granted, and the
oaper’s liberality is abused. That which
is purely a favor is accepted as a matter
of course, and what shoul 1 be request
are couched as demands.
When the’courtesy has been performed
there is rarely appreciation, and more often
dissatisfaction generally sil i.ee
The result in many towns and i.iF's i
that a ban has been put upon til fu *
publicity, no matter what its object e\» ;i
j upon church notices. In these cities such
! favors as the pre-s bestows are properly
appreciated and val < d.
a
Huerta was barely Mb when this in
|- ident occurred. One afternoon, while he
i 1 (tie party. Naturally, they threw up their
| hands.
I 1 lie highwaymen proved (-> hr- mem be?.
I of the band of IT*r“s Zcg::'.n. tbi h n ‘
i who kept the comniumiv rn t li * fade
-dge. 11 was Li.- I ;
towns al ng the map
j ever hunger or caprice i.njirlHd hit., to d
Huerta n. stood in (root of Zegaeta*
hut. an ah-he dw li ng, much dilapi ialed.
: .or up the mount :::;i
There Zega/a iii.de die proposition wh:.-L
: >•:; • not at ail unu-md in Mexico then. :-!•**
| vi it !',, in feet, is quite the vogue today.
| He pr- posed that Huerta shor.l I keep' him
I nfonned as t.» the days when the mil:,ar\
1 force wool i be marching in a direction op
1 o>ite from the town.
On such days Zegaza would make it a
| -joint to call, with Lis full >wers. and co!
ect from the natives such money and
i clothes and f'-od and wine and tobacco as
I had accumulated since the last visit.
Zegaza was not at all surprised to have
| Huerta accept his proposition to receive in
j return for the premised information a share
j of whatever loot fed to the bandits. This
I was to be left for the soldiers hi an ap
: pointed place.
Ten days later Huerta sent word to Ze
: gnza that lie would be away from the
Nation on the following Thursday.
Pr< mptly on Thursday the bandiis rode
1 into Matanzas, confident there would lie
i no opposition except from the sporadic
• -■tore]': -•pers. As they turned into the main
• i. discharging their revolvers to
V.Lun ve\eryone away, a squad of
| I!“er:a’s s. i liers cl >ed in rn their rear
!• d another squad appeared in their front.
Huerta had double-crossed the bandit.
s-.
IF-OLOGY
1 If everybody had his say,
And carried out his plans for peace,
And if those plans were all 0. K ,
We’d have no need of the police.
- Washington Star.
-+
“What is the cause of socil surest ?”
"The desire,” replied Mr. Dustin Stax,
“of the workingman for leisure and of the
leisurely man for something to keep him
busv." -Washington Star.
-$
Fresh Olympia and Eastern Oysters, $1.50
per can. Iditarod Meat Co.
CLEANING AND PRESSING
ALL KINDS OF FUR WORK
Suits Cleaned and Pressed, Fur Coats and
Robes Lined, and All Kinds of
Fur Work Done
r/IFTS. CHAG, LARGOH
Orders may be left with Mrs. Thornton
LARSON BROS.’
WOOD SAW
Any Length Handled
Any Part of City
Telephone
Mutch I er Bros.
GENERAL
FREIGHTERS
DAILY STAGE SERVICE
OPEN DAY AND NIGHT
FI.AT CITY HOHEACK & DURAND
Eet. the Crard and Bagoy's Ears
THE ClST all the tike
WE ARE HERE TO STAY
Best of Everything
ALL THK 1I.MF AT Til K
At,* **?; ^ <n; #
b w a Ui & V-5 «± 2 U
FLA'r crrv
Oper: Dnv and Ni&! t
f ^"ofessional
Michigan, 18 S1 Alaska, 1910
Kentucky, 1891
George Woodruff Albrecht
COUNSELOR AND LAWYER
IDITARCD, ALASKA
The Pioneer Attorney or Idltarod
E. M. STANTON
Attorney at Law
Office: Corner Willow and Second Sts.
Iditarod Pioneer Building
CM AS. F. TAYLOR
Attorney at Law
BANK BLOCK
First Avenue 1 drtarod
on
ATTORNEY AT LAW
Room 1 Over Merchants Cafe
DR. fcflGGRE
PHYSICIAN AND SURGPON
I
DR. H. E. AURIftiQER
|
Gffics: flat City Hospital, Flat City
| Consultation Hours in Forenoon* and l.«r
Appointment
j DR. H. BEHLA
FLAT CITY
j Will Arrive in Iditarod by the first boat in
the spring
IT3 N
SJ La
So ;ond St. f Phone 15
Gold St., Flat City
Mrs. Geo. Mutchler, Prep.
Nicely Furnished Rooms Barn for Horses and Dogs Baths in Connection
KARRY DONNELLEY
GENERAL MERCHANDISE
DISCOVERY, CTTER
THE REST OF EVERYTHING ALL THE TIME
MERCHANTS’ CAFE
first aye.
GOOD MEALS
SHORT ORDERS
OPEN DAY AND NIGHT
ROBT. 60UTAR
Prop.
400 Pairs
LEATHER GLOVES and
MITTENS
Former Price $1.50 to $3.00 per Pair
Now Selling ai
$1.00 per Pair
Mg MAHON
GENERAL MERCHANDISE FLAT CITY