THE SPIRIT OF THE LAW
Should Our Officials Oet
Around the Law?
Section 11 of our Organic Act
says: “Legislator shall not hold
other office. That no member of
the legislature shall hold or be ap
pointed to any office which has been
created, or the salary or emoluments
of which have been increased, while
he was a member, during the term
for which he was elected and for
one year after the expiration of such
term; and no person holding a com
mission or appointment under the
United States shall be a member of
the legislature or shall hold any of
fice under the government of said
Territory.”
E. M. Polley, formerly of Sitka,
was a member of the 1923 legisla
ture and as such he voted for the
appropriation which created the of
fice of Tax Collector, the apropria
tion for the salary being $6,000 for
two years, also an expense allow
ance of $6,000, for the same period.
IMMEDIATELY after the legisla
ture adjourned, Governor Scott C.
Bone rewarded his faithful servant
Polley by causing the Treasurer,
Walstein G. Smith, to appoint the
said Polley to this office contrary
to section 11 of the Organic Act.
The defense is made that this job
is not an “office.” 29 Cyc. 1363 de
fines the word “Office” thus: “In a
stricter legal sense an (office is
an) employment on behalf of the
government in any station or public
trust, not merely transient, occa
sional, or incidental; a public sta
tion or employment conferred by the
appointment of government; the
rights and duty conferred on an in
dividual to perform any part of the
function of government and receive
such compensation, if any, as the
law has fixed to the service; an ap
pointment or authority on behalf of
the government to perform certain
duties.”
Polley went thru the pretense of
“resigning” from the legislature and
Governor Bone graciously accepted
the resignation. But there is no pro
vision in the law which gives a mem
ber of the legislature the right to
resign, and there is no law which
permits the governor the right to
accept the resignation. Polley is
still legally speaking a member of
the last legislature and if a special
session were called tomorrow, you
would see how true that statement
is.
“The spirit of the law”—does
Governor Scott C. Bone understand
that term? Perhaps he has even
written a much admired editorial for
the Seattle PI or the Juneau Em
pire about it.
HOT STUFF
Wm. L. Paul,
Ketchikan, Alaska.
Dear sir:
Why do you call your paper the
Alaska Fisherman? Why not the
Alaska Politician? Judging from
the February issue its news seems
to be one per cent fishing and 99
per cent politics. Perhaps I am
judging too hastily if the February
issue is simply accidently submerged
in candidates and tickets and bills.
I am interested in the fishing in
dustry and purchased your publica
tion on the strength of its title, but
its name is a joke and I shall be
forced to seek elsewhere for my fish
ing news unless you can convince
me that the Fisherman really car
ries fishing news instead of propa
ganda.
Yours truly,
D. H. KELSEY,
Kennecott, Alaska.
(Note:—Unfortunately the subject
of fisheries in AlasLa has become
purely a political question. From
time to time I shall give news about
the species fish, but at present, my
entire time is taken up with the Re
lation of the Fisheries to the Terri
tory of Alaska and how it affects
the resident Alaskan. When our
Organic Act was passed politics as
played by the cannerymen excluded
from our powers the right to legis
late on our fisheries. Ever since
then, the cannerymen have tried to
get Congress to legislate in such a
way that even as a state we will
not be able to shake their grip on
our great resource. If Mr. Kelsey
will bear with me, I will show him
as I have been able to show every
open-minded listener with whom I
have talked, that a correct solution
of the political question of fisheries
will mean the salvation of this in
dustry AND greatly increased pros
perity to both canneryman and resi
dent Alaskans).
-♦
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A DIALOGUE
Critic: “Well, Paul, you certain
ly made a bad break when you said
you and Doc Dickinson are the only
two men in Ketchikan who cannot
be controlled by J. C. Barber.”
Answer: “Yes, I think I did make
a mistake. That statement is not
true and I am glad you called my
attention to it. Of course what I
meant was that among those that
cannot be controlled are these two
men. I am sorry I put the state
ment that way, but from this ex
perience I have a better understand
ing about the prophet Elijah. A lot
of people, including preachers, ad
mire Elijah for his courage. But
you will remember that after the
contest on Mt. Carmel, he fled to
the wilderness and prayed to Goo.
to take his life, because, he said, of
all the children of Israel, he was the
only one left who was serving the
Lord. Then the Lord said: “There
are seven thousand children of Is
rael who had not bent their knees
to Baal.” Some day, my dear Crit
it, you will understand what it means
for me to take part in this fight
against greed and graft, and you
will be very charitable to me for
making breaks. I will make mis
takes all right, but God helping me,
I will not respond to an encore.”
Critic: “That is all right. Only
I don’t want you to get the big
head. Keep your feet on the ground,
and have faith in the goodness of
your fellow men. There are a lot
of us who are with you, but we
don’t want our feelings hurt.”
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