WRANGELL POLITICS
Up to the time that A. E. Gurr,
who now runs the town of Wrangell,
arrived in that beautiful city, Wrang
ell had just about found peace. For
many years people believed that
Wrangell was so named because the
inhabitants there wrangled and quar
relled so much. First came the ter
rible trouble in the church that di
vided families, brother against bro
ther, father v against daughter. It
has taken over twenty years to heal
the wounds that were caused by this
fight, and has taken great patience
and forbearance on the part of many.
Then came the school trouble
brought about not so much by resi
dents of Wrangell as by the mis
understanding friends (?) in Juneau
and elsewhere. This trouble, furious
for a time, was settled in a very
sensible way and all was calm and
peace. The city council made a con
tract with the Bureau of Education
whereby ;the Bureau was to turn
over the Indian school building to
the city of Wrangell for use as a
high school.
Then the school board, by solemn
contract, agreed to recommend a
teacher who would teach the Indian
children up to the fifth grade, and
then the children were to be treated
precisely as any other child; the
Bureau agreed to pay the salary of
the teacher. This agreement was to
last five years.
On account of the sickness of Mrs.
Upshaw, Mr. Upshaw, the genial
and beloved cashier of the Bank
of Alaska at Wrangell had to re
sign. and in casting about for a suc
cessor, A. E. Gurr was selected. He
seemed to have all the qualifications
for a successful, small town banker.
He had been employed in the Doug
las bank, was well known in Juneau
was bright, a good bookkeeper and
something of a church man.
And so into this peaceful commun
ity came A. E. Gurr. For a time,
he merely felt out the land. Then
gradually, perhaps insensibly, he be
gan to feel that as a banker he
should have more to say. Perhaps
the palavering which borrowers na
turally give when they wish to get
a loan made Mr. Gurr think that he
owned the bank. At any rate custo
mers began to see a great difference
in their welcome at this bank. A nod
of an imperial head, a smile, a grin,
deathlike silence, perhaps a bit of
colic, such moods were enough to
puzzle the timid.
But the gods were at play, and so
the Gurr was elected secretary on
the School Board, town treasurer or
something or other. Contracts were
scrutinized. But nothing was done
for the Gurr had his eye on a seat
in the House of Representatives at
Juneau. A caucus of Republicans
was held. The Gurr declared that he
would n t run unless the Wrangell
Kepublicans forced him to run, and
even though his strongest backer,
Johnny Grant, pushed the pencil of
Captain Jinks, a foreign born China
man, the Gurr lost out by one vote.
However, the Gurr decided that the
liepublicans had not fully appreciated
his merits or statesmanship and that
he would run anyhow for H. L.
Faulkner and the Shepard had prom
ised the mass votes of certain sheep
minds of Juneau.
The result? When the votes were
counted the Gurr had not even car
ried “his own town” and was thor
oughly beaten by the entire Pro
gressive ticket. That was “tuff.”
W. D. Grant, whom the Gurr was se
lected to beat, got 189 votes com
pared with the Gurr’s 84. Paul got
142, Ferguson 118 and Hern 101.
The result? Well, the Gurr got
wild, and found a poor, helpless folk
who could not defend themselves. He
declared that no Indian would be al
lowed in the public school of Wrang
ell, but that the town would build
a “shack near the sawmill” and the
kids would have to get along there.
It never entered the Gurr’s mind (l
mean head), that the least that
could be done would be to return the
fine building which the natives gave
up in order that the town might have
a high school. No, the town would
keep that. Furthermore, (I don’t
know how it was done, whether
through the Gurr’s control over cre
dits and loans or not), the other
members of the school board let
the Gurr have his way. Teachers
were fired and friends of the Gurr
or other politicians were hired. Un
expired contracts were broken as
being “mere scraps of paper” under
the command of the Gurr. And now,
Wrangell is on its ear again.
The trap interests are in control
of Wrangell. Schools are to be
closed to certain citizens of the town.
The fair name of Wrangell is to be
diagged into the courts to see if a
contract fairly entered into and duly
signed and partly filled is worth
anything at all.
Or will it be that the political
banker who has refused at least in
one case to grant a loan even on
the security of a Liberty Bond, will
push citizens off the sidewalk. Fish
ermen will do well to remember that
the Gurr was and still is the favorite
of the trap interests. The power
and influence which he gains will
be used to destroy your earning
powers, your homes.
Wrangell can have peace once
more when it gets rid of the growler,
—Gurr-rr-rr.
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