THE VALDEZ MINER
We are obliged to pay our respects
to an article published by the Valdez
Miner, and reprinted by the Ketchi
kan Chronicle and other papers
which article is entitled as follows:
“MR. PAUL AND COMMON
PEOPLE”
“Mr. Paul asserts that Mr. Grier
was elected by the ‘common people.’
We presume Mr. Paul, in the term
‘common,’ refers to the people of
his own stamp, for he declaimed at
length his love and affiliation with
the ‘common’ people. If Mr. Paul is
one of the ‘common’ people, and we
believe he is, for he fits the defini
tion of the word: ‘not excellent in
tone or quality; commonplace; hack
neyed; coarse; vulgar; low;’ then Mr.
Grier was not elected by the ‘com
mon’ people, for we have none of
that type in the Third Division.
“Mr. Grier was a credit to his
constituents, a hard worker for those
measures which were for the best
interests of the Territory, and he
could have no better boost than a
knock by Mr. Paul and his friend,
Priscilla.”
There are other meanings to that
word “common” besides that which
has been given to it by Charles H.
Wilcox, the aristocratic editor of the
Valdez Miner. For instance, we
speak of “common sense.” We also
speak of “common justice,” and yet
Mr. Wilcox will not say that the
term “common justice” signifies
something that is coarse, vulgar al
low. We are using the English lan
guage as it is spoken or under
stood by the common people as dis
tinguished from the stilted aristo
crats or snobs in whose company
Mr. Wilcox is so happy to find him
self. We are not surprised that the
said Wilcox comes to the defense
of Hon. Ben Grier, of Anchorage,
for in a sense the men are of the
same type. We will illustrate by
telling of two instances that occurred
during the last session of the Legis
lature.
The Committee on Ways and Means
had considered thoroughly the ques
tion of fish hatcheries, and had lis
tened to those wTho spoke for it and
those who were opposed to it. After
Mr. Heckman had appeared and
stated on the floor of the House
that he could run the Ketchikan
hatchery for fifteen thousand dollars,
and after he had admitted, in an
swer to a direct question by the
Hon. William D. Grant, of Wran
gell, that he had said “I would not
give eleven dollars for all the red
salmon hatcheries in Alaska,” the
committee then decided that fifteen
thousand dollars for hatcheries was
sufficient, and that the operations
of Cordova and Seward were a pure
waste of money. Then it was that
Mr. Sundquist of the Second Divi
sion said: “I am going to oppose
with my vote any change in the fig
ure adopted by us here.” Imme
diately every members of the Com
mittee, with the exception of Harry
G. Watson, of Fairbanks, declared us
follows: “I am with you. I will
not stand for zny change.” Both
William H. Sher;> an, of Anchorage,
and Ben Grier stated substantially
as follows: “I do not care what
the people of the Third Division
think or say, I am against the
Seward hatchery and the Cordova
hatchery. As long as the hatcheries
are an experiment, one hatchery is
enough.” Mr. Grier and Mr. Sher
man both found their resolution
shaking within an hour after Boss
Murray, of McCarthy, had demanded
what they meant by such a stand,
and these two men voted for an in
crease in this appropriation from
fifteen thousand dollars to over
eighty thousand dollars. One mem
ber of the House, upon hearing that
Mr. Grier had switched, declared:
“Are there no honest men in the
Legislature Under what circum
stances must a man give his word
before it will be kept?”
Regarding the aristocrat, Mr. Wil
cox, we tell this incident: It was in
connection with the fight for the
passage of a bill taxing non-resident
fishermen. After a hard fight on the
floor he came off his seat as Speak
er and walked down to the desk of
Mr. Paul and, in the hearing of sev
eral persons, said: “I do not want
you to think that I am opposed to
your bill. I am glad the amend
ments were made and corrected the
defects. I want to sav to you here
that I will vote for the bill.” When
the time came for voting Mr. Wil
cox voted against the bill, and so
it was lost by the vote of eight to
eight. When we talk about men
elected by the “common” people, we
mean exactly what we say, and
here assert that both the Hon. Ben
A. Grier, of Anchorage, and the
aristocrat, Charles H. Wilcox, voted
against the “common” people upon
every occasion.
“ALASKAN NOTES”
From The Washington Newspaper,
June issue.
“Arnold F. George, Dawson news
paper from 1898 until 1908, dropped
•lead recently at Medicine Hat, Al
berta, after stepping out of a car.
During his ten years in Dawson he
was editor of The Dawson Nugget
and later of The Dawson News.”
Note—Possibly Dawson has been
annexed to Alaska.
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Fisherman.
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