THE IDITAROD PIONEER
Published Every Saturday Morning at Idltarod, Alaska
Vol. 8 CHARLES A. DERRY, Editor No. 16
ARBUCKLE & DERRY, Publishers
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GERMANY AND MEXICO
Although President Wilson has been quite generally condemned
by the opposition on almost all of his policies, no particular act
or series of acts has been so productive of censure as those in
connection with the Mexican situation. Every single step taken
has been greeted with shrieks of disapproval from partisan politi
cians and the representatives of American wealth invested in
Mexico. When it was thought that the President had so far de
parted from his policies as to aim at Mexican invasion, at the
time the LTnited States troops were massed on the border, there
was widespread surprise, and the usual criticism when ii was
seen that aggression was not the object of the mobilization.
It is quite Jikely that in less troublous times much inside his
tory relative to the Mexican complications will be revealed, and
when that time comes the village statesmen and yawping publi
cations of the Hears! type may learn that the policies of the ad
ministration have been dictated by a patriotic desire to live up
to American ideals, in the face of the greatest difficulties.
Recent news dispatches in connection with the arrest of Ger
man spies and conspirators throw some light on questions cun
fronting the administration, and may explain why the order for
the mobilization of the troops on the border were issued. Taken
in connection with the unhatched plot of the German foreign
secretary, Zimmerman, to embroil the United States with Mexico
and Japan, it will be seen that President Wilson’s path was not
strewn with roses.
It is stated jthat. as long ago as April 24, 1916, written orders
were issued to German reservists in America, ordering them, in
event of the recall of the German ambassador, to report at an
early date to a German officer at Juarez, Mexico. This and
other disclosures indicate that since then S3.000.000 has been
spent by the German government in fomenting plots in the United
States, and that thousands of German supporters have been en
gaged in different parts of the country formulating and further
ing German conspiracies. This spy system is said to have been
headed by an agent of the kaiser’s government referred to as
the “master spy.’’ One letter, from Berlin, which is among those
seized, states that the many arrests in the United States and the
numerous spoiled plots were expected, but that the German gov
ernment was satisfied with the results accomplished. A copy of
the letter to German reservists in America, issued by order of
the German general staff, is given, which is in part as follows:
“On the day of the publication of the recall of the imperial am
bassador at Washington you will immediately and without further
orders report to your group leader, where transportation and di
rections for the route to travel to Juarez, Mexico, will be supplied.”
The reservists are informed that failure to comply with the order
will stamp them as deserters.
The publication of these facts at this time may have a ten
dency to check indiscriminate criticism of the government in its
efforts to safeguard the nation. Criticism at any time, when un
accompanied by the facts, is a foolish practice. In times like
these it is dangerous. The President and his lieutenants are en
titled to the hearty support of all good citizens, and even the most
radical of his opponents among the Republican statesmen have
already recognized this, and by their words and example are im
pressing upon the citizens of the republic the fact that the time
foi argument and discussion is past. A united front must be
opposed to an insidious enemy.
- ♦
A SUBSTITUTE FOR THE SALOON
Shortly after it had become apparent that the territory of
Alaska had by overwhelming vote decided im favor of prohibition
of the liquor traffic. The Pioneer called attention to the need for
a substitute for the saloon, an institution which, in spite of its
evil influences, has played a not inconsiderable part in the life
of the mining camps of the Interior. It is pleasing to note that
the idea has been taken up. and the Douglas Island Woman’s
Club has sent to every member of the Alaska legislature a com- i
munication urging the establishment of club rooms throughout
the territory, to be operated by the territory, to serve as resorts
for the hundreds of men who hitherto have been patrons of the
saloon. While the idea of territorial control is a new one, it
will not be condemned on that account; and it will be hoped
that discussion of the plan will at least have the effect of sug- |
gesting some plan whereby miners and workingmen generally who
have no home ties in the North may be provided with places of
recreation and social intercourse. The communication is as fol
lows:
The Douglas Island Woman’s Club earnestly requests your
attention and co-operation in the following matter:
The passage of a bill for the establishment and conduct of
a territorial club room in each incorporated town and other
camps throughout the territory as a substitute for the licensed
saloon, which ceases to exist on the first day of January next.
There are, as you well know, in almost every town and
community in Alaska, a large majority of good workmen with
financial means, single, unattached men, who have no even
ing resort wherein to congregate, talk, read and otherwise
amuse themselves during leisure moments, outside of the
saloon, the redlight quarters and the cabins of the natives.
Large numbers of such men, particularly newcomers, so
-we are informed, patronize these last-mentioned places chiefly
because there is no other welcoming shelter for them during
the severe winters.
AVe believe these men should be given kindly considera
tion. as their presence is necessary in the development of the
territory, and their moral character and good citizenship are
valuable elements in the upbuilding of our Alaskan empire.
We believe such proposed club rooms, conducted as non
partisan, non-sectarian rest rooms for men, offering shelter,
warmth, necessary conveniences, soft drinks, hot coffee, and
facilities for one or more games which do not involve credit
or discredit, would fill a tremendous need throughout the ter
ritory, and would have a tendency to prevent insanity in re
mote settlements.
We further believe that such club rooms might be made
self-supporting in a short period of time.
A WAIL FROM THE DAILY PRESS
The freedom of the press is in danger. When congress passed
a law a few years ago throwing the searchlight of publicity upon
the ownership and obligations of the daily newspapers there was
a sullen growl from some quarters; but it was as nothing com
pared with the storm that is now raging against the threatened
inhibition of certain classes of advertising—notably alcoholic stim
ulants. Coupled with the attempt to increase the pound rate on
second-class mail matter, and the formation of zones on the lines
of the parcel post, a situation is created which causes the daily
newspaper publisher to sit up and take notice. The following
eloquent wail was emitted by W. F. Wiley, managing editor of the
Cincinnati Enquirer, at a banquet of the Associated Ohio Dailies
at Columbus in January last:
Ours is a precarious profession. Once an honorable call
ing, it has become an anathema in the mouths of the mighty.
From bulwarks of liberty, palladiums of freedom, torches of
enlightenment and all the other euphonistic and eulogistic
things we thought we were, we have been consigned to a
realm of ignominy and despicability. Our pockets are picked
by the labor unions with impunity; our bank accounts are
ruthlessly appropriated by the greedy paper maker; our cir
dilation is impeached by a benevolent, paternalistic govern
ment ; our right to devise as to the brand of varnish with
which to paint the alimentary canal is about to be with
drawn, and our motives for discussing public matters edi
torially are being examined carefully by paid hirelings of so
cieties of regulation who call upon government agencies to
apply the screw and rack to our bleeding and broken bodies
upon slightest provocation. The transmission of our outnut
through the mails is being circumscribed and curtailed swiftly
and surely. Zone systems are to take the place of unlimited
mailing privileges. Parcel post has already taken precedence
over newspaper mail, and the dawn of a day can be seen when
we all shall be as nothing, and all our prideful boast and
pomp shall have vanished. More swiftly and as surely as the
glacier grinds its resistless way down mountain slopes, sweep
ing before it all life and growth and development, so there is
sweeping down on the press of America the relentless, cold,
merciless, un-American avalanche of governmental censorship.
It is inconceivable to my mind that Russianization of the
American press will be permitted to go on unheeded and un
checked. And yet the end of the effort to throttle us is not
in sight. To the local efforts of Alabama, West Virginia and
other states to prevent the sale or circulation of newspapers
containing advertisements of a certain character is added now
the proposal of the congress of the United States to prevent
the carrying by mail anywhere of newspapers containing such
advertising matter. That proposal has already been indorsed
by the senate, and if reports may be believed, it will receive
aiso the approval of the house of representatives. There is
pending, too, in the senate a resolution declaring that United
States district courts shall have no power to declare acts of
congress unconstitutional.
There is much more to the same effect, and one of the striking
passages is as follows: “We have created the Frankensteins that
• re now turning to rend us limb from limb. Drunk with power,
riding a wave of fanaticism in a sea of paternalism, the creatures
of our own making seek our destruction. The vaunted power of
the press is no more." ’Tis a sari, sad outlook, surely.
--■©-—
One cannot believe all the stories told by returned travelers,
and given publicity in the newspapers. Nevertheless these may
be printed for what they are worth. Edgar M. Moore, who re
cently arrived in New York from Germany, declares that- the
German emperor is considered to be a madman, even in Germany.
Helmuth, the kaiser’s personal chauffeur, is given as his author
ity. He says: “The emperor is hopelessly addicted to the use
of drugs, because of chronic ailments in the throat and ear, which
cause constant pain. He spends most of his time in the royal
palace at Potsdam. He believes that Germany lost the war at
the battle of Jutland, and his most intimate advisers believe that
the country must make peace by July. The kaiser is very irri
table when his ear causes him pain, and he and his ear and throat
physician, who is one of his aides, sre constantly quarreling over
the enormous quantities of cocaine and morphine which the im
perial patient insists upon every day. The kaiser carries a hypo
dermic syringe with him, and often takes an injection when his
nhvsician is not looking, Helmuth said. '
----
The Anchorage Democrat, after giving an instance of the kind
ness of heart of Dan Callahan, the Fairbanks pioneer who was con
victed of crimes against children, continues:
Dan has got a new trial, and if it is a fair one he will be
acquitted. His name will continue to be revered by the good
people of Alaska when the miserable bunch of sycophants who
combined against him are remembered only for their iniqui
ties.
The idea of Dan Callahan’s name being “revered” by good peo
ple is nauseating. The intricacies of the law may permit Callahan
‘o escape the penalties of his misdeeds; but in the name of all that
is good and holy we protest against this man being made a martyr
of. If he is to be allow-ed to escape the penitentiary, let us at
least be allowed to forget him and the unsavory mess in which he
was implicated. __
The high cost of living is working many changes in all
branches of human endeavor. And now they are trying to apply
the rules of efficiency to the denizens of the barnyard. The latest
to enter the field of increased production is the poultryman. While
humanity is rapidly becoming accustomed to shorter working
hours, the patient and fecund hen is being encouraged to work
overtime. An investigator has discovered that the hen cannot dis
tinguish between sunlight and electric light. It is pointed out
that all her time is spent either in eating or on the roost, and that
the more she eats the more eggs she will lay. Therefore she is to
be provided with artificial light and kept on the job. One experi
menter claims to have raised the average egg yield per hen from
69 to 189 per year by this measure. And as the biddies have no
labor union, they must stand for the imposition.
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LOOKS TO UNITED STATES
TO ALLEVIATE DISTRESS
Senor Emeterio de la Garza, for twelve
years a member of the Mexican chamber
of deputies, an adviser of the governments
of Diaz, De la Barra, Madero and Huerta,
and who, like many other prominent Mexi
cans, has taken up his residence in New
York rather than acquiesce in lawless meth
ods of any of the present leaders, sum* up
conditions in his unhappy country in an in
terview with the Wall Street Journal as fol
lows :
“Placed by fate and nature, the next door
neighbor of the United States, with the
economic and social development of some
fifteen millions burdened by a feudal sys
tem of land tenure that force* four-fifths
to seek such personal freedom to live as
marauding warfare affords, Mexico must
look nowhere else than to this country, of
aigh ideals, of immeasurable resources, for
encouragement, financial aid and moral sup
port, to alleviate our dire social and indus
trial success.
“I am not pro-Carranza, or pro-Villa. I
am a Mexican, and that I am quite content
to be. Carranza! Villa! They are per
sonal accidents. Mexico is not concerned
! with their future. Mexico is deadly inter
ested in reforms that will render future
Huertas, Carranzas and Villas impossible.
Carranza has proclaimed constitutions; so
has Villa. What are they? They are de
crees of men whose power and influence
will disappear when the constitutional prin
ciples of which they talk so much are once
j firmly established.
“What is back of our political troubles.'
Our land laws. 1 have examined the land
registries of Mexico. They show but 9,000
property owners. One of these held seventy
seven farms. Irish agrarianism was excused
and Ireland’s land laws reformed forty years
igo when there were 72,000 landlords out
of 4,000,000 people. We have 9,000 land
lords out of 15,000,000, and among them
selves they have parceled out and hold the
beautiful semi-tropic, pricelessly rich valleys
of Mexico, beyond whose luxurious abun
dance the wandering Aztecs cared not to
migrate.
“We must settle the revolutionary Mexican
on the land. You here have enjoyed the
unspeakable blessings of liberty and pri
vate property under law for over 200 years.
The Mexican laborer will not surrender the
personal freedom that war and loot afford,
the only freedom he has ever known. He
will not give up his horse, rifle and accou
trements and go back to peonage of a soii
nit his own. We must expropriate the land;
government must sell it on nominal terms
to the man who works it. We must niaxe
and you must assist us to make it worth
while to the lower class Mexican to settle
down, build up a home and support a gov
ernment responsible for his property rights.
“During al! the time you have prospered
and grown great you have not once helped
I us. Your intervention m our affairs is mis
understood and its motives even impugned.
! Absolute intervention and American mili
j tary control, deplorable as it would have
>een, would have been better for us and
for you than what you have done. Abso
lute non-interference would have been infi
nitely better than either.”
Asked if he suspected that there had been
an active German military propaganda in
Mexico, the senor said emphatically: “There
unquestionably has been since the growing
rupture with Germany became apparent. I
have in my lectures again and again warned
hundreds of thousands of Americans that
Mexican revolutionists, including Carranza,
would prove ingrates, and would under Ger
man officers turn rifles and machine guns
they bought from you against your own
sons. They will do this not because they
love America less but because they have no
future beyond revolution, disorder and pil
lage—their modus vivendi.
“The Mexican people do not hate you;
they look up to you. To the lower class
Washington is the world. Fate has made
of them your hepless neighbors. With your
capital, your resourcefulness in handling
great undertakings, you have the means to
mollify them, to place them on the road
to political tranquillity. You can now cre
ate the first real historic understanding be
tween them and yourselves. If you do not,
they will yield to the German temptation of
more arms more money, more pillage.”
-4
JUNEAU CELEBRITY DEAD
Patrick Moore, who was one of the two
remaining survivors of the Perry expedi
tion to Japan in 1853, and an old-timer in
Juneau, died recently in a Seattle hos
pital, according to word received in Juneau
by friends, says the Empire.
Mr. Moore was around Juneau for many
years, and at different times worked for the
Circle City hotel, W. W. Casey and others.
He was known as “Tackhammer” Moore,
on account of his proclivity for tacking
signs. For many years, when not engaged
in mining, he would work for himself, tak
ing contracts to post signs of all kinds on
trees, fences and stumps around Juneau.
Mr. Moore left Juneau about twelve
years ago, and since that time has been a
resident of Seattle, where he died. He
was nearly 91 years of age. According to
those who knew him, he arrived in New
York in 1850, as one of the crew of the
merchant ship Roscoe. Desirous of visiting
the Orient, he enlisted in the United States
navy, and was assigned to the Vandalia, a
sloop of twenty guns, which joined the Perry
expedition in Chinese waters and patrolled
the coast of Asia for two years.
After adventures with pirates near Ma
kow, including a melee in which the pirate
junks were sunk after a hand-to-hand battle,
he returned to the United States and began
his life again as a miner.
Following the mining game, he wan
dered over most of the Pacific coast from
Mexico to Alaska, and it was while trying
to locate a paying gold mine that Moore
came to Juneau. He was so taken with
the place and its possibilities that he re
mained here for years. The only surviving
member of the famous expedition of Com
modore Perry to Japan, which resulted in
the opening of that country to the com
merce of the world, is a man named Hardy,
who is a resident of Portland, Ore.
-——-♦
BIG ROBBERY AT CHICAGOFF
JUNEAU, March 20.—Masked armed rob
bers early yesterday morning held up and
robbed two men of the Chicagoff mines,
gagged them and escaped with $20,000 in
gold bricks. This bullion was under guard,
awaiting shipment to1 Juneau. No clues as
to the identity of the robbers have been
discovered, as the guards say they did not
get a good look at them.
--♦
Job Printing at The Pioneer office.
POSTMASTER’S SUGGESTIONS
AS TO LOCAL MAIL SERVICE
REFERRED FOR REVIEW”
Readers of The Pioneer will recall that
Postmaster Ansley recently telegraphed the
postoffice officials at Washington with refer
ence to the inadequacy of the mail service
provided for this district, and making some
timely suggestions. In last week’s mail he
received a letter in reply to hia telegram as
follows :
“Washington, Feb. 26, 1917.
“Postmaster, Iditarod, Alaska:
"Replying to your telegram of the 23d
instant, in regard to the weight of mails
carried to Iditarod on route No. 78149,
Seward to Flat, I have to inform you that
the mails for each office are apportioned
according to the size of the office and the
amount of mail received, and it is thought
that in view of the very high cost of serv
ice the department would not be warranted
in incurring the expense that would be in
volved for increasing the service for the
transportation of additional mails at this
time. However, your telegram has been re
ferred to the representative of this office
having direct supervision of the dispatch
of the mails for review as to whether the
proper amount of mail is being dispatched
for Iditarod. OTTO PRAEGER,
“Second Assistant Postmaster General."
Action Should Be Taken
As there are but two more mails to be
dispatched over the trail from Iditarod, it
is not likely that there will be any changes
in the present method of handling mails.
But preparations should be begun immedi
ately to lay the facts concerning the situa
tion before the officials for their guidance
next season. The present contract expires
in 1918, and before a new contract is en
tered into by the government efforts should
be made to secure better treatment for our
people by the postal authorities.
The service during the past winter has
been less satisfactory than in either of the
previous two years of the Seward-Iditarod
contract. Not because of failure to deliver
the mail dispatched; this has been eminently
satisfactory, and has been interfered with
only occasionally by severe weather condi
tions. The difficulty is that the territory
served under the contract is gradually being
enlarged while the amount of mail dis
patched each week remains the same as at
the beginning. Residents of surrounding
districts which are supposed to be served
by other routes have discovered that they
can use the Iditarod service to better ad
I vantage, and they have their mail addressed
here and forwarded by private carrier. New
camps which have been established since the
contract was let draw on this office also,
large quantities being frequently dispatched
to Marshall. Tolstoi and Kuskokwim points
by private carriers. All this tends to dimin
ish the mail service to actual residents of
this district.
In the matter of first-class mail delivery
there is no complaint. The difficulty lies
in the failure to receive second-class matter,
which is so important to a community which
is isolated from the outside world for eight
months of the year. It is probable that
many hundreds of dollars are spent yearly
in this district for subscriptions to news
papers and periodicals of which not a single
copy is delivered during the winter. They
are allowed to accumulate at the terminal
and then dumped by the wagonload on the
local postoffice after the opening of navi
gation in the spring, when they are of ab
solutely no value.
It is not unreasonable to believe that if
these facts were put before the department
officials in the proper light, and backed up
by the people of the district, as much at
tention might be paid to the matter as has
been given to the vigorous protests of the
people of Fairbanks, which city is now in
the enjoyment of such an excellent sendee.
In the meantime the postmaster’s tele
gram will probably repose peacefully with
the “representative” of the postoffice de
partment to whom it was consigned.
EXPLOSION CAUSED BY COAT
An Annapolis, Md., news dispatch says
that electricity induced by the friction of a
fur coat worn by Surgeon Raymond Spear.
U. S. N., grounded through an automobile
standing on wet ground, caused a spark
which exploded the gasoline, burning Sur
geon Spear and destroying the machine.
Surgeon Spear had walked some distance
to his garage in his fur coat and rubber
boots. The friction of the flapping of the
coat against his legs generated the elec
tricity, while his boots insulated him from
the ground and allowed his body to store
it. A spark did the rest.
The surgeon was taken to the naval hos
nitul.
-»
A REAL EXPERIENCE
“Yes," said a traveling man, “I was once
out of sight of land on the Atlantic ocean
twenty-one days.”
Another man spoke up: “On the Pacific
ocean one time I didn’t see land for twenty
nine days.”
A bald man knocked the ashes from his
cigar and contributed his bit:
“[ started across the Kaw river at To
peka in a skiff once,” he said, “and was out
of sight of land before I reached the other
side."
“What!” demanded the man who had
spun the first yarn. “The Kaw is not more
/than 300 feet wide at Topeka.”
“Quite true,” said the bald man, quietly.
“The skiff turned over and I sank twice."—
Chicago Plerald.
SKIPPER OF BRITISH VESISEL
WHO REFUSED GERMANS AID
A wireless dispatch from Berlin, dated
March 2, announces the death of Captain
William Martin, skipper of the British
trawler King Stephen. The Overseas News
Agency quotes the Lokal Anzeiger on his
death as follows:
“Captain Martin, according to reports in
English papers, died as the result of perse
cution, They say that he received threat
ening letters from English people who mean
well toward the Germans, and that he was
so deeply moved by them that he finally
became insane. Captain Martin, on Feb. 2,
191(i, ordered that the crew of the dis
abled airship L-19 should jierish miserably.
His death perhaps will be a warning to
some of his comrades."
Dispatches from London on Feb. 4, 1916,
said Captain Martin saw the German Zep
pelin L 19 in a wrecked condition in the
North sea, and did not save the crew of the
Zeppelin because he feared the Germans
•vould overpower the small crew of the
trawler. The German war office on April
2G, 191G, announced that German naval
force had sunk the King Stephen and made
the crew prisoners.
A NEW INDIAN RULING
An Indian woman was in police court
a few mornings ago with the charge of
having cultivated a red one against her,
says the Douglas Island News. She ar
vied that in view of the fact that she wa3
married to a white man he had all the
privileges of the paleface sisters. But owing
to the fact that she took her husband into
her tribe instead of hint taking her away
from it. the court ruled that she was still
an Indian, with no rights to look upon oil
of joy when it rears up on its hind legs in
a “glaws, doncherknow." She was retired
to the lonesome house for five days. It
was the first time a local court had been
called upon to decide the social status of ar>
Indian woman married to a white man but
living in the environments of her child
hood.
->
ALL DOUBT REMOVED
At an evening party the hostess had!
coaxed a protesting guest to sing. After the
song she went up to him, smiling. “Oh,
Mr. Jenkins," she said, “you must never tell
me again that you can’t sing—I know now!"
—Argonaut.
-*
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j SI 50 per can. Iditarod Meat Co
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Kentucky. 1891
George Woodruff Albrecmt
COUNSELOR AND LAWYER
IDITAROD, ALASKA
The Pioneer Attorney of IdFUrod
---
E, M. STANTON
Attorney at Law
j Office: Corner Willow and Second Sts.
Iditarod Pioneer Building
: ---
CHAS. E. TAYLOR
Attorney at Law
bank block
First Avenua Mtsrod
DR. MOORE
PHYSICIAN AND SURGEON
DRUG STORE
DR. H. E. AURINQER
| Physician and Surgeon
Office: Flat City Hospital, Flat
Comultation Hour* in Forenoon* *a4 fcjr
Appointment
FLAT DRUG STORE
FORFEITURE NOTICE
To Sam Sanderson, and to bis heirs and
assigns:
You are hereby notified that the under
signed has expended In money, labor and
improvements during each of the years
1015 and 1916 the sum of one hundred
dollars ($100) upon placer mining claim
known as the Gold Hun Association Claim,
on the lert limit of Otter creek, adjoining
the New Moon Association, In the Otter
mining and recording district, territory of
Alaska, In order to hold said claim under
the provisions of the law respecting annual
labor on mining claims.
And if within ninety days arter the last
publication or this notice you fall or refuse
to pay your proportion of such expenditure,
your Interest in said claim will become the
property ol' the undersigned co-owner, ac
cording to the provisions of Section 932 4,
Revised Statutes or the United tSates,
CHARLES P. GERHART.
First publication, April 7, 1917.
Last publication, July 7, 1917.
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