Utome Sri’ftfceMy *Wugget
AN INDEPENDENT NEWSPAPER.
Published Tri-Weekly
MONDAY, WEDNESDAY. FRIDAY—EVENING
THE NOME PUBLISHING CO.
GEO. S. MAYNARD. Sole Owner aud Publisher.
AHA 8. F. 8ANDFORD. Editor.
Entered as Second Class Matter, at the postoffice at Nome, Alaska,
Under the Act of March 3, 1379.
SUBSCRIPTION RATES, In Advance
Nome Tri-Weekly Nugget.. 1 month $.2.00
Nome Tri-Weekly Nugget . 1 year 20.00
Nome Tri-Weekly Nugget . 6 months 10.00
Nome Weekly Nugget . 1 montl* .50
Nome Weekly Nugget .1 year 5.00
Rates for advertising space in any of the above publications will be made |
known on application.
MEMBER OF ASSOCIATED PRESS
The Associated Press is exclusively entitled to the use for publication of all.
newt dispatches credited to it or not otherwise credited in this paper and also
the local news published herein. All rights of republication of special dispatch
es herein are also reserved.
WEDNESDAY. APRIL 2nd, 1919.
EXPLOITING THE DEAD
The ■ rying need for a. change or revision of the Alaska probate laws is
well oxamplified in the following articl- from January number of the Seattle
L’nion-Itecord. So one in the slightest den.-e familiar with th>- operations of
the probate law.-- of »(,.■ territory will f. d to endorse the view that they permit
a most unn n mted and unjust exploitation of the dead, i'iewing their op
erations during a long period of territorial residence we have no hesitation in
voicing the opinion that nowhere in Amerie.i do the laws relating to the dis
posal of tiie effects of the dead present more pernicious features than those
in force in Alaska. As they stand .a present, they permit not only a shame
ful exploitation of the dead but also an unjust and indefensible injury to the
living. The manner in which the laws i» rimt the legalized robbery of both
test,;tors and beneficiaries is convincingly presented in the apjiended article;
• l> also throws an illuminating side-light on the devious ways of the ma
chine gang officials of the .Juneau section. Although the article hints at , n
•dieged attempt on the part of the Canadian Pacific railw iy to evade responsib
ility f' r the Sophia disaster, it is clear that responsibility for the attempt o
it the estates of the Sophia, victims rests on the shoulders of the Juneau
.aIs. who with few exceptions are prominently connected with the Demo3
lati' M chine, either as leaders or sycophants. The Decord article follows:
Wliat looks like a well-planned frame-up on the part of Canadian
I'.o itic Ibtnr.ay Company officials to g*-t from under the responsibility of that
company for the deaths of the 340 persons who were drowned when the ill
fated Princess Sophia went off the Vanderbilt reef in Lynn canal October 26th
! st, op an equally well-laid scheme of certain court appointees at Juneau to
exploit the dead through manipulation of legal machinery to their own enrich
rnent and the shame of Juneau was brought to light in Seattle with the. return
from the capital of Alaska recently of Carl L. Johansen, a half-brother of T<.
A. Hanson, who perished in the disaster with cash and securities on his person
worth $8,5000 to $3,000. Mr. Johansen’s recital follows:
‘'On hearing of my brother's death", said Johansen, who is a member
of the shipyard laborers’. Diggers’ and Fasteners' t'nion and employed at Oly
mpia. but owning a home at Lacey. “I locat'd one of my six surviving broth
« rs and we decided that I should go to Juneau and personally look after my
bead brother's affairs. Before going 1 applied for letters of administration
within less than 30 days after my brother’s death, which is in accord with the
law of Alaska. On arrival in Juneau I found that a person named Burton,
functioning as probate judge, had appointed two local parties t.. officiate as ad
ministrators f*>i the estates of 34a persons or such "f them as might he recov
ered from the water.
"From an article published in the Alaska DisjaiUh. Capt. Bell of tho
Vukon mounted police was quoted as saying that these two men were acting
\ oluntarliy, charging no !«•<• whatever. The only expense attached to any es
tate would be a few t ents for stenographers. They considered the bereaved
friends and relatives had suffered sufficiently and their one idea was to dis
pose of the estates with the least possible expense. On arrival, however, T
discovered that Vice President J. B. Willis of the Behrens bank and H. J*.
Post, cashier of the National bank, were the two administrators. Mr. Willis
and Mr. Post referred me to their attorney H. L. Faulkner, and it was only a
:• ho it time before I learned that my administratorship was to be absolutely dis
regarded by these men.
"I employed a lawyer at Juneau to ascertain where I stood. Tills de
veloped Uiat the code of Alaska provides administration papers.shall be grant
ed first to the widow or next of kin; second, to one or more the principle
creditors; third, to any other person competent or qualified whom the court
may select. The law rovides the persons named in the above sub-divisions
shall f>e entitled to administration in the order named, next of kin having the
right to appointment within the first 30 days to the exclusion of the other two.
Notwithstanding the clear statement of law, the court, without waiting the ex
piration of the 30 days, had appointed its own administrators. This appoint
ment was made within two weeks after the disaster and without notifying ar
waiting to hear from the heirs. In the middle of November and before the ex
piration of the* TO days—the disaster occurred October 2fi—I had advised one of
the administrators,at Juneau of my application for letters of administration and
asked that my brother's assets be turned over to me. Tiiis letter was turned
over to H. J.. Faulkner, attorney for the administrators, who answered It evas
ively. My appointment was made on December foo. the court at Olympia de
ciding I was the legal appointee.
“On personally appearing and demanding that the Juneau administrat
ors make way for me as administrator F was met with flat refusal. They'
also refused to resign in favor of some administrator selected by the heirs.
In this decision the court at Juneau concurred and stated that if forced to re
sign the Juneau administrators would he allowed the maximum fee fixed to!
law' for complete administration. A/ter a number of conferences these ad
ministrators agreed to sign a statement that they would not charge more
than the maximum fixed by law and that their lawyer's fee would not be al
lowed to exceed their own.
“Alaska law is very liberal in the matter of administrators’ fees, hut it
is intended to cover cases where there are bills due, creditors’ disputes, and
the like In the • ses of the Sophia victims thef*£ was not even a funeral h;!!
to j ■ -. ;i n*i the administrators’ sole duties in the cases of the 100 estates in
their hands were to attach their signatures to four instruments filed in court
and three others to complete each estate. These were prepared in duplicate.
The papers are identical save in the name of each victim. The clerical work
in making up the whole batch of papers would not exceed one hour for each
estate. That would represent the attorney’s work. The actual work of the
idministrators in each estate would be about 15 minutes.
“At the time of the tragedy the people of Juneau volunteered to care for
the bodies and valuables of the dead, cleaning, drying and listing their effects.
While the truly disinterested citizens were doing this humane work the illegal
and indecent haste of appointing tt«e administrators was overlooked. I was
told that in the case of each estate a fee of $25 was exacted by the court, mak
ing a total of $2,500 court fees up to the time I was there, with further accret
ions as more bodies were recovered. The judge who appointed the adminis
trators told me that he had done so with the distinct understanding that they
would charge a reasonable fee.
• After a number of conferences. J. II. Willis, one of the administrators,
anil FauAbler, attorney, wrote me a letter agreeing to relinquish control of my
brother’s estate at the end of six months, if not complicated, on receipt of $600
foes for administrators and attorney. Post did not sign the letter: under
the guise of geeting the letter back to sign it. Faulkner tore the letter up in my
t roson^e. Dater I was told by persons who seemed to have my interest at
neart and whose sincerity I could not doubt that if I did not want to get ur
resteiWd better leave .Juneau: that I was making myself obnoxious and un
desirable and interfering with things that did not concern me. Harold H.
Post refused to sign the letter J have referred to on the ground that ‘he did
not propose to be dictated t<»’. In addition to being probate judge. Burton is
United States commissioner. District Judge Jennings of the federal district
court, who had a hand in appointing Burton, is well known by reputation at
Washington D. (’.
“In the matter of l^ars Hanson’s estate the charge of $600 would
cover: Advertising for creditors: a wait of six months:; a repoct of no credit
ors: a court order to turn assets over to heirs: the act of so doing, and the re
quest for discharge.”
Mr. Johansen’s statement was submitted to one of the leading ad
miralty lawyers of Seattle who is largely interested in the disaster to the
Sophia, having a number of suits under way for heirs of the victims. He
verified Johansen’s statements as to the Alaska law as well as all other points
made by him in the above recital. Johansen told of other heirs whose exper
ience is on a parity with his own. That of George Green of Seattle brother
of Capt. Green of the Yukon river boat Yukon, is a case in point. Green made
.. trip to JujAau and was compelled to pay a cash fee of $98 to secure the re
leas- of his brother's effects worth $1,500; he also paid $100 to secure the re
leas*- of another, estate for about the same Amount. Green lives at 4235
Brooklyn street.
"The action of the Alaska administrators is clearly beyond the law,"
said the Seattle lawyer. "In the case of.my clients I have encountered no such
trouble: if I did I would not stand for it. I should not like to criticise the
court’*action in making the appointment. I am too faraway, hut the Washing
ton appointment of Mr. Johansen is the legal one and can be enforced. If he
were my client. I would see that it stood. As to the motives of the Juneau ad
ministrators. they may or may not be working with the Canadian F’aclflc rail
road. I* the states a suit will lie only in case there are dependents. In Ala
ska thf' Administrator can sue, make recovery, pay the debts out of the re
covery and the remainder wiTt revert to the territorj' of Alaska. This is not
so under the Washington l^w. I note Mr. Johansen wae not even apprised of
this fact by the administrators. Their failure to do so would undoubtedly Ire
a great help to the Canadian Pacific and the officials of the company would
appreciate 3uch forgetfullncss on the part of the administrators whether the
lapse was studied or not. But non© ^ut the administrators can say as to that.
It is jus impossible that their lawyer might overlook that feature—just possible.
“As t<» tfle cdur.se the Canadian Pacific railroad will pursue in its de
fense of the hundreds of actions that will eventually follow in this and other
states where the Sophia’s victims lived I have already had an intimation.
Under the federal laws relating to marine disasters the owner of a ship may,
under certain conditions, practically come into court and by surrendering the
freight and money and wreck itself, whether recoverable or not, say to the
heirs here’s all that is loft, take it and make the most of it'. In other words,
the court may under certain conditions allow a company owning a boat to
limit its liabilty to the boat, its freight and moneys, without reaching out
against other assets of the company. Those conditions did not obtain with
respect to the Princess Sophia.
"The loss of the Sophia, as is well known, was due to the written
aa 1 telegraphed orders of the Canadian Pacific officials, not to the independent
acts of the captain of the Sophia in defiance of the orders of his superiors.
Had the loss followed the disobendience of such orders the owners'might ive
availed themselves of the federal limitation named. But the loss followed the
captain’s unwilling obedience of orders of his superiors, orders which he knew
imperiled his crew untf passengers, orders dictated by a cheese-paring policy
to save money for the owners in the matter of salvage by vessels standing by
ic.uly to take the passengers off before the vessel slipped into the water, and
ample time and sufficient good weather and enough boats to accomplish the
transfer. A few thousand dollars paid for this service would have saved all
those lives. Now the company is seeking to save itself by throwing the blame
on tho dead captain who followed his superior’s orders and went to his grave
witf? the passengers because his orders said so. Now, watch: in the course
of a few days, or a couple of weeks at most, you will likely see an application
filed in the United States district court at Seattle seeking to limit liability to
the freight, money of the Sophia or to such freight. If any, that may be recov
ered from the vessel.”
Mr. Johansen has written a letter to James Wickersham, delegate to con
gress from Alaska, embodying the above statement of fact in detail, and to
Attorney General Gregory to the same effect. H© asks that the department of
justice at Washington investigate the Sophia disaster and the acts of the
Juneau adiministrators. District Judge Jennings’ acts with respect to Alaska
electicn.*^has been a subject of congressional comment.
PORTLAND MAYOR PROPOSES LEAGUE OF WESTERN STATE8
Special to the Xugget By the Associated Press.
SAX FRANCISCO. April 1—Mayor George L. Baker of Portland, Ore.
proposed during the course of a speech here l^at night that the western states
form a league for the development and increase of the economic and industrial
interests of the Pacific Coast.
The idea Is receiving wide endorsement by the California press.
M W SISALS
W.Standard Ol! Co
1*.Cara tens Cold Storage
**.J. Season Co, oflicv
^.Headquarters Saloon
*1 • . .... Tbs Lobby
*4.Pioneers Igloo
tt.. ... .Catholic Cb'nrcb
tl.Polat’s residence
S3.Torkey's Cigar S?ore
41.opp. Webb's Alarm;
Engine House, Phone Mala tT.
7 whistles water. a Ore uui
THE NOME WEEKLY NUGGET
50cts. per Menth.
MEET ME
at the
| BOARD OF
TRADE
Established June 1900
Atoka Kinking am
San Dtpt (oamy
AUTHORIZED CAPITAL ... .914M00
paid up capital-. mom
A General Banking Bueineeo Tran*
•acted.
Miners & Merchants
Bank of Alaska
NOME. ALASKA
Capital - - $100,900
Gold Dust Purchase!)
and Assayed
ELITE
BATH HOUSE
OPEN DAY AND
NIGHT
Steam heat and Only
Steam Baths in town
Billy Anderson Prop.
Phone, Black 171.
MILO’S OAFE j
•PER MY ENB
HUNT
S jj
M«t tear tm PACIFIC COLD ]
MTORAO* MARKST. J